Round Steak

Steve_372295

Round steaks are flavorful, lower in fat, thus lower in calories,. They are also much cheaper than tenderloins, sirloins, rib-eyes, etc. In an attempt to prepare a round steak that is reasonably tender, I've been experimenting.with my beloved Joule with indifferent success. I would much appreciate advice.

First, here is what I have tried:

1. Divide a good quality eye round roast into steaks, about 1" thick.

2. Sometimes prepared using a Jaccard, sometimes not. Season with salt, pepper, thyme, and garlic. Pre-sear for about one minute per side.

3. Set my beloved Joule at 128 F. I prefer my steaks rare.

4.. Cook for 8, 16, 24 or 48 hours.

Results: Edible but still pretty tough at all cook lengths. I think I noticed that when I use the Jaccard, the texture tends to be a bit mushy, particularly with the longer cooks.

Any thoughts? Suggestions? Incidentally, pork tenderloin and chicken breasts at 136 F for 2-3 hours have been amazing.

Any Cajuns on the forum? Boudin at 175 F for 2-3 hours avoids the problem of the casings popping open. Much better than poaching.

brian_martin2001

I recommend not using a blade meat tenderizer if it's at all an option. What this does is it physically punches holes in the meat. This will lead to tenderizing, however it also leads to potential introduction of bacteria into the muscle, you do get that mushy texture (the tenderizer is designed to make tough cuts more tender with traditional methods, so when you start to get the enzymatic/collagen breakdown, it leads to mushy texture) and it also damages the integrity of the muscle (which is a personal thing).

Personally, I'm not a fan of these cuts when using sous vide. Top round (what a lot of folks call London Broil) benefits from braise like cooking for long periods of time. When it comes to cooking sous vide, I've seen 3 day or longer recommendations for cooking this round steaks. Personally, with this cut of meat, I would increase the temperature by a couple degrees.

I will point out, however, that fat is not your enemy. Over doing it definately can lead to health issues, but eating too much of anything will lead to health issues, and over doing carbohydrates consistently is far more detrimental to your health. If you doing eat red meat all the time, there's nothing wrong with a easier to cook piece of meat (chuck for instance) a bit more fat, but you can trim it, and is in the same ballpark as far as price.

If you do play around with it, and find something that works, let us know what you did and how it came out. Also utilize the search function, this is a topic that has come up a couple times in the past. Good luck!