Round Steaks

[Short Track]

I always had a problem with round steaks, Elk, Deer or Moose. Always tough to eat. They don't BBQ well. I tried everything. My wife laughs at me. She won't eat my wild game. too gamey.

My smart a$s wife decides to make fajitas in a frying pay. She goes to the store during covid, and buys beef round steak, cuts it up into little strips, does the whole mexican thing. She starts eating it, and spits it out. the meat is too tough to eat.

So she finally admits it's the round steak cut, and not the wild game gaminess. Some cuts are just meant to be ground up. not eaten as a steak....

 

[Tim Pierce]

Round steaks are great sliced up for jerky. If you want tender round steak, you'll have to either marinate it, or braise it with liquid in a covered pot. Or you could run it through a cuber to tenderize it.

 

[7mmremmag]

Slice super thin and eat as carpaccio with a little gremolata or chimichurri on it.

Hard to be tough if it is thin enough, raw or extremely rare helps too.

 

[Wapiti1]

Cut thick and slow braised in red wine, tomato, beef broth with rosemary/thyme/oregano, then finished with a dash of lemon juice served over a bed of wild rice.

They are fork tender.

 

[TauPhi111]

I routinely cut steaks from the round of deer and some are more tender than others, but I think a big factor in how tender they turn out is how you cut them with respect to the grain of the meat. The Round consists of 3 smaller primals: Top, Bottom, and Eye. Eye of round is almost as tender as backstrap. I forget which it is, but the angle of the grain on the top or bottom changes down the length of the muscle, so you have to be aware of how you are cutting steaks as you cut it up. Then definitely don't cook those steaks past medium rare. Marinating and/or a meat mallet to tenderize them a bit also helps.

 

[Ucsdryder]

I’m over round steaks. They dry out in the slow cooker, they’re too tough as steaks. Every year I have the butcher do half the amount of round and then burger the rest and I still am left with a bunch of round at the end. I’m doing all my own butchering now and I’m either grinding them for burger or sausage/salami going forward. No more round.

 

[Indian Summer]

Use a sous vide and only cook steaks for one hour at desired temp. Then barely sear the outside after. You could also use a Jaccard tenderizer first.

 

[Ridge Ghost]

x2 for the Jaccard tenderizer. I do this for all round steaks and it helps a lot.

I like to put round steak in the sous vide in the morning. By dinner time they are pretty tender, and ready for a quick and hot sear. The finished product is still not backstrap quality, but pretty good.

Otherwise I cut round into strips for fajitas, stir fry, etc. and it always turns out good.

 

[NoWiser]

I season mine and cook whole on the grill to rare. Slice super thin and it's tender and delicious. I've tried everything else with less than satisfactory results. I just did a round from an old mulie buck a couple weeks ago and my wife said it was the best wild game she has had.

 

[NUGGET]

I'll be the first to admit I'm not the best cook. There's two ways of cooking round steak that my wife and democrats (my kids) will eat. Both methods start off the same. Cut the round steaks about an inch thick. Get a pan really hot. Put some avocado oil in it and sear the steaks. Remove steaks, put burner on low and after its cooled down a little put the steaks back in there. Put two cans of rotel on them and enough tomato sauce to cover. Put a lid on and leave on low for at least 3 to 4 hours. You will be able to cut them with a fork. I do the same above with cream of mushroom soup instead of tomato sauce/rotel. My democrats love either way and they are very picky eaters.

I've chicken fried moose steaks after beating the chit out of them. I've ran them through a commercial grade cuber and they still don't turn out the best. Not bad, but not something I would recommend.

 

[Danny Hoey]

I've had good results with pounding them with a meat hammer and quick sear. Usually cut them into strips after that.

 

[eaglemountainman]

Turn it into jerky

 

[carter33]

I just made some moose round steak the other night in the crock pot with a Mongolian sauce. It’s probably my favorite recipe for tougher cuts, have had quite a few family members/friends try it and all have loved it. Link below.

Easy Slow Cooker Mongolian Beef Recipe

The easiest way you can make a Mongolian beef recipe! The beef gets meltingly tender in the slow cooker and the sauce becomes incredibly silky, with great spicy/sweet flavors!

www.thechunkychef.com

 

[Larry Bartlett]

Take round steaks out of freezer:

Step one: Thaw
Step two: place steaks in driveway inside two zip locs.
Step Three: Runover with studded tires five or six times with a big truck
Step Four: blow it up with dynamite
Step Five: grill what's left and claim your buddy shot it

 

[william schmaltz]

I grew up in a butcher shop and I’m not sure how many tens of thousands of round steaks I’ve put through a tenderizer and I never ate one until one day I sent my college roommate for steaks and that’s what he returned with. Talk about disappointment.

We always make the whole bottom round in the smoker as roast beef; smoke/reverse sear the eye of round whole and eat it raw; and use the top round as a crock pot roast or jerky.

Round “Steak” is just a trick the butcher uses to get people to pay more than what the cut is worth.

 

[6mm Remington]

I'm with most who think that round steaks on game should be part of the jerky mix or burger/sausage mix. Now for the wild game taste do this!

1. Wild game back-strap, tenderloin, or other nice steak cut. Thaw the meat from the freezer.

2. Timer permitting but not necessary mix up (depending on how many steaks) 5 eggs (or so) in a glass or plastic bowl with some milk poured in. Put your thawed steaks in this egg/milk mixture and make sure the steaks are covered in the mix on all sides. Cover and place in the fridge for a couple hours. (Don't have to)

3. I like to use a cast iron pan but any large pan big enough to cook all of the steaks at once works. I mix some virgin olive oil and butter in the pan and heat the pan. While that pan is warming up (medium/high) take a whole tube of Ritz Crackers and crush then up in the paper tube they come in. (Much easier that way). The pour out the cracker crumbs on a plate and crush any larger chunks still remaining. You can experiment and use other things like different seasoned bread crumbs if you wish. Ritz is my favorite for this steak though.

4. Take a steak out of the bowl and make sure it's covered on all sides with egg/milk mixture. Dip the steak in the cracker crumbs on both sides and put it into the skillet. Do the rest of the steaks the same way.

5. Cook the steaks to medium rare. The cracker crumbs on the side of the steak will have a nice golden brown color to them. Flip the steaks over and cook the other side. After you cook the steaks like this a couple times you will easily be able to tell if they are done yet and are a nice medium rare, pink in the middle. Salt and Pepper and enjoy.

I love wild game steaks such as elk, deer, and antelope cooked like this. Guess it's called chicken fried steaks. My understanding is that milk has an enzyme that will help break down the fibers in meat. I don't know for a fact if that is true or not. This way of cooking the steaks for some reason also takes a lot of the wild gamey taste out. I don't know why but it does.

I like wild game steaks cooked on an outdoor grill, but just cooking them in oil and butter in a skillet just isn't a good way to cook them at least for me.

Another favorite way of cooking wild game steaks in a skillet.Growing up my parents would roll deer, antelope, and elk steaks in flour and fry the in oil/butter until medium rare. Salt and pepper and eat. Love them cooked that way also. Any that falls off in the pan makes a good mix in gravy if you are so inclined. To change this way up I have also done it this way. Put the needed amount of flour in a gallon zip-lock bag. Mix in whatever type of seasoning you want to the flour to change it up too. A hint is to add a lot of seasoning and then shake up the bag of flour/seasoning to mix it nicely before you toss a steak in there to flour it. I put the steak piece or two in at a time. Seal the bag and then shake it to coat the steaks with flour. That seems to work well.

Here's a couple good seasonings I like to use. I mix these two together sometimes also.
Alpine Touch: Pepper Blend
Alpine Touch: Spice Blend
Cabelas makes a good multi blend seasoning that works good too.

 

[NJDiverDan]

I slice all my round steaks deli thin on a meat slicer and freeze in 1 pound packages for cheese steak sandwiches. Cook to medium rare, add some balsamic and worchestchire to help with tenderizing.

 

[AK_Skeeter]

 

[OXN939]

I'm with most who think that round steaks on game should be part of the jerky mix or burger/sausage mix. Now for the wild game taste do this!

1. Wild game back-strap, tenderloin, or other nice steak cut. Thaw the meat from the freezer.

2. Timer permitting but not necessary mix up (depending on how many steaks) 5 eggs (or so) in a glass or plastic bowl with some milk poured in. Put your thawed steaks in this egg/milk mixture and make sure the steaks are covered in the mix on all sides. Cover and place in the fridge for a couple hours. (Don't have to)

3. I like to use a cast iron pan but any large pan big enough to cook all of the steaks at once works. I mix some virgin olive oil and butter in the pan and heat the pan. While that pan is warming up (medium/high) take a whole tube of Ritz Crackers and crush then up in the paper tube they come in. (Much easier that way). The pour out the cracker crumbs on a plate and crush any larger chunks still remaining. You can experiment and use other things like different seasoned bread crumbs if you wish. Ritz is my favorite for this steak though.

4. Take a steak out of the bowl and make sure it's covered on all sides with egg/milk mixture. Dip the steak in the cracker crumbs on both sides and put it into the skillet. Do the rest of the steaks the same way.

5. Cook the steaks to medium rare. The cracker crumbs on the side of the steak will have a nice golden brown color to them. Flip the steaks over and cook the other side. After you cook the steaks like this a couple times you will easily be able to tell if they are done yet and are a nice medium rare, pink in the middle. Salt and Pepper and enjoy.

I love wild game steaks such as elk, deer, and antelope cooked like this. Guess it's called chicken fried steaks. My understanding is that milk has an enzyme that will help break down the fibers in meat. I don't know for a fact if that is true or not. This way of cooking the steaks for some reason also takes a lot of the wild gamey taste out. I don't know why but it does.

I do a very similar preparation to this for fish filets in the summer; the Sheepshead, Tautog, Cobia, Mahi and Triggerfish we get here in VA cater very well to it. Only addition I make is to add some Old Bay seasoning to the ritz crackers. Will have to try it with venison some time.

 

[Nick Muche]

I think you live to far east... get a grip man.