Help! Eye of round?

[my_psychosis]

My parents are in a care center. Sometimes we bring them a home cooked meal. Mom wants a steak dinner. Medium and not tough, also corn on the cob, and a baked potato.
My sister bought the food and I'm cooking it. The package says "Beef round eye of round". They are not quite 1/2 a pound each. How do I prepare and cook them so they wont be tough and dry? Or is that possible with this cut of meat?
Any ideas would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

 

[dcSaute]

it is a very very lean cut of meat - so, sear the outside, cook it at 275'F in the oven until the center reaches 140'F-ish

slice thin, make a gravy, you'll need it.

for a good steak dinner, go with rib-eye

 

[Dawgluver]

Oh dear. DCSaute is correct, lots of gravy. I usually use eye of round for jerky, it tends to be pretty tough.

 

[CWS4322]

I would sear it in a screaming hot CI grill pan. Once the pan is hot, add a bit of canola oil, let the oil heat for 15 seconds, then add the room temp steak that is salted with kosher salt and freshly ground pepper, then into the oven. I would take out at 135 ish; tent with foil foe 5 or 10 mins. and cut against the grain.

 

[CWS4322]

Oh sear 2 mins each side until golden.

 

[jennyema]

Everyone else has nailed it.

Season well
Cook on high heat until 130-35
Rest
Slice very thin against the grain

Otherwise it can be inedible cooked as a steak and not a pot roast

 

[Andy M.]

So they're already sliced into steaks. Cook them no more than medium, less if possible.

This is not a tender cut of meat and overcooking it will only make it tougher.

 

[taxlady]

I'm gonna guess that if it is cut into steaks, those will have been cut across the grain, making it difficult to slice against the grain. If that is the case, I would suggest cutting very thin slices on a slant.

 

[Caslon]

Anyone know how they cook the eye of round roasts you see at your supermarket meat counter? They are able to have the entire roast cook up to a deep red color inside with no brown-ness showing. The outside has this rather heavy black crust around the roast too. Not sure how they achieve that. It's pretty favorable actually (I asked for a sample piece).

If the original poster is unsure, he/she might want to see if they have cooked roasts at the local supermarket (Albertsons which is now Haggens sells them). No Haggens in Iowa tho, I see.
They are pretty fresh too, they don't let them sit too long in the butcher case.

I just wonder how they get that black crust coating and also manage to cook them up all evenly red inside, but not overly rare.

 

[Silversage]

Option 1-

Sous vide.
Then sear.
Most importantly, slice thin.

Option 2-

Cook very low and slow.
Then sear.
Slice thin.

 

[Roll_Bones]

Anyone know how they cook the eye of round roasts you see at your supermarket meat counter? They are able to have the entire roast cook up to a deep red color inside with no brown-ness showing. The outside has this rather heavy black crust around the roast too. Not sure how they achieve that. It's pretty favorable actually (I asked for a sample piece).

If the original poster is unsure, he/she might want to see if they have cooked roasts at the local supermarket (Albertsons which is now Haggens sells them). No Haggens in Iowa tho, I see.
They are pretty fresh too, they don't let them sit too long in the butcher case.

I just wonder how they get that black crust coating and also manage to cook them up all evenly red inside, but not overly rare.

This is how a roast beef should look. Even color through the whole roast. When grilling steaks, this should be the target as well.
A well seasoned and browned outside with a consistent doneness throughout.

My ex MIL used to use eye of round for roast beef all the time. Very, very rare and quite good.
I suggest following Craig's roasting method. I think he said to preheat oven to 500F. Allow roast to come up to room temp. Season well and roast for 5 minutes. Then lower heat to 200F and roast 1 hour more per pound for rare. I hope I got that correct?
This would be how I address this or make it a pot roast.

 

[Caslon]

This is how a roast beef should look. Even color through the whole roast. When grilling steaks, this should be the target as well.
A well seasoned and browned outside with a consistent doneness throughout.

My ex MIL used to use eye of round for roast beef all the time. Very, very rare and quite good.
I suggest following Craig's roasting method. I think he said to preheat oven to 500F. Allow roast to come up to room temp. Season well and roast for 5 minutes. Then lower heat to 200F and roast 1 hour more per pound for rare. I hope I got that correct?
This would be how I address this or make it a pot roast.

I try to get that reddish color thru out with no brownish towards the outside of an eye of round roast. The roasts I see at a local major chain supermarket look tasty. A black coating and evenly cooked thruout. How do they do that I wonder. I can't replicate that in my kitchen.

 

[Kayelle]

I try to get that reddish color thru out with no brownish towards the outside of an eye of round roast. The roasts I see at a local major chain supermarket look tasty. A black coating and evenly cooked thruout. How do they do that I wonder. I can't replicate that in my kitchen.

Sure you can Caslon, if you follow these directions exactly.
Yes, I know this is for prime rib, but an eye of round roast will finish same way, just not as tender and you'll have to slice it thin. It will be perfect just the way you describe every time.

Food Wishes Video Recipes: Perfect Prime Rib of Beef with the Mysterious "Method X"

 

[Kayelle]

This is how a roast beef should look. Even color through the whole roast. When grilling steaks, this should be the target as well.
A well seasoned and browned outside with a consistent doneness throughout.

My ex MIL used to use eye of round for roast beef all the time. Very, very rare and quite good.
I suggest following Craig's roasting method. I think he said to preheat oven to 500F. Allow roast to come up to room temp. Season well and roast for 5 minutes. Then lower heat to 200F and roast 1 hour more per pound for rare. I hope I got that correct?
This would be how I address this or make it a pot roast.

RB, I would never pass on information I wasn't sure was correct and hadn't done first hand. Jes sayin..

 

[dcSaute]

I have an observation, and I have a theory to explain it, but I've not found any citations / technical information to back it.

Backstory: DW does not like pink meat. so I bought me a ThermaPen. and I use it, I have even figured out which end goes in the roast by now....

Observation: doing a low and slow roast on beef or pork I can bring them temp up to 135-140'F aka "medium" - poked&prodded in multiple places into the roast - do the resting thing, etc. slice it, it's pink in the center.

Which generates the question: at what actual meat temperature does beef / pork / chicken / lamb / whatever lose the pink color?

there are more "charts" about roasting by temperatures than Google can goggle - but that's not the answer.

Here's my theory: based on the observation I did not have this issue when previously roasting at high / normal temperatures, I suspect the temperature of the heat retained meat mass when done at a low&slow temp is insufficient to "cook by carry over" and raise the internal temperature past the "It's PINK, Jim!" point.

basically, roasting at 375-475'F gets the outer portions of the meat so hot that pulling the roast at 135'F internal results in a higher (final) internal temp.

there is a corollary to this theory: the size/mass of the roast and the roasting temperature makes this method unpredictable - and that's why people experience all the oops! when roasting at mega-temps.

you'll see the "pull it at 130'F and you'll get 5/10/15 degrees (whatever) carry over cooking. quite apparently the micro-volume temperature of the meat for rare/medium rare/medium/medium well/well and 'toast' is not actually the "pull on internal temp of xxx'F"

roasting at lower temperature common sense, and we all know how the value of the dollar and sense has declined - would support the theory there is less carry over cooking. so, even though you bring the internal temperature up to 135'F, it doesn't get much higher than that on resting, and stays pink. and delicious, but that's an opinion / preference thing.

any other low&slow roasters observe anything similar / different?

 

[Andy M.]

Your theory makes sense. As you said, meat gets hot on the outside and the heat travels inward from there. It's all about temperature differential when talking heat transfer. Physics dictates the temperatures must be equal. The greater the differential, the greater/faster the transfer. It's akin to melting ice in water. If the water is hot, the ice will melt faster than if the water is cold.

Sous vide is the ultimate proof of this. Put a roast into a 130ºF sous vide bath and it will eventually be that temp throughout. Of course it will take quite a while. And resting the roast will not result in carry-over cooking.

 

[dcSaute]

Sous vide.... ah, now there's a resource that despite being all wet should have good info....

if one souses a steak to 135'F, is it still pink?
and if it is not still pink, is that due to temperature or 'exposure time?' - like comma if you leave a steak on the counter at room temp long enough, it's not pink anymore....

 

[GotGarlic]

Sous vide.... ah, now there's a resource that despite being all wet should have good info....

if one souses a steak to 135'F, is it still pink?
and if it is not still pink, is that due to temperature or 'exposure time?' - like comma if you leave a steak on the counter at room temp long enough, it's not pink anymore....

It's my understanding that meat is not exposed to oxygen in a sous vide machine; oxygen exposure is what causes the color change. If you cut into a steak left at room temperature, it will be red in the middle.

 

[Silversage]

I have 2 sous vide cookers. I've had the Sous Vide Supreme for about three years and recently added an Anova Circulater to my kitchen. I cook in them a lot. I find them to work especially well with proteins. So although I still have much to learn, I do have some experience with sous vide.

Sous vide has been used commercially much longer than it has been in home kitchens. There are a number of commercial products that use the process. I don't know if the 'roast' round is one of them, but it wouldn't surprise me.

Beef cooked to 135 would still be pink. The difference is that it would be evenly pink from edge to edge. The brown on the outside has to be added before or after the Sous vide process. It can be seared in a skillet, a broiler, with a blowtorch, on a grill, etc. It can even be done with artificial color!!!!!!!!!

135 is still technically mid rare, in my estimation more in the mid side than the rare side, but still mid rare and pink. Longer time will not raise the temp and it will still be pink at that temp. It will lose the pink at 145-150 - or at least most of the pink. Sous vide meats do not need a rest period, so neither the temp nor the color will increase by resting.

If you leave it in the water bath for too long, it will not increase in temp or get 'browner'. It can however, get too soft - even mushy. If you cut it thinly one might interpret the softness as tenderness, but that's subject to opinion. In general, an hour per inch of thickness is the guideline for proper texture. However, taking a normally tough cut of meat and leaving it in the Sous vide for a lot longer than recommended may give you a more tender roast. You can usually go up to about two times the guidelines before you get too much degradation in texture.

 

[dcSaute]

and that's where the sous vide info comes in handy - when left at temp X'F for hours and hours it "becomes" that temp - and plus/minus a couple hundreths of a degree - no hotter, no cooler.

so 135'F beef is still pink. did a gigantically thick rib eye last night - heavy sear and took it to 150'F in a 275'F oven. it was no longer pink, although it was juicy and tender.

"oxygen turns the meat brown" - now there's another curious issue.
according to the 'why is ground beef brown in the middle' it is the _lack_ of oxygen exposure that makes it brown.....