What is beef chuck?
Beef chuck is a weird phrase, right? Doing a little etymological digging, it seems that the term chuck started out as “chunk” and slowly evolved into “chuck.” There are various stories about the chuck wagon in the American cowboy tradition being a part of this, but I’m not sure how much of this is accurate. It does make sense that the toughest part of the cow would be the part eaten by those doing the work. However, also looking at history, cowboys tended to eat beans for their protein as they are much easier to preserve and transport (think about it), but we digress. We are here to talk about beef chuck.
So that’s the word history. What about the cut today?
As part of the modern butchering process, a side of beef is hung upside down and cooled for about two weeks before being processed further. This is standard practice, and aging is part of the tenderizing process. When the side of beef is broken down into manageable parts, the butcher starts with eight main cuts, these are known as the primal cuts.
What part of the cow does the beef chuck come from?
The chuck is the shoulder of the cow and is found over the front leg.
When removed from the side of beef, this large cut is basically a large chunk of meat comprised of five muscles. (See, there’s chunk again.)
On a cow, the front leg does a lot of the work of walking. And as the front leg is responsible for a lot of the stabilization and the work of navigation when walking over less than perfectly smooth ground. If you have ever walked through a field, you know they are riddled with holes, and the ground is often muddy.
These shoulder muscles do a lot to keep the cow from stumbling.
When you think about tenderness—meat, not emotional—the less a muscle is used, the more tender it generally is. Additionally, the less connective tissue a muscle contains also contributes to how tender it will be and what kind of cooking will suit it best.
Meat from the chuck region tends to contain a LOT of connective tissue.
What cuts of beef come from the chuck?
Hold on to your hat, there are a lot of names here, and they vary by region (and country), but for simplicity, we are going to stick to the US, Canada, England, and Australia since that’s where most of you are.
- 7-bone pot roast/7 bone roast/center cut pot roast
- 7-bone steak/center chuck steak
- arm roast/arm pot roast/chuck arm roast/round bone pot roast/round bone roast
- arm steak/arm chuck steak/arm Swiss steak/round bone steak/round bone Swiss steak
- blade roast/blade pot roast/blade chuck roast
- chuck eye/mock tender./chuck fillet/chuck filet/chuck tender/Scotch tender
- chuck eye steak/chuck fillet steak/chuck filet steak/beauty steak/chuck tender steak/fish steak
- chuck steak
- cross rib roast/cross rib pot roast/Boston cut/English cut roast/English roast/thick rib roast/bread and butter cut/beef chuck cross rib pot roast/English roll (boneless)
- ground chuck
- pot roast
- shoulder steak/English steak/clod steak
- top blade pot roast/flat iron roast/lifter roast/puff roast/triangle roast
- top blade steak/book steak/butler steak/lifter steak/petite steak/top chuck steak/flat iron steak
- under blade pot roast/bottom chuck roast/California roast/under-cut roast
- under blade steak/bottom chuck steak/California steak
What kind of recipes best suit beef chuck?
Beef chuck is one of the most inexpensive cuts of beef (as far as beef can be considered cheap) due to its tendency to be tough. However, if you are willing to take the time to choose recipes that suit the cuts well you will be rewarded with the excellent flavor that this primal cut is known for.
When choosing recipes for the larger cuts from the beef chuck, you are going want to look for recipes that use both a low and slow and wet cooking method—think stews and braising.
Sometimes you can get away with quick cooking methods. Still, you are almost always going to need a tenderizing method first, either mechanical tenderization, such as what is used to make cube steaks, or actually grinding the meat to make ground beef, or chemically tenderizing the meat through marinating.
Be extra careful when reading a recipe for a roast. Make sure that you carefully write down the type of roast that the recipe calls for and match it word for word with what is on the label. If you are unsure, ask. If the employee at the supermarket doesn’t know, because it isn’t their department, research. You can’t just swap out one roast for another. There is a big difference between a chuck roast and a rib roast. muscles are completely different and require very different cooking for good results.
Is there a time of year beef chuck goes on sale?
Beef, in general, tends to go on sale in the early fall. However, I like to cruise by the beef display every trip to the grocery store to see if they have any beef chuck on sale that I can snap up and re-wrap for the freezer when I get home. Sometimes I get lucky.
What recipes on Home-Ec101 are best suited for beef chuck?
Cube steak are best for these, but you can use round steak and cube them yourself.
Naturally we also have quite a few that work well for ground chuck, but please note that any ground beef will work for these:
