What to do with a million "eye round steaks"

[Fat Guy]

Okay, not a million. Five of them, actually. They were on sale. I bought them. Visually, they look a little bit like tenderloins, but they're not. They're "eye round steaks."

What should I do with them?

[rooftop1000]

I found

"lean, flavorfull, and tough"

you could whack them and chicken fry, or shallow braise with onions and mushrooms or turn them into Butter Beef from the Dutch cooking thread.

mmmm all sound good

tracey

[Marlene]

With this cut, definately some sort of braise. The butter beef would work very well in this case.

[Anna N]

Cut them up and feed them to Momo! Sorry but I have never found anything that changes these into something I really want to eat!

[Marlene]

Cut them up and feed them to Momo!  Sorry but I have never found anything that changes these into something I really want to eat!

←

There is that. This isn't a cut that I would not normally ever buy, which is why I think the butter braise will work well with this, given that it's going to need a lot of something to both give it flavour and to make it tender.

Edited March 5, 2007 by Marlene (log)

[John S.]

Okay, not a million. Five of them, actually. They were on sale. I bought them. Visually, they look a little bit like tenderloins, but they're not. They're "eye round steaks."

What should I do with them?

←

Here's a good start. My mom always had "eye of the round steaks". They were good but I don't know how she fixed them.

http://animalscience.unl.edu/meats/id/ROUND/Eyrost.htm

[Fat Guy]

What attracted me to these steaks was that they were from the OBE brand, which is an Australian brand of organic/natural beef. I've really enjoyed other OBE cuts, and these were really cheap. I figured with that provenance, maybe there would be some virtues to the eye round cut.

What about stir frying? Isn't the round what most Asian restaurants use for beef for stir frying? Or what about cutting them up for kebabs?

I'm not sure I understand the braising idea. Is there enough fat and collagen in these things to make braising a good option? In general, I think of lean cuts as best for slicing thin and cooking quickly to medium rare -- but maybe that's wrong.

[Tonyy13]

Fat Guy,

Good luck with these man, they are notoriously lean and tough! Coming from the outside of the leg of the animal, they get decent blood flow, so they will have decent beef flavor, but without any fat, they will still feel dry in your mouth, no matter how tender from a braise. Maybe stroganoff or some type of braise where you are introducing fat into the sauce. If you prefer dry heat cooking methods, a good solid marinade with olive oil will help out a bit too, but make sure you get some good time in.

Good luck!

[BarbaraY]

The only thing I've found to do with eye of round is to make jerky. Not from steaks but from what is sold as roast.

[K8memphis]

Mom would put a whole round steak on a very large piece of aluminum foil and sprinkle it with Lipton Onion Soup Mix and roll it up like a jelly roll and then twist the excess foil on the sides like a big piece of candy so the juju did not leak out and then bake it for quite a while. It was really good. Why she rolled it up I don't really know but it came out great.

So you could do the same thing with a bunch of onions & seasonings. Probably saute the onions first. Maybe something like that?

Serve it on some egg noodles or nice rice.

Yeah, I've seen other recipes for round steak where it's rolled up come to think of it. Each roll was a serving where you'd put a bunch of carrot sticks and celery and onions & stuff, roll it up and bake it. The foil just keeps it all steaming. A pat of butter in there wouldn't hurt a thing. Wrap some bacon around it.

A few eye of round thoughts for you. (toe of newt)

[Marlene]

A normal braise will not work with these, that is correct. But the butter braise is different in that you are introducing a whole bunch of fat to help the meat. Possibly thin sliced and stir fried might work, kebabs, definately not I don't think, unless you are going to marinade them for a good long time.

[K8memphis]

It was really good. Why she rolled it up I don't really know but it came out great.

←

Y'know this might have been a case of degree, this idea of Mom's round steak coming out great and it being really good. I mean maybe you should have tried her beans or chili or spaghetti to get a feel for why I thought the round steak was so good.

(Love you, Mom!!)

[Motochef]

Food Save them or wrap them up in freezer wrap and take them out to the garage freezer. Put them on top of the freezer while you pretend to get something real out of the box. Leave them on top. When you remember what happened to them in the morning, take them out to the trash.

They are a bad, bad cut.

[Anna N]

You might try this, Steven:

6 tablespoons soy sauce

1/4 cup chopped onion

1/4 cup rice vinegar

2 tablespoons oriental sesame oil

1 tablespoon chopped peeled fresh ginger

Bung these into a FP and process until smooth. Marinate the steaks in this for a few hours. Grill to no more than medium rare.

There seems to be some scientific evidence that soy sauce is an excellent tenderizer and I have used this marinade on some less than stellar cuts and it has done a good job without turning them to mush. Don't leave them in the marinade much more than a few hours though.

[cdh]

This sounds like a cut that need a really old school treatment. How about larding it? Poke it full of holes, fill half of 'em with pork fat and half of them with garlic cloves, and then braise it in onion soup.

[Badiane]

I buy it all the time...for Swiss Steak in the crockpot. In fact, I am making some tomorrow. Just brown the meat, toss it in the crockpot with a chopped onion, a chopped carrot, beef stock - one tin of Campbells will do...one tin of tomato paste, a spoonful of basil, oregano or whatever, one bay leaf, salt and pepper. Cook on low all day, come home to delicious and easy dinner. Serve over noodles or mashed spuds.

[maggiethecat]

Slice and pound paper-thin, stuff them with something ala bracciole, tie and braise. You'll never make this cut tender, but it 's tasty. I find that the thin slices hold a filling well, don't shrink much and won't overwork your molars.

[LindaJ]

I buy it all the time...for Swiss Steak in the crockpot.  In fact, I am making some tomorrow.  Just brown the meat, toss it in the crockpot with a chopped onion, a chopped carrot, beef stock - one tin of Campbells will do...one tin of tomato paste, a spoonful of basil, oregano or whatever, one bay leaf, salt and pepper.  Cook on low all day, come home to delicious and easy dinner.  Serve over noodles or mashed spuds.

←

Absolutely agree. This is crock pot material. Slow cook for 6-8 hours on low and it will be wonderful. I just made something like this recipe last week and my husband loved it. This is the guy who does not like "chunks" of meat. It will fall apart and melt in your mouth. On mashed potatoes, egg noodles or on hoagie rolls.

[project]

Some years ago, I ate beef eye of round for lunch nearly everyday.

I put one in a Brown 'n Bag, set it in a roasting pan, inserted a meat thermometer, and roasted the thing.

Got a bag with the meat and a lot of juice.

Sliced thinly for sandwiches on rye with spicy mustard.

I thought that the sandwiches were terrific.

But even better is corned beef eye of round, which I bought sometimes, but the final price per pound was much higher.

But corn it yourself! Then get some nice corned beef sandwiches.

[jmolinari]

When i buy this cut i saute it really quickly in hot hot butter. Very flavorful, and as long as you keep them quite rare, they are not too tough. Definitely not tender though.,

[Toliver]

My mom used that cut for, as others have suggested, Chicken Fried Steak (using Corn Flake crumbs as the coating), Swiss Steak done in a pressure cooker and the occasional Beef Stroganoff (though it'd need a good braising to make sure it wasn't too tough).

Good stuff, Maynard.

[jgm]

Swiss steak, chicken fried steak, and the like, are about all you can do with this cut. But for Swiss steak, I much prefer a roast.

But then I'm prejudiced. My mom would cut these damn things into portion sizes, fry (medium well done) in a frying pan, serve with mashed potatoes and canned grean beans, and my dad would yell at me for being a picky eater because I didn't want to eat them. The green beans and the potatoes were much better, and I'd often manage to down about half the meat. Another dinner suffered through with silence and animosity.

These ugly things do not come into our house. I'd like to say the same for the canned asparagus Mom also served, but my husband likes it, so he eats it.

Jenny

[Human Bean]

Cut paper-thin slices across the grain, and put slices in a bowl of hot pho immediately before serving. Be sure to stir and separate the slices to make sure they get cooked and don't stick together.

Individually freeze the remaining 'steaks' for later use.

[ludja]

How different is "eye of round" from "top round"? I think it is just part of the "round cut" and can be used for the dishes described below.,

This is a the cut of beef for making "meat rouladen" (Fleischrouladen or Rindrouladen) a German/Austrian dish.

The meat is sliced into thin cutlets, then pounded thinner to about a 1/4 inch thick. You make a "rouladen" or roll in which you typically put a slice of bacon (adds fat and flaovr), +/- mustard, salt and pepper, sliced onions and a semi-sweet gherkin. You start cooking the rouladen in a very little bit of stock or water at low heat letting them brown a little bit but always adding more water. You want to generate a little browing here. If they brown too much they will get tough. Then you add a bit more water and stock, cover and cook over low heat for a good 1 1/2 hours or two until very tender. (Check every once and awhile to make sure you are not running out of liquid.) At the end, you remove the rouladen, deglaze the pan with stock and add a little butter and flour to thicken the gravy. (Another option is then to add some sour cream and anchovy paste to the sauce.) These are absolutely delicious and very tender when cooked correctly. They reheat very well also. I just save the deglazed meat juices and thicken the sauce before serving. (Traditional and wonderful accompaniements are bread dumplings and cooked red cabbage).

You do need to start off with thin slices of meat (~ 1/4 inch thick); I usually buy them at my German butcher but they may also be sold as cuts for the related family of Italian beef roll recipes which I haven't made--braciole. Maybe one can slice the meat at home with a slicer and slightly frozen meat?

Some old American cookbooks call these "beef birds"

Edited March 6, 2007 by ludja (log)

[KarenSherwood]

Crockpot sauerbraten.