Dear Home Ec 101,
I swear you had a recipe for blade steak, but now that I have one, I can’t find it. What do I do with this cut of beef?
Signed,
Chuck
Heather says:
Well Chuck, this image helps explain exactly where a blade steak comes from. It comes from the upper shoulder of a cow, near the shoulder blade in the area known, oddly enough as the chuck. The name makes sense now, eh? Blade steaks have a tough line of connective tissue running right through their middle.
Because of this piece of gristle, they aren’t a very popular cut. They are quite useful for any recipe that is braised which simply means cooked slowly in a small amount of liquid. Consequently, blade steaks work well in any pot roast recipe. The important thing to remember is to cross cut your beef after it is cut. Each serving will have a small amount of gristle that can be easily cut away.
Here on Home-Ec101.com, these recipes work well for this cut:
- Wine braised shoulder roast
- Simple Pot Roast
- Make a Good Impression Pot Roast
- Pot Roast with Balsamic Gravy
I recently found a recipe that involved cutting a shoulder roast into chunks and stewing them. I need to make it again because I hadn’t bothered to photograph the meal, and it ended up being fantastic. I’ll work on finding a few more recipes to expand this list. (Birria is amazing, for example)
Good luck with your cut of beef!
Well, I feel so special! Now the blade steak I have is just a small steak, not a big roast-sized piece of meat. Maybe I bought a lemon…alas. I'll try using it in stew with your recipe. Thanks!
I just realized I read too fast and there isn't a stew recipe here. That's okay, I have one. At least now I know what to do with my steak!
Sorry, I'll get it added ASAP.
Also slow cooking it in a gravy type mixture and serving it over noodles or rice makes a great dinner. I have made Heather's cream of mushroom soup mix and slow cooked it in that and it was great.
Great, I followed the links and found what to do with the chuck roasts I got super cheap last week. I love the beef graphic; do you have one for pork?
I'll dig one up for you.
Blade steaks and flat iron steaks are cut differently from the same piece of chuck. If you cut steaks across the grain, you get blade steaks with a line of gristle through the center of each steak. If you cut with the grain, along the top and under sides of the gristle (basically trimming out the gristle), you get flat iron steaks. Flat Iron is the second most tender cut behind tenderloin fillet.
If you stew blade steaks you are doing a great disservice to one of the most tender and flavorful cuts of beef. The absolutely should be grilled or pan fried like good NY Strip. No need to marinate either. Just cut around the center gristle and enjoy.
Thank you Joe! Thumbs up – flat iron steak or blade steak is absolutely delicious grilled, tender and flavourful.
Hey Joe. You are the only one that I have seen on the internet that agrees with me. As long as the blade steak is well marbaled it is the most flavourfull and tender and CHEAPEST store bought meat in North America !
disservice to a stew cut beefs?
how could you say such thing like that to families who want to share man sized beef to their family’s tummies; not just for your stomach.
just wow.
heather thanks for sharing these details.
What he means is, you aren’t getting the best this roast has to offer. Top blade roast is not the same as other chuck roasts.
If you leave it as a roast and cook it as you would a tenderloin, you will have the second most tender roast on the cow for a fraction the cost. This roast should NOT be slow cooked in liquid, but brought to room temperature and seared and then cooked at high temp – 425 for about 10-15 minutes per pound. The variance is for thickness and how well done you like your beef. Then let set for 15-30 minutes before cutting. I just season with S&P, garlic and onion powder and occasionally Worcestershire sauce and liquid smoke and sear it on a cast iron pan.
My babies can gum this melt in your mouth tender meat before they have teeth and roasted with root veggies makes a filling meal for a large family. I do have to cut out the connective tissue, but hey, I’m cutting meat for all the little children anyway, so no biggie.
We just got a roast just shy of 3 lbs for right at $20, not on sale. With veggies and a loaf of homemade bread, it fed my husband and I, and five little children with enough left for roast beef sandwiches another day.
Is it ok to cook blade steaks in the crock pot with mushroom soup, or would it be better to grill them?