Frying Beef

c.p.w.g.w

So i'm wondering what cuts of beef do people use for stir fry's, currys etc cooked in a pan.

Whatever i use i find it too tough, or is the only option to buy expensive cuts like fillet/sirloin

vicwatson

They aren’t that expensive anymore, LIDL every so often do fillet steak for €4 (all year round €4.79) and they are great, usually have 3 weeks BB date too as they are vac packed

Lady Haywire

I rarely use beef in a stir fry because of this, though if I am, I velvet the meat first. https://wellfedflatbroke.com/2015/05/06/velvet-that-meat/

B0jangles

I use round steak/round roast - if you slice it when it's half frozen you can cut it very thinly, which helps avoid any chewiness.
Otherwise cook it for less time - cook it very hot and quick, then take out out of the wok while you're cooking the veg, or do the veg first, take it out and then do the meat. If you leave it in the whole time you end up with little bits of leather.
Velveting is also good, but some people don't like the texture.

For curry, it depends -stewing streak or rib steak is nice if you have the time to leave it cook for several hours.
Otherwise I'd make the sauce then add the diced meat right at the end to just cook through - any low fat, high quality meat like fillet, will dry out and turn into little hard chunks if you leave it to cook for a long time.

CJhaughey

If you are stirfrying make sure you cut the beef across the grain rather than with the grain, this makes a massive difference to the texture.
Also only fry very small amounts unless you have a seriously powerful hob. The meat stews rather than fries if you overload the wok.

c.p.w.g.w

CJhaughey wrote: »

If you are stirfrying make sure you cut the beef across the grain rather than with the grain, this makes a massive difference to the texture.
Also only fry very small amounts unless you have a seriously powerful hob. The meat stews rather than fries if you overload the wok.

How to you tell where the grain is, and how it runs?

CJhaughey

Look at the meat the long fibres run lengthways, you want to cut across them.

musicmammy

We used to find this a problem too but now for stir fries we use Aldi beef medallions, sliced very thinly across the grain. A ceramic knife is great for thin slicing, we also flash cook the meat first then remove from the pan while doing the veg as above. No longer an issue since we started doing it this way. We also buy the medallions when they are on offer and freeze them until needed but not that expensive anyway.

rubadub

musicmammy wrote: »

We also buy the medallions when they are on offer and freeze them until needed but not that expensive anyway.

If you are freezing them anyway you can cut when half defrosted. As said earlier it lets you slice even thinner, as it is like cutting cheddar vs soft brie.

I cut across the grain on chicken fillets too, makes a big difference.

If you leave the steak in the fridge uncovered it will also let the surface dry out a little so you get less stewing effect. I have put mine in the airfryer at 80C to let it dry a little.