What Is Beef, round steak and How Can I Use It?

If beef, round steak has turned up in a recipe or caught your eye at the store, here's what you need to use it with confidence and how to choose it, cook it, store it, what to substitute, and 307 recipes to try it in.

Key Points

Round steak is a lean, tough rear-leg cut; cheap, flavorful, and unforgiving of the wrong method.
Braise it for ninety minutes to two hours, or slow-cook six to eight hours, until fork-tender.
Or slice it thin across the grain and sear fast, as for stir-fry.
Treating it like a ribeye, quick to a pink center, leaves it tight and dry.
Cube steak is just round run through a tenderizer, ready for country fried steak.

What is beef, round steak?

Round steak is cut from the round, the rear leg of the steer, a muscle the animal uses constantly. That makes it very lean and very tough, with little marbling and a lot of flavor.

It is one of the cheapest steaks in the case, and how you cook it is everything.

A whole round steak is usually sold thin and broad. From it come the familiar names: top round, bottom round, eye of round, plus the tenderized cube steak.

They share the same nature. Handle them like a tender steak and they turn to leather; handle them right and they are some of the best value beef you can buy.

How to Cook Round Steak

Round steak has two good paths, and they sit at opposite ends of the heat.

The first is low and slow. Browned, then braised in liquid for an hour and a half to two hours around a gentle simmer, the tough fibers relax and the meat turns fork-tender.

This is the classic Swiss steak treatment, where the steak is pounded, floured, and stewed with tomatoes and onions, as in Parsley-Potato Topped Oven Swiss Steak.

The slow cooker is its natural home for the same reason. Six to eight hours on low does the tenderizing while you are out, the idea behind Crockpot Beef and the deeply savory Sherried Beef.

The second path is fast and thin. Slice the raw steak across the grain into thin strips and sear them hard and quick, and you never give the fibers time to seize. That is what makes round a solid, cheap pick for Stir Fried Beef.

What round cannot do is the middle ground. A thick round steak thrown on the grill to medium-rare stays chewy, because there is no fat or fast braise to soften it.

Tenderizing and Common Mistakes

Because the muscle fibers are long and tight, give them help. Pounding with a mallet physically breaks them, while a marinade with acid or a little salt loosens the surface, and cutting across the grain shortens every fiber in the bite.

The cube steak you see is round that the butcher has already run through a mechanical tenderizer, which is why it cooks quickly into Country Fried Steak.

The most common mistake is treating round like a ribeye. Quick high-heat cooking to a pink center works on fatty loin cuts but leaves lean round tight and dry.

The second is slicing it the long way. Cut along the fibers and even a braised round steak chews like a rope, so always cut across.

Buying and Storing It

Round is sold as a lean, deep-red steak with a fine grain and almost no marbling. A small rim of fat is normal; the meat itself should look bright, not gray or tacky.

Because it is so lean, look for an even thickness so it cooks at one rate.

Keep raw round steak in the coldest part of the fridge and use it within three to five days. Wrapped tightly against air, it freezes well for up to a year, though six months keeps the texture at its best.

If you are marinating, you can do it in the fridge for up to a day, and the acid does double duty: flavor going in, a little tenderizing on the surface.

Nutrition

Nutrition Facts

Serving Size 1 roast (yield from 530 g raw meat) (417g)

Amount per Serving

Calories 850Calories from Fat 347

% Daily Value *

Total Fat 38.6g 59%

Saturated Fat 14.7g 73%

Trans Fat ~

Cholesterol 246mg 82%

Sodium 154mg 6%

Total Carbohydrate 0.0g 0%

Dietary Fiber 0g 0%

Sugars 0.0

Protein 117.3g

Vitamin A 0% Vitamin C 0%

Calcium 3% • Iron 52%

* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet. Your daily values may be higher or lower depending on your caloric needs.

recipeland.com/nutrition

Quick facts

Where to find beef, round steak: Beef, round steak is usually found in the meats section or aisle of the grocery store or supermarket.

Food group: Beef, round steak is a member of the Beef Products US Department of Agriculture nutritional food group.

In Chinese: 牛肉，牛排轮
British (UK) term: Beef, round steak
en français: bifteck de ronde de boeuf
en español: filete redondo de ternera

How much does beef, round steak weigh?

Amount	Weight
1 roast (yield from 530 g raw meat)	417 grams
3 ounce	85 grams

Beef Products

Beef, short ribs 58 Beef, steak 94 Beef liver 36 Suet 51 Corned beef 76 Rump steak 5 Beef roast, rump 38 Beef, tenderloin 63 Beef, filet mignon 50 Stewing beef 184

Recipes using beef, round steak

There are 307 recipes that contain this ingredient.

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