Now You're Cookin': Lean Beef! (2024)

FAQs

Which cut of beef is the leanest? ›

The leanest beef cuts include round steaks and roasts (eye of round, top round, bottom round, round tip), top loin, top sirloin, and chuck shoulder and arm roasts. Choose lean ground beef. The label should say at least "90% lean." You may be able to find ground beef that is 93% or 95% lean.

Overcooking is one of the leading causes of a tough, dry piece of meat. The best way to ensure a juicy cut is to slow-cook it in a slow cooker, oven, smoker, or pot. If you have the time, slow-cooking is the best way to cook lean meat. After an all-day slow-cooking session, the meat will turn out juicy and tender.

You may have noticed that lean ground beef costs more per pound. Why? “You are essentially paying for a higher proportion of lean meat,” says Dana Ehrlich, CEO and founder of Verde Farms, a distributor of grass-feed beef. “In the meat market, prices are often based on the lean meat content of the product.”

Because the meat has less fat, it could use a little cooking oil for frying or grilling. Sear the beef over a high heat on a grill or stovetop skillet to seal in its juices, then proceed with a lower temperature to finish grilling, frying, or roasting. Cuts like steaks are less forgiving.

Best cuts: Sirloin tip side steak, eye of round roast, top round steak and bottom round steak. Worst cuts: T-bone steak, rib-eye steak, filet mignon and porterhouse steak.

You might think red meat is off-limits if you're concerned about your health or trying to watch your weight. But in small amounts, leaner cuts of beef can be part of a healthy diet.

Ground round comes from the hind quarters and contains less fat than ground chuck, which comes from the neck and shoulders. Ground chuck has more flavor, but ground round is slightly more healthy.

Lean beef (defined by government guidelines as having less than 10 grams total fat, 4.5 grams or less saturated fat and less than 95 milligrams of cholesterol per 3.5 ounces) can be healthier than chicken, fish - or tofu (bean curd) for that matter - depending on how much is eaten and how it's prepared.

The obvious choice is to use a little bit of fat — this could be in the form of oil, lard, beef tallow, bacon grease, or even grated butter. Cheese, uncooked sausage, fresh chorizo, or ground meat with a higher percentage of fat will also work.

Does lean beef get softer the longer you cook it? ›

It depends on what cut of beef and how you cook it. If you take a tough cut of meat and cook it at a low heat with liquid it will become tender but this takes some time. If you take a more tender cut of meat and cook it for a long time with high heat it will become dry and hard.

For any ground meat you are using, it is important to break up any chunks of meat as you put it into the cold pan. Clumps of meat will take longer to cook and they are more difficult to break up during the cooking process after the pan is hot.

Sirloin tip side steak generally has the least amount of fat, but any cuts that come from exercised areas, like the hips or shoulders, are also usually leaner than others. If cooking steaks with low fat content, cook them with longer cooking methods, like sous vide or in a slow cooker, to tenderize them.

For example, lean cuts of beef such as sirloin or round steak typically have less cholesterol than fattier cuts such as ribeye or T-bone steak. Similarly, cooking methods such as grilling or broiling can increase the cholesterol content of meat.

Grilling Filet Mignon

Black Angus filet mignon is the most tender cut of beef used for steaks. It comes from the smaller end of the tenderloin and should be well-marbled. You can grill it or cook it in a skillet and is best served blue rare or rare.

Some of the most recognizable steaks in the world, like filet mignon, are lean cuts of beef. A lean steak will have a delightfully light texture to it, with little to no gristle on any portion of the steak itself.