On today’s Tuesday’s Tip with The Kitchen Whisperer I’m sharing with you the best cuts of beef to use when you want to fork-tender, fall apart beef for stews and comfort foods.
So we’re pretty much told that if you want the best result that you want to buy the most expensive thing. I mean the more it costs the better it is, right? Well in some cases that *may* be true though I’ve yet to find a case what that actually is true. But then again I’m not Oprah rich <jealous> so I can’t afford the most expensive of each item. Now when it comes to steaks the best would be Waygu due to genetics and nurturing. Annnnnnnnd you pay through the nose for it. However that’s for steaks. But if you used that in say a beef stew or the like, yeah, not so much. That’s kind of like getting a fat stack of hundreds and a cord of wood and setting the stack of money on fire while you sat on the wood pile watching it.
Pretty senseless, huh? Well that’s that same thought when it comes to using uber expensive cuts of beef to make stews. No for stews or long roasted meats you want the less expensive more tough cuts of beef. You want those leaner cuts of meat that if you tried to make a steak out of it you’d end up with shoe leather and be forced to gnaw on it.
Stewing meats are those lean cuts of meat with little to no fat marbling in it. But what these cheap, lean cuts of meat have is collagen. Collagen is the connective tissue that binds the meat together, that, when slow roasted/stewed for extended periods of time break down and lead to the most fork-tender, melt-in-your mouth bites of awesomeness. Collagen, when cooked and cooked and cooked will break down to almost a gelatin type texture. This not-so-pretty gelatin produces such a rich body and flavor.
So what are the best cuts of beef to use in a stew?
Top billing – Chuck. Chuck has some of the highest collagen in any other cut of beef. It comes from the cow’s shoulder. You slow roast/stew that and it’s like buttah. That beef will just melt in your mouth and you’ll have one of the best flavorful stews ever!
Second – Bottom round roast, bottom eye roast, eye of round and the good ol’ rump roast. Again those cuts are high in collagen so they’ll really pack the flavor! These cuts of beef are generally from the back part of the cow above the hind legs. These areas are more muscular.
Last – Pot roast
Now get moooo-ving and go make up one amazing stew!
For a killer stew recipe check out my Classic French Beef Stew!
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