help me, help me, help me

[nawchem]

In my quest to get the chemicals out of my diet I bought my first steak. Its awful, its tough, chewy and tasteless. I have a pound of it left. It is thinly sliced round eye steak centers. How do you get it to taste like food? I don't have a grill or bbq.

[PS Diva]

Marinate it in something acidic. Wine, lemon juice, or vinegar based marinades will do. If you have some Italian dressing in your fridge that'll do it.

[pennink]

and pound it. Garlic is good, too. mmmmm

You can make your own barbecue sauce too, and prepare it under the broiler with some butter sauteed mushroom caps and asparagus with cheese sauce... oh god... gotta go eat

[SunnyCarol]

I don't know what I would do without my gas grill--I absolutely cannot cook an edible steak in the house. Thin steak is really hard to keep tender because it needs to be thicker so the outside gets a bit brown, but leaves the middle pink. What ever you do, don't over cook beef. You might try putting it under the broiler for just a short while--after you marinate it.

Sunny!

[nawchem]

Thanks! I have some red wine vingar and cider vingar I'll try. How long do you marinate it? I guess I'll have to get a mallet. Now I know thin cut steak wasn't the best choice. I saw some little fat steaks called fillet mignon hearts, do those cook up better? I'm so hopeless in the kitchen.

[Robwen]

Id marinate it at least two hours maybe longer. Depends but should give it good flavor

[ElleH]

Round steak isn't very tender unless it's rare, and you said it was thinly sliced, which makes it impossible cook it any way but well done. When I buy the cheaper cuts of steak (and I love those), I make sure they are least 1 to 1-1/2 inches thick, marinade for up to 8 hours in Italian dressing, grill them on the highest heat (my grill reads 500+ degrees) for 3 minutes, then 2 minutes. Perfectly rare to medium rare. If you don't have a grill, I'd recommend pan-frying over high heat for about the same amount of time. Good luck!

[DaPeach]

That's a pretty crappy cut of meat to begin w/. Good luck getting it tender w/o cooking the heck out of it in liquid (couple hours). I'd cut it up & make a beef stroganoff out of it...or chili, something that you can cook for a while.

In the future...the most expensive will be filet mignon (most tender & tasty), the next step down is a good ribeye in tenderness (it has quite a bit more fat, if you have the patience to trim when you're eating) but equally tasteful. Both are exceptional on the grill as well as under the broiler...I never marinate those, it would ruin the flavor of a good steak ( a little salt, pepper & baste w/ butter as they're cooking, mmm)

[ElleH]

A good sirloin can also be very tender. London broil is wonderful, but, like round steak, it has to be rare to medium rare. You don't have to spend alot of money to get a good steak. The secret is to make sure the cut is thick and to not overcook it.

[nawchem]

That's a pretty crappy cut of meat to begin w/. I'd cut it up & make a beef stroganoff out of it...or chili, something that you can cook for a while.
I'm glad you said that, I was thinking I wouldn't buy steak ever again. I found a Martha Stewart recipe with turnips and cream and thought I might put half of it in that.

Thank you so much for all the tips, football sunday I'm going to have a GOOD steak.

[Nancy LC]

I'm not very good with beef either. But what I do is buy cheap cuts with lots of connective tissue, like chuck roasts. Then you can roast them low and slow and they come out really nice when the collagen turns into gelatin.

I actually like the flavor of pork and chicken better.

[IslandGirl]

Thanks! I have some red wine vingar and cider vingar I'll try. How long do you marinate it? I guess I'll have to get a mallet. Now I know thin cut steak wasn't the best choice. I saw some little fat steaks called fillet mignon hearts, do those cook up better? I'm so hopeless in the kitchen.

ROUND steaks are tough but flavorful. So are Flank or Skirt. Pounding, marinating and cutting across the grain works great though. Don't marinate ANY steak too long or it starts to turn into "grainy" mush. There are marinade and rub recipes here already in the forum, don't use straight acids. (a good cookbook of basics is a great idea! "How to Cook Everything" by Mark Bittman is an EXCELLENT investment, and about the same price as a few filet mignons).

My fave and not at the price of filet mignon or tenderloin either is Sirloin. Kind of in-between.

And use a good very very hot frypan, preferably cast iron, if you have no broiler, grill or grill pan.

Oh, maybe check this out:
http://www.recipezaar.com/recipes.php?q=how+to+cook+a+steak+pan+fry+steak (http://www.greatsteak.com/dir/how-to-cook-a-steak.asp)

:wave: good luck on your learning curve!

[MizKitty]

Like the other posters have mentioned, round steak is not a cut you prepare like a... well... steak.

Easy suggestion:
Try slicing it against the grain into very thin slices (like fajita meat) then throw it in a zip lock bag with about 5 tbls of soy sauce, a tbls or 2 of oil, and 1/4 cup granulated (or equivalent liquid) Splenda and some garlic pepper for about an hour, you could even throw a little diced onion and green pepper in there, then saute it in a skillet over med-high heat until it's just browned. It will cook very fast.
This is "Korean BBQ", or the beef you see on chinese buffet tables. Makes a nice sandwich in a low carb wrap, too.

[nawchem]

I'm not very good with beef either. But what I do is buy cheap cuts with lots of connective tissue, like chuck roasts. Then you can roast them low and slow and they come out really nice when the collagen turns into gelatin.

I actually like the flavor of pork and chicken better.
Well from what I've read in your journal you're an amazing cook! My goal was to make a pot roast but I bought 'pretty meat' which doesn't work. My original plan was something I could make in the crock pot. :)

[nawchem]

Thanks for the cookbook name Island Girl, I was surprised martha stewart had nothing about how to cook meat, but maybe she writes for real cooks. I need a Recovering Vegetarian Cook Book. :)

[nawchem]

Thanks miss kitty that sounds absolutely fantastic.

Thanks for not whaling on me because I'm an idiot. My mom was a butcher of all things but I never paid attention to what she did because I tried not to eat meat back then.

[MyJourney]

My bevmo has disposable charcoal grills for $3 if you just want a steak once in a while and dont want the mess of a charcoal grill its great to have. I get a few of them every time I go there (I also have a gas grill and an infrared grill I use)

I get meat at whole foods or costco. I dont care for fillet mignon personally. I like ribeye and ny strip. I really enjoy fatty cuts of meat. I always look for meat with really good marbling. Make sure the fat is firm and meat that isnt dyed (whole foods doesnt dye their meat).

Thick cuts and searing is usually great. I will usually use a dry rub with a touch of olive oil and vinegar and let the steaks get to room temperature. Rub it into the steak really well but ideally you do not want the steaks to be wet. Wet steaks wont sear they will steam! You need to sear quickly on really high heat on both sides and then you can finish it on lower heat. If you dont have a grill you can sear in a pan and finish in the oven. You also do not want your meat overcooked. It should be medium rare for perfect juicy flavor (okay rare is good too but not for everyone)

Some like their steaks medium but I find that to be tough and dry.

[scott123]

There's two things going on with beef, there's the parts of the animal that get the most activity/connective tissue and there's fat.

Muscle Activity

Active muscles- muscles that the animal used the most frequently, have tougher meat/more connective tissue. Because of the toughness of the meat and the hard to dissolve collagen of the connective tissue, these cuts tend to favor long slow wet cooking (i.e. braising/pot roast). These cuts include:

Chuck steak
Blade steak
Beef shank
Brisket

Some active muscle cuts, if treated appropriately (cut against the grain of the muscle/cooked med rare) can be roasted and/or grilled. Because they're tough/high connective tissue cuts, though, they also can be braised/cooked in a pot roast.

Top Round/London Broil
Eye of round
Rump
Bottom round
Flank steak

Less active muscles- muscles that the animal used less frequently, are more tender and favor dry high heat methods (grilled/pan fried). These include:

Filet mignon
Porterhouse (filet mignon + NY strip)
ribeye
prime rib
NY strip
Short ribs

and, to a lesser extent

sirloin
skirt steak

Intramuscular Fat

So, the activity of the muscle defines the texture of the meat. Beyond muscle activity/location, fat gives beef flavor and tenderness. In order to provide tenderness, the fat can't be on the outside of the meat, it has to be evenly distributed throughout it. This is called marbling. You want to look for white dots evenly distributed throughout a cross section of the meat.

A ribeye may originate from a tender part of the animal, but if it isn't well dotted with fat, it won't be as tender/flavorful/succulent as the ribeye that is well marbled.

Good marbling used to be very common, but a few years back fat phobia hit and animals were bread to be leaner/tougher/more tasteless. Since LC became popular, fattier cuts of beef have increased slightly in popularity, so it's not quite so impossible to find good marbling, but it's still difficult.

Certain cuts are more prone to intramuscular fat than others. These include:

Ribeye
NY Strip
Rump
Short ribs

And, to a lesser extent

Brisket
Shank

The one exception relating to the fat/flavor/tenderness connection is tenderloin/filet mignon. Tenderloin can be well marbled, but generally it isn't. Rather than getting it's flavor from fat, though, the meat in tenderloin is darker/more strongly flavored. For me, tenderloin has a musky quality. If you can find a well marbled tenderloin/filet mignon, great, but if you can't it will still be very tender/full flavored- but different. I'm much more partial to the flavor/mouthfeel of well marbled meat rather than a less marbled, yet still incredibly tender filet mignon. It's tender and flavorful, but give me the taste of beef fat anyday.

If you want a great grilled/pan fried steak, I'd recommend a well marbled ribeye or NY strip.

For a great pot roast, look for well marbled rump or brisket.

For great roast beef, again, well marbled rump.

Cuts like London Broil are almost always on sale/dirt cheap, but they have almost no fat and are tough as heck. The traditional approach is to roast/grill them until rare/medium rare and slice across the grain. In my experience, recovering vegetarians tend to prefer their beef cooked a little more (medium/medium well). If you like your beef on the 'bloody' side, then london broil might work for you. I don't and avoid it.

If you have a tender well marbled cut of beef, you can cook it until medium/medium well and it will be succulent and delicious.

[nawchem]

Wow Scott thanks so much for the info!!!!

MyJourney that is good to know. I'm wondering if you can use a Foreman grill to cook steaks. I've always wanted one of those.

I sliced up my steak fajita style and baked it in a casserole. It was much better that way.

Thanks for all the information. Might turn me into a beef eater. Which I think is a good thing!

[Cooperdoo]

Pot roasts are a good option!! In fact, I'm eating some right now (at 9am!! LOL!!). And I'm not a very good cook, but here's how to do them.

A pot roast is the flatter kind of roast (versus the taller, mountain-shaped one).

Put a bit of oil in a big skillet. Brown the roast for a little while (I like mine pretty darn brown, this is where your flavor will come from). Then throw it in the crock pot with some water (I like to more than cover it) and spices and cook it for a while (I do like 8 hours).

Then you can just cut it up and eat it!! I use the leftover broth to make french onion soup or vegetable soup. See, bargain cooking and easy as can be!!! I can cook an entire week's worht of lunches (and apparently breakfasts!!LOL!!) all while I'm gone to work!

[Cooperdoo]

For steaks, I buy them on sale and always get Rib Steaks or Ribeyes. I'm scared to death of the gas grill (and I have a JennAir, but who the heck grills steaks INSIDE?!?!) So I like to take them (frozen) and thunk them into a skillet with a sprinkle of garlic salt. For some reason, cooking them frozen keeps them juicy and tender as can be!!

[LisaS]

I'm wondering if you can use a Foreman grill to cook steaks. I've always wanted one of those.

yes you can, just remember they cook both sides at once so if your instructions say to grill 4 mins per side - that will be 4 mins total (or so) in the Foreman. your instruction book with the grill will have times that work for your grill.

boneless skinless chicken breasts work great in a Foreman as well.

me - I'd rather pan fry or grill a steak -- but burgers, chicken etc. I'll do on the Foreman if I can't grill outside.

[joesfolks]

I saw some little fat steaks called fillet mignon hearts, do those cook up better? .

Filet mignon steaks should be tender as butter. Just cook them in a frying pan on high heat until the outside is carmelized (a little oil in the pan, please.) Then put the pan (with an oven safe handle) into a pre-heated 4oo degree oven for maybe 10 minutes. If you want I'll do it for you. Just send me the plane ticket!