The Steak Dish You Only See In True Old

Restaurants

The Steak Dish You Only See In True Old-School Restaurants

Step into a dining room where the checkered floors gleam beneath vintage lights, the air is scented with onions and butter, and waitresses call you "hon" as menus slide across well-worn Formica tabletops. Between the pot roast and chicken fried steak, Salisbury steak holds its place as a steadfast survivor from another era. Made with ground beef and other humble ingredients, it proves that unpretentious fare can command attention.

Dr. James Henry Salisbury would hardly recognize his namesake dish today. The 19th-century physician promoted beef as a digestive health remedy for Union troops during the Civil War. Over the years, the recipe evolved in American kitchens into seasoned ground beef shaped into oval patties,