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TOUGH steaks

Friday night I cooked some chuck steaks and a ribeye. These were frozen, came from my buddy whose dad’s a butcher and processed a whole cow, farm raised here. I thawed the steaks out for roughly 20 hours in the fridge, plus did a cold water bath for a hour. The ribeye was quite large but about an inch thick and the the chucks were super thick (2”+/-) but cut into 5” long pieces or so. I used to the ole 650° flip, flip shutdown method and had the oven going as I figured the thick chucks would need a little time to finish. In the end the chucks were medium rare and the sirloin medium and medium well and both types of steak was TOUGH as nails. I’m wondering is it because they had been frozen at one point or maybe the cow was just a tough ole bird?

Comments

  • SonVolt
    SonVolt Posts: 3,314
    edited November 2020
    The cow was probably just tough. Buying your own side of beef and having it processed sounds great in theory, we love to romanticize about such things - but it's a gamble on quality. It may have not even qualified for a USDA Select rating, which is pretty lousy to begin with, and wound up as Canner grade and ground up into those tubes of ground beef sold at Walmart. 

    My family processes a cow from the farm every year and I've learned to appreciate it for what it is. But if I want to enjoy a good steak I reach for the Publix isle, not my deep freeze. 
    South of Nashville  -  BGE XL  -  Alfresco 42" ALXE  -  Alfresco Versa Burner  - Sunbeam Microwave 
  • Elijah
    Elijah Posts: 679
    Bought a commercial ribeye once that was like that. It was choice. I could tell when holding it raw that it was going to be tough. It didn't bend at all and just stayed straight like it was frozen solid. Just a cow that made it past the grading process I guess. 
  • Mark_B_Good
    Mark_B_Good Posts: 1,510
    Is there a way to tenderize these steaks? I heard if you brine the crap out of them and leave it on for 24h, that will tenderize them.

    On other hand, in past, when I've had tough steaks, I found cutting the cooked steak up into slices (almost fajita style) and serving that way ... disguises the toughness, and no one complains.
    Napoleon Prestige Pro 665, XL BGE, Lots of time for BBQ!
  • fishlessman
    fishlessman Posts: 32,671
    every once in a while i find a decent chuck but most times its chewy.  anyways, trex, reverse sear, waterbag, sousvide for 3 hours at 120 to 131f then sear are all better methods for tender than the sear/shutdown method
    fukahwee maine

    you can lead a fish to water but you can not make him drink it
  • nolaegghead
    nolaegghead Posts: 42,102
    Very high probability it is the cow.

    What fish said. 

    Also you can beat the crap out of it with a meat tenderizer and make chicken fried steaks or cut it strips and do some kind of stir fry.  Or cook it until it tenderizes and make beef stroganoff or something.

    I can count on one hand the number of times I've had a tough ribeye, but most chuck is normally tough.
    ______________________________________________
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  • Powak
    Powak Posts: 1,391
    every once in a while i find a decent chuck but most times its chewy.  anyways, trex, reverse sear, waterbag, sousvide for 3 hours at 120 to 131f then sear are all better methods for tender than the sear/shutdown method
    Shoot I shoulda tried the ole reverse sear. I’ve done a plenty of chuck steaks thattaway. Just figured they cook
    like ribeyes.
  • @Powak In reading your dilemma of tough steaks, could it be that they were just to thick maybe a 1/2” steak reverse seared would solve this problem 
    Greensboro North Carolina
    When in doubt Accelerate....
  • Powak
    Powak Posts: 1,391
    @Powak In reading your dilemma of tough steaks, could it be that they were just to thick maybe a 1/2” steak reverse seared would solve this problem 

    definitely. I actually thought this particular bag was a stack of ribeyes and then realized it was a Chuck roast so I just cut it into 4 steaks. And I didn’t get em too thin.