Click for the Beef Cutting Chart from the beefretail.org to see the cuts!
The Beef Round
The final section of “Primal Cuts” come from the Beef Round. As you can see the Sirloin Tip or Beef Knuckle, which we did in a previous post, is included in this section.
Here we have to go back to another time and explain how this section used to be cut up.
The Rump and the Round Steak section.
The Rump as pictured on the right was trimmed out and rolled into a roast and the Round Steaks used to be cut as round steaks with a small round marrow bone in it.
Back to the present where these cuts don’t make it onto the Beef Board cutting chart anymore and most younger meat cutter could not tell you what an old fashioned rump roast looked like.
This part, boned out, has three sections, the Top, the Bottom and the Eye of Round.
The Top Round is the piece to use if your recipe calls for a “Round Steak” and is our piece of choice in Bavarian cooking for Beef Rouladen (click on the story board for a closer look on how they are prepared). We had a few customers using this piece cut thicker for London Broil ***(link goes to Wikipedia).
The Bottom is usually cut as roast(s), but if you find a nice marbelized piece you might be able to use it as a steak. The Jaccarder is again a very useful gadget here and using the marinade of your choice will also help.
The same rules as for the Bottom also apply to the Eye of Round.
Like with any of the other sections of a side of beef, there are again some cube steak, stew meat and also the parts for your Ground Round cut out of it.