Beef Chuck Cuts


 
RichPB (richlife)

RichPB (richlife)

TVWBB Wizard
Ok, I started at this thread: (with thanks to Bob Correll for starting it)
http://tvwbb.com/showthread.php?37725-Steak-Eyes

And began to respond to this post:
Mike Coffman said:
Excellent cook Bob and welcome back! Tony and Dale you may have to just find a regular butcher shop and ask them to cut them for you. A lot of the supermarket cutters don't know what it is, especially down here.
Click to expand...

Is there any reason that you couldn't buy a chuck roast and cut steaks for yourself? Which cut or roast? Armed with those questions, I went to look up the beef charts. Presumably, a chuck eye roast would be fine for steaks. Or the chuck tenders? There are other roasts and steaks (blade roasts, blade steaks) depending on the chart you look at. And what about the chuck roll?

But at that point I figured it was worth a new thread rather than just stealing Bob's action.

I had already picked up a "good-looking" 5-lb. "blade roast" at the grocery store after seeing that it was part of the chuck. I plan(ned) to smoke it similar to brisket or pork boston butt, but all this has gotten me to wondering just what can be done with various parts of the chuck. (I remember a post (from a chef) in The BBQ Source which talked about smoking a Boston Butt to 180 and slicing it rather cooking longer and pulling it.)

Apparently you can go whole hog (so to speak) and get an entire clod -- Stephen Raichlen says that may be the BEST beef roast for "grilling".

So with this as background, I decided to appeal to TVWBB for thoughts and pointers rather than simply setting out to try all the possibilities. (Though in the end, you may convince me to actually try all those possibilities over time. Or at least convince me that some things are not worth doing. :o )

Rich
 
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Rich, last week I picked up an "English" chuck roast and halved it horizontally instead of vertically slicing steaks, and it worked out just fine since I still cut across the grain when I ate it.

I tend to buy chuck roasts based on appearance rather than description since I expect to find some fat and connective tissue regardless of where in the chuck it's from, and to me that's not a big deal. If I plan to slice it I go for boneless unless it's large enough to give me a good bit of meat before my knife reaches the bone.

I buy a split beef half every year and always request that the chuck roasts be cut into steaks.

One other note. I generally like cuts like sirloin, rib roast, tenderloin, etc. very rare but don't mind chuck steak closer to medium-rare as it tends to be a little less stringy (for lack of a better word) that way, plus a little more time on the grill gives me one of my favorite treats: beef fat that's gotten a little crispy over charcoal.
 
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Rich,

I bought this book 30 years ago and still reference it for breaking down primals. Cutting up in the Kitchen is available used on Amazon.

Jim

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Thanks, Jim, for the book suggestion. I just bought it for four bucks at AbeBooks.com

Looking forward to learning more about meat.
 
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