Tenderloin. The most tender roast of all—it's under the spine— with almost no fat or flavor. It's tapered in shape, the middle being the "center cut." The labor involved and waste produced in trimming and tying a tenderloin drives up the price. Top sirloin roast.
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.
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.
A surefire way to make a tender, juicy pot roast is through braising; that is, cooking the meat in a small amount of liquid in a tightly covered pot at low temperature. Stove top roast recipes can be customized with your choice of herbs, vegetables, potatoes, and liquid braising mixtures.
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.
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.
The most tender cuts of steak come from the rib and loin areas of the animal. These cuts include the ribeye, tenderloin, and sirloin. These cuts are known for their tenderness because they come from muscles that do not get a lot of exercise, which makes the meat more tender.
Cut It across the Grain
One way to make tougher meats tender starts with your knife and fork (or on your cutting board). Cutting meat "across the grain" simply means cutting crosswise through the long muscle fibers in the meat. Breaking them up makes meat more tender.
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.
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.
Bottom Round Roast
Best for roasting or slow-cooking and slicing thin.
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.
If you're out in the grocery store, look for cuts with "Chuck," "Shoulder," "Rump," or "Round" in the name. Next, notice the quantity of white fat. Remember, fat = tenderness and moisture. Lean roasts with less fat will shine in recipes with extra moisture/liquid added, especially in the slow cooker or pressure cooker.
Chuck roast is cut from the cow's shoulder. It is a heavily exercised muscle, which gives the beef good flavor but it also makes it tough.
In Chinese cooking, proteins like beef, pork or chicken are velveted first before stir-frying them. There are several ways to velvet, but at its most basic level, it involves marinating meat with at least one ingredient that will make it alkaline. This is what tenderizes the meat, especially cheaper, tougher cuts.
Simmering and stewing are used for less tender cuts of meat while poaching is used for tender cuts.
Besides velveting the meat prior cooking, the meat in restaurants may be marinated with chemical meat tenderizers. The active ingredients are usually papain or bromelain, which are enzymes extracted from fruits.
Tenderloin. The most tender roast of all—it's under the spine— with almost no fat or flavor. It's tapered in shape, the middle being the "center cut." The labor involved and waste produced in trimming and tying a tenderloin drives up the price. Top sirloin roast.
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.
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.
Does chuck roast get more tender the longer you cook it? It does! The secret to an incredible beef chuck roast recipe is to let it cook for long enough. I cook my chuck roast for 4 hours and 20 minutes, and by the time it's done it's fall-apart tender with soft carrots and potatoes all cooked in the same pot.
Yes, there are scientific reasons to back up the fact that slow cooked meat is better. Tenderness in meat comes from the melting of collagen – the connective tissue protein present in meat. When collagen melts, it turns into gelatin, a rich liquid that gives meat a lot of flavour as well as a silky texture.
The key to cooking pot roast is cooking it low and slow. The meat should just fall apart, hence the name, and if it doesn't, you probably have not cooked it long enough. Also, I like to cook the potatoes separately, as they tend to be a little to mushy for my liking when you cook them with the roast.