What to do with a million "eye round steaks"

[007bond-jb]

Run em through a comercial tenderizer (they are sold as cutlets this way) then you can make chicken fried steak..... Or just grind em into burger

[slo_ted]

soy based marinade for a day or two then stir-fry. It works for me.

[stephle]

Yeah, that's a tough one (no pun intended).

What about a very long slow roast on low heat (just enough to cook through to rare) then putting on a meat slicer to make paper thin slices of rare roast beef?

I'd think with some crusty french bread slathered with lashings of butter and horseradish, a little coarse Maldon sea salt, it'd make a fine lunch for 5- 100 friends

[stephle]

Doh! just realized these were round STEAKS, not roast. Ouch. You got me there, I'm at a loss as to what to do with these. Sorry

[HungryC]

They're perfect for slow-cooked New Orleans style grilladese. Cut into 1 or 2 inch cubes, toss with flour seasoned w/salt, black pepper, red pepper, ground thyme. Heat a generous amount of bacon grease in a heavy, deep skillet or saucepan and brown the cubes well. Next, brown two or three chopped onions, then toss in chopped green & red bell peppers, two or three ribs of celery, chopped, and four or five minced cloves of garlic. Cook until veggies wilt and then add two chopped tomatoes, the browned beef cubes, and a little beef broth and red wine, plus a bay leaf and some chopped fresh parsley. You want the cubes to be nearly submerged, but not floating. Simmer until the cubes are tender & juices reduced to a thick gravy, at least 45 minutes. Servee over creamy grits or mashed potatoes.

Paul Prudhomme has a "seven steak" gumbo recipe in one of his cookbooks, too. (Seven steaks are a particular cut of semi-boneless round, and the eye of the round will stand up to similar treatment.)

[jsmeeker]

I found 

"lean, flavorfull, and tough"  

you could whack them and chicken fry, tracey

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That's what I would do. Chicken friend steak. If I'm not mistaken, that is a commonly used cut for this delicious southern/Texan dish.

You really do need to tenderize them well. If you had a tenderizing machine, it would be perfect. There are hand held models, too.

Edited March 6, 2007 by jsmeeker (log)

[Shalmanese]

Alton Brown had a entire show of good eats on round steaks. He used bottom round but I'm sure they'll work as well with eye round.

[maggiethecat]

We've recently provided counterspace to a Hobart (noncommercial) food slicer and we've made more pickles and Pommes Anna in two months that we have it the last year. It's a blast.

Last night I realized that all the protien I had in the house was a 3 oz frozen bit of flank steak -- like eye of the round tasty but tough. I ran it through the slicer partially frozen and we could literally read the price tag on it's packaging through the slices, they were so thin. We stir fried it with some Active Senoirs from the vegetable drawer and a garlicky/ soy/ black bean sauce.

I have to say that it was the best beef stirfry I've ever eaten, at home or in a restaurant. The beef gave great flavor and it's Kate Moss ethereal thinness made it incredibly tender and visually bulked up its volume. Your eye of round would do well with similar treatment.

[Malkavian]

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.,

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I guess I must be in the minority here, but the last time I had eye round steaks (cut thick from an eye round roast I had kicking around) I marinated them in a soy - teryaki concoction and then grilled them JUST enough that the middle didn't moo when you forked it.

Sure they werent the tenderest piece of meat by a long long throw, but I like the beefyness, and a bit of chewing never hurt me

[Magictofu]

Funny thing... although it can be quite tough, this cut is used extensively in bistros for steak frites for example...

Do not overcook (I still don't understand how braising could work here since there is no fat or conjunctive tissues in this cut but I might miss something)

And then, melt a good amount of herb butter on top and/or add heaps of caramelized shallots.

I think that North Americans are spoiled with a remarkable availability of great cuts of beef and too often forget the cheaper ones... and that includes me.

[Tonyy13]

How different is "eye of round" from "top round"?

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Alton Brown had a entire show of good eats on round steaks. He used bottom round but I'm sure they'll work as well with eye round.

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The primal round is the entire hind leg of cattle. The Top Round, aka the inside round, is the area like the fleshy tender part of your inner thigh, while the bottom round, also called the outside round, is the outer bit. The bottom round is a sub-sub-primal found in the sub primal gooseneck which also includes the Eye Round and Heel. These make up the substantial portion of meat running from the hip bone (aitch) to the knee cap (or start of the shank). So, none of these cuts from the round differ too much, but the cuts from top round are technically a little bit more tender. The eye round coming from the outer gooseneck gets quite a bit of work in, which contributes to its toughness and it's high flavor (due to increased bloodflow and continuous contracting and relaxing of the protein chain braids).

There's your meat lesson for the day!

[alwang]

Coincidentally, I picked up an eye of round roast at the supermarket this week, because, well, it was cheap. I cut a steak about an inch thick, seasoned it with salt and pepper, and cooked it sous vide at 130F for about 100 minutes. I then seared both sides in a cast iron skillet for ~10 seconds.

There's no question: it's pretty tough. But I thought it was chewable this way, and the flavor was pretty good. I might have gone a couple degrees lower. A jaccard probably would have made a difference as well. I still have the rest of the roast, so I'll give that a try next week.

-a

[Fat Guy]

Tonight I took a little foam tray of these eye round steaks (two small pieces) out of the freezer. After the meat defrosted on the countertop for a bit, but was still mostly frozen, I sliced it into very thin strips (this is easier to do when meat is partially frozen). I marinated the strips in soy, sesame oil and a little apricot jam, in a zipper bag, while I made rice and did some other stuff. Then I got a copper skillet as hot as I could and sauteed the marinated strips of beef for maybe a minute. I served them over rice, with a side of steamed Brussels sprouts.

The flavor was great. But, as everybody has said, the meat was pretty leathery. I thought my plan would give me a good chance of getting non-tough meat, between the thin slicing, marinating (for whatever that's worth) and quick, high-temperature cooking, I thought I'd chosen a good recipe. But this stuff is tough.

Next time I think I'll try pounding, dredging in flour and doing country-fried steak.

[maggiethecat]

Tonight I took a little foam tray of these eye round steaks (two small pieces) out of the freezer. After the meat defrosted on the countertop for a bit, but was still mostly frozen, I sliced it into very thin strips (this is easier to do when meat is partially frozen). I marinated the strips in soy, sesame oil and a little apricot jam, in a zipper bag, while I made rice and did some other stuff. Then I got a copper skillet as hot as I could and sauteed the marinated strips of beef for maybe a minute. I served them over rice, with a side of steamed Brussels sprouts.

The flavor was great. But, as everybody has said, the meat was pretty leathery. I thought my plan would give me a good chance of getting non-tough meat, between the thin slicing, marinating (for whatever that's worth) and quick, high-temperature cooking, I thought I'd chosen a good recipe. But this stuff is tough.

Next time I think I'll try pounding, dredging in flour and doing country-fried steak.

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Country fried steak would be fab, and this cut can use some serious pounding. We've used your knife-based thin-sliced partially frozen technique with the same glum results. As I mentioned upstread, a food slicer can guarantee gossamer bits of tough tasty meat that melt on the tongue. A knife just can't do it.

[Tonyy13]

FG,

Sorry to hear about your first attempt at making these bad boys tender! Marinades are a good way to tenderize meat if one or two specific ingredients in there: fat and acid. The fat helps lubricate the bundles of protein, making them easier to push apart by your teeth, as well as providing body and richness in the mouth. Acid will actually start to denature the proteins and break them down. So, next time, throw a little sesame oil and rice wine vinegar to your Asian marinade, and let us know how they come out!

God I love steak.

TA

[K8memphis]

I really think you need to try cooking them forever before you try the pounding thing. Cooking forever works for sure. Pounding & stuff is a definite maybe. In fact pound them before you cook them forever and you will enjoy your meal. (My) Mom knows, Dude.

[divalasvegas]

I like to think of round steaks as the squid of the beef world: cook for a couple of minutes , or a couple of hours, and nothing in between.

The only way I've done them is chicken fried steak after pounding the Hell out of them and served with cream gravy and grits. I've never done grillades but that sounds great as well.

The other way I make them is to slice the round steak, season it with creole seasoning and black pepper, then pound it and dredge with flour, fry in oil over high heat a minute or two on each side. Then in a dutch oven stir together sliced onions and sweet/bell peppers (I like a mixture of colors), chopped garlic, hot pepper flakes, thyme, beef stock, one can Rotelle tomatoes, one Rotelle can's worth of water, and some roux the color of peanut butter. Nestle the browned steaks in the mixture, cover and bake low and slow for 2 - 3 hours and check a couple of times in the process to make sure there's enough liquid. Serve with mashed potatoes or rice.

I think I tried to eat them eons ago after cooking them like a "real" steak and the amount of chewing needed to get through the experience turned me off to that method for good.

I've never tried an Asian-style marinade and stir fry, but that sounds great too.

Edited for additional comments.

Edited March 11, 2007 by divalasvegas (log)

[Shalmanese]

Hrmm... Flavourful, tough and without much connective tissue, I'm wondering if it might be a good candidate for making jus a la Ducasse. It seems like you could extract all of the flavor out of the meat without worrying about the toughness.