Round Steak

corsica

Hi Have some round steak for a stew, but somehow it always comes out tough. I dont have a slow cooker - is there any way to make sure meat cooks nice and tender? Thanks!

Dizzyblonde

I'm afraid round steak isn't ideal for a stew - it's best minced. I use either shin beef, if I can get it, or rib steak. These cuts both have a little fat through them, and shin beef has connective tissue too and these are the things that render down and give the best flavour and keep the meat moist.
However since round steak is what you have, long slow cooking will help. 3 hours in the oven at 160C or 2-2.5 hours on the hob at a very low simmer should make it tender.

corsica

Thanks for that! Always followed my mums recipe and wondered why it was always so tough What would be the best use for round steak? (Feeding 2 hungry and fussy kids on a budget.)

duploelabs

If you want to tenderise the steak, marinade it in grapefruit juice (or pineapple or paw paw) overnight, before draining and patting dry before use. It won't flavour the meat in any way but the enzymes in the juice will help break down the proteins in the meat

Dizzyblonde

When I was a child my mother used to stuff and roll a piece of round steak and roast it slowly as you would a pork steak. I can't remember how tender it was because it was so long ago but I remember that we loved it. I'd imagine you'd need to cover it with tinfoil to keep it as moist as possible.

corsica

That sounds lovely, what would you stuff it with?

Melendez

This post has been deleted.

Dizzyblonde

My mother used bread stuffing too. I like the idea of cooking it in a liquid - maybe an inch or so of stock in the bottom of the dish?

bardcom

Well worth your while getting beef shin for a stew though. And a slow cooker is less then 20 quid these days. I can't recommend both enough.

Lissavane

bardcom wrote: »

Well worth your while getting beef shin for a stew though. And a slow cooker is less then 20 quid these days. I can't recommend both enough.

I agree about the shin beef but, frankly, I don't get the slow cooker thing and wonder if there's a good reason they've become so cheap.

I've tried several slow cooker stew recipes to the letter and have found there's always vastly too much thin liquid after cooking even though the food is tender and perfectly edible. The flavour is diluted by excess liquid and subsequent thickening with cornflour etc can't help with that. Spending time to reduce the liquid by evaporation entirely negates the convenience of slow cooking.

I'm tempted to try throwing all the ingredients into the slowcooker without any added liquid to see how it would turn out. But I don't want to waste any more good food for a poor result in the slow cooker when I can make a gorgeous stew / casserole on the stovetop or regular oven in about two hours.

My uncle uses his slow cooker solely for cooking beef to eat cold in sandwiches etc.. He doesn't add any liquid and gets great tender results.

Maybe I'm doing something wrong but I bought a slowcooker so I could have a nice stew ready for me after eight hours or so when I got home from work. It didn't work.

I suspect there's an element of the story of "the emperor's new clothes" about slowcookers.

Dizzyblonde

Lissavane wrote: »

I agree about the shin beef but, frankly, I don't get the slow cooker thing and wonder if there's a good reason they've become so cheap.

I've tried several slow cooker stew recipes to the letter and have found there's always vastly too much thin liquid after cooking even though the food is tender and perfectly edible. The flavour is diluted by excess liquid and subsequent thickening with cornflour etc can't help with that. Spending time to reduce the liquid by evaporation entirely negates the convenience of slow cooking.

I'm tempted to try throwing all the ingredients into the slowcooker without any added liquid to see how it would turn out. But I don't want to waste any more good food for a poor result in the slow cooker when I can make a gorgeous stew / casserole on the stovetop or regular oven in about two hours.

My uncle uses his slow cooker solely for cooking beef to eat cold in sandwiches etc.. He doesn't add any liquid and gets great tender results.

Maybe I'm doing something wrong but I bought a slowcooker so I could have a nice stew ready for me after eight hours or so when I got home from work. It didn't work.

I suspect there's an element of the story of "the emperor's new clothes" about slowcookers.

I know exactly what you mean about the excess liquid diluting the flavours and it takes a while to get it just right. If I'm doing a beef/pork/chicken or lamb stew I flour the meat, use no more than 500ml of liquid and throw in a handful of barley and it turns out nice and thick and full of flavour. If I'm not using barley I halve the liquid or use a tin of chopped tomatoes and no more than 200mls of stock.