Top Sirloin Butt

[KLwood]

No, this isnt the title of the latest Bravo reality series, at least lets hope not.

Rather its a cut of meat that my neighbor mistakenly grabbed at Sams Club without looking at the label, thinking it was a brisket. The label reads " Beef Prime, Whole Top Butt, Cov. "

and I can see how he mistook it for a small, very lean Brisket , I worked out a 'swap meat' with him and said piece of USDA prime beef is now sitting in my fridge awaiting attention..

I hate to admit that I had never heard of 'Top Butt' and couldnt find it in the 'Critter Map' appendix of 'Im just Here for the Food' or my copy of The New Professional Chef and a google recipe search only turned up a variation on top sirloin... Any Thoughts ? It had a USDA Prime sticker and seems to be fine grained, and nicely marbled,

Should this be braised or would I be better off with a dry cooking method simlar to the Alton Brown standing rib roast technique ? ( salt & pepper rub, oven roast @ 200F until aprox 120F internal temp, then a 500F oven sear to develop a crust and bring internal temp to med Rare)

Given the relatively flat shape, Im wondering about the A.B. technique though

Any help or is really appreciated.

*edited to add butt shot

Edited July 11, 2007 by KLwood (log)

[HungryChris]

If it is a whole top butt then it should be broken down into its component parts. To do this you should start with the fat side down. Remove the surface silver skin on the top. Once this is done you will find that you can break it down almost by pulling it apart with the help of a knife. The bottom part will be a triangular piece of fairly well marbled meat with the fat attached. Using the knife the meat can be peeled back and separated from the fat. There will be silver skin on the surface away from the fat that should be removed.The resulting piece can be cooked as a roast or cut into steaks. The same is true for the other two portion that can be divided into two leaner roasts by separating them following the silver skin between them. They make flavorful steaks, roasts or skewer meat.

HC

[cmsoulbrother]

But what is it? Is it like the like pork collar butt? I live in Thailand, and it looks a lot like something my butcher is always trying to give me, which she calls hump meat.

I do buy the occasional hump.

[Anna Friedman Herlihy]

The butt part of an animal is the shoulder, on a cow the shoulder is usually called the chuck rather than butt. I would hazard a guess it's another name for a top shoulder blade roast (which you usually find as steaks rather than a whole roast). Cuts from the top shoulder can be marinated well then grilled or broiled (if not too thick), or as with any part of the chuck you can braise it.

I personally would not dry roast it, unless you marinated it overnight, because of the risk of toughness with that part of the animal.

[HKDave]

It's not shoulder/chuck. It's sirloin:

http://www.beeffoodservice.com/Cuts/Info.aspx?Code=42

It doesn't look like it needs to be broken down further. In the photo it looks like you've got the top muscle of the Top Sirloin Butt sub-primal. Nice marbling.

It can be cut across the grain into steaks, which is what usually happens to this cut in restaurants. If you do this, it'll be slightly chewier than strip loin or rib eye.

You could braise it but that would be a waste; there are cheaper cuts that are better for braising. I'd roast it. You could use the AB prime rib technique, but I like to sear first, then go to 225-250F oven. That way you won't have to wonder how much the temperature will rise during the final sear - because you won't need to do one. If you're worried about getting too much cooking between the sear and the time the oven drops to 250F, just pull the roast out and leave the oven door open for a minute (or pan sear, then go straight to 250F oven).

[Anna Friedman Herlihy]

So a pork butt is the shoulder but a beef butt is from the sirloin (basically 2/3 of the way down the animal from the shoulder)? Wow, could the powers that be try to confuse people any more than they already do with multiple names for the same cuts of meat!!!

Sorry for my hazarding a wrong guess based on thinking pork butt would be equivalent to beef butt. Yikes!

[KarenDW]

it's on sale for $CA 2.65/lb (this is the Pac. NW, people). for 11 lb. pieces.

Ideas?

[HKDave]

There's a recent thread on this cut of beef here: http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showtopic=104771

If you click on the link in my post in that thread (here it is again: http://www.beeffoodservice.com/Cuts/Info.aspx?Code=42 ) it shows you how to turn it into sirloin steaks, and when you scroll down it also has a bunch of menu suggestions and recipes.

[KarenDW]

Thanks, Dave! Looks like a good buy if I can set aside the time for breaking down.

[qrn]

it's on sale for $CA 2.65/lb (this is the Pac. NW, people). for 11 lb. pieces.

Ideas?

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Hamburger...

Bud