do you buy top or bottom? Why? I am pretty green about beef.

Kalmia wrote:
> do you buy top or bottom? Why? I am pretty green about beef.
>


Buy the whole-cut steak, preferably with a bone.

-Bob

Kalmia wrote:
>
>do you buy top or bottom? Why? I am pretty green about beef.

I've never seen bottom round steak put out at meat counters, all I've
seen is top round steak and some just labeled round steak but I know
from the structure that it's top round. Bottom round is too tough and
contains too much gristle for steak cuts, there'd be too much waste.
Bottom round is sold as a roast and is really only suitable for pot
roast. I never buy bottom round, with all its waste it's no bargain.
I grind top round and it's very good for burgers but ground bottom
round is awful for any dish, even braised in a meat sauce it turns out
gritty. What are you planning to make?

On Dec 4, 8:52*pm, Brooklyn1 <Gravesend1> wrote:
> Kalmia wrote:
>
> >do you buy top or bottom? *Why? *I am pretty green about beef.
>
> I've never seen bottom round steak put out at meat counters, all I've
> seen is top round steak and some just labeled round steak but I know
> from the structure that it's top round. *Bottom round is too tough and
> contains too much gristle for steak cuts, there'd be too much waste.
> Bottom round is sold as a roast and is really only suitable for pot
> roast. *I never buy bottom round, with all its waste it's no bargain.
> I grind top round and it's very good for burgers but ground bottom
> round is awful for any dish, even braised in a meat sauce it turns out
> gritty. *What are you planning to make?

I used to buy bottom round steaks back in the '70s. They were under
$1
each. I'd eat them raw when I was a teenager. Back then, there were
four
things I wanted: pot, which was always pretty much available;
alcohol, which
was pretty easy to get; female bodies, which were sadly too
unavailable;
and raw beef, something that I adored, and was legal and didn't have
to be
seduced. My mother may not have supplied me with raw beef, but she
did
buy the dental floss necessary to my raw beef obsession, and bottom
round
requires dental floss, especially when eaten raw.

--Bryan

On Dec 4, 11:30*pm, Sqwertz > wrote:
> OnSun, 4 Dec 2011 18:30:13 -0800 (PST), Kalmia wrote:
> > do you buy top or bottom? *Why? *I am pretty green about beef.
>
> It dependsonthe RECIPE. *Why do so many people stop short of
> explaining what they want they want to do? *How are you going to cut
> it, for example?
>
> In most recipes they are interchangeable. *But bottom round isconsidered slightly better, but not by much. *THe grain is going todictate your decisionBASEDONYOUR RECIPE.
>

I think top round is better. As far as toughness goes, top round is
less tough, but still kind of tough. I've eaten top round steaks
before; they are edible, and chewable, but they do have a good chew to
them. Bottom round I use for stews. Nothing wrong with it. Also,
let's not forget the eye of round, as it is part of the whole round.
It can make a decent roast if you wrap it with some good ole' bacon.
You can cut certain parts out of it to make steaks. But they also
have a chew to them. Other parts of the eye, are almost impossible to
chew(for steaks; grilled or pan fried). I don't know which part of
the eye is less tough than other parts of the eye. Here at the
market, the farmers market, they sell what they call a pepper steak.
It's from the tender most portion of the eye. Still has a chew to
it. They just put cracked black pepper around the periphery of the
steak. It's actually a peppercorn steak, although if you go to a
steak house and order peppercorn steak, you usually get the top and
bottom of the steak (usually strip loin) pepper corned, and not the
periphery.