For roasts, the best cuts include rib (on the bone or boned and rolled), sirloin, top rump and fillet. For quick cooking, try fillet, entrecôte, rib eye, sirloin or rump steaks.
Tenderloin Roast
The most tender beef roast that is well known for being lean and succulent. Easy to carve with its fine texture. Learn more about this beef cut here.
The best cuts of beef for roasting are the eye fillet, rib eye (on the bone or boneless fillet), sirloin or rump. When choosing your beef cut in store, look out for: A moderate covering of fat on cuts such as sirloin or rump – which will add delicious flavour and prevent the meat from drying out during cooking.
1) Choose the right cut
For a leaner roast, topside is an excellent choice and for a slightly fattier cut, top rump is also a good option. Both are best served rare/medium rare and are delicious served cold in sandwiches and salads.
Beef tenderloin is a great choice for your Christmas dinner because it's relatively easy to prepare. It also cooks quickly, has a nice presentation, and has no bones or fat to deal with. If you buy a beef tenderloin that is untrimmed, you're going to have some work to do.
What kind of roast falls apart? For best results, use a chuck roast or shoulder roast. Both of these types of roast will fall apart nicely in the crock pot leaving you with delicious shredded beef.
Often nicknamed the 'poor man's sirloin', topside makes for a great, thrifty roasting joint that cuts into beautifully uniform slices. It can be served lightly pink. Roasted and thinly sliced it tastes particularly delicious, and any leftovers work well in sandwiches with horseradish mayo, or in salads.
Tenderloin Steak
The most tender of all cuts of beef, tenderloin steaks are lean and known for their delicate, butter-like texture and thick cut. These mouthwatering steaks are so tender they can be “cut with a butter knife.” Tenderloin steaks are commonly known as filets or filet mignon.
Shank. Shank is arguably the toughest, cheapest cut of beef. Located in front of the brisket at the cow's forearm, this beef cut is notable for its sinewy dryness. Due to its lack of popularity, shank is not typically found in retail stores.
Of the several varieties of steaks that come from a cow, the filet mignon (also known as a tenderloin or chateaubriand) is the most tender of all. Other supremely tender cuts of steak include flat iron, strip, rib-eye, short ribs, t-bone, and porterhouse.
It's overcooked. Overcooking meat causes it to dry out, and as moisture is lost, the meat gets tougher and so harder to chew. It was cooked at too high a temperature. For soft and tender meat, it's always better to cook it low and slow than to heat it very quickly, which causes the protein in the meat to toughen.
Also note that the topside is best served no more than medium rare because it dries out very easily. I'll finish the roast uncovered for the last half-hour. A better bet than topside for the same price is probably bolar blade because while it can have a bit of gristle it is softer and more tender.
What is top rump of beef? Top rump, also commonly known as thick flank, is sourced from the rear of the cow and like cuts from the surrounding area (topside and silverside), it's a very lean meat.
Undercooked pot roast will be tough and chewy. Test your roast with a fork before you remove it from the pot. If it is done, the fork will go in easily and you'll be able to twist off a forkful of meat. It if is still firm, return the roast to the pot and continue cooking for another hour.
When cooking a roast in the oven, keep it uncovered until roasted to the desired doneness. After removing from the oven, tent with foil and let stand 15 minutes before carving. This allows the juices to redistribute, preventing them from draining out during carving—and preventing dry, disappointing meat.
You should cover a beef roast with kitchen foil for at least part of the cooking time. This stops the roast beef from drying out too much during cooking.
Topside comes from the inside of the hind leg, between the thick flank and the silverside. Topside is extremely lean and performs best when diced for slow-cooking in a hearty casserole or braise.
Topside is a perfect roast and has a lovely texture, goof beefy flavour and can be roasted rare to well done. If you're looking for a larger roast Topside is the perfect choice.
Can you overcook something in a slow cooker? Slow cookers are specially designed to cook food for long periods of time, but yes, you can still overcook in a slow cooker if something is left on the wrong setting for longer than it's supposed to be.
Cook It Slowly
This is certainly true when it comes to notoriously tough cuts of meat like beef brisket and pork shoulder. Cooking these cuts of meat slowly, either by braising, stewing or grill roasting, is the best way to get these tasty cuts of meat meltingly tender.
The Flat Iron steak comes from the chuck subprimal of the animal, and is the second most tender cut after the tenderloin. It's often considered to be an ultra-tender alternative to the ribeye.
Beef. Naturally, the toughest parts of beef are found around the legs: The shanks, the rounds, the shoulders, the brisket, and the neck. Round or Heel of Round is another incredibly tough cut of beef, which is why it usually gets made into ground beef with a sampling of other tougher muscle cuts and trimmings.