The quest for good roast beef continues.

Outside or bottom round

There are many cultural differences between my home country (Wales) and Canada, many obstacles to navigate and barriers to break down. Opinion is divided on who said it but "Britain and (North) America are two countries divided by a common language" is one of the truest phrases ever uttered. Who would have thought that there were so many different words used to describe cuts of beef? Not me, that's for sure. 

Outside round cooked as a pot roast with onions, vinegar and garlic.

It took me ages to work out what everything was translated to and steakhouses would often leave us scratching our heads in bewilderment. Tenderloin, New York, Porterhouse? What? I have since figured it out as far as the more common 'steak' cuts are concerned and can now order with confidence at the best establishments, but, trying to find an elusive piece of beef that Neil's mum uses is proving to be a hard task. 

When I once asked her what the stretchy, tender cut she used was, she wasn't sure but thought she may have recalled it being labelled as 'silverside'. Investigations this side of the pond yields no results, it simply doesn't exist and to make matters even more complicated, I have recently discovered from a great new book that the cuts in North America and the UK are different also, not just the names. So, the search continues. 

Outside round roast on day two. Soaked in the cooking liquor and reheated it became much more tender

According to my book, Plenty by Diana Henry, silverside is cut from the same place as 'round' in North America, but as that piece is much larger in NA, in the UK it could be silverside, top rump or top side. You figure it out! 

Anyway, we tried 'outside round' also known as 'bottom round' and were cautiously optimistic. Neil was less than pleased with the cooking instructions we found, suggesting this cut is best as a pot roast, braising in some liquid as this really shatters his idea that all good roast beef must be just that: roast in an oven,dry with the fat and juices dripping onto the fluffy Yorkshire pudding underneath. I tried a recipe anyway. The result was okay, the flavour being a little bland and the texture unusual. The grain of the meat was really prominent but lacked that 'stretchy', tender nature of the mother in laws. Sliced and stored in some of the cooking liquid for a while, it became juicier and tenderer and worked well with some gravy made from the cooking liquor. The roast beef proper of Neil's dreams it wasn't though.

You can see from the photo that the grain is very prominent. Cutting across the grain into thin slices is important to ensure tenderness.

A very useful diagram of the differences between US and UK cuts of beef.

What I have learned about steaks:

North America                                           UK

Tenderloin                                                           Fillet

Strip loin, New York                                             Sirloin

Porterhouse                                                         T-bone

Sirloin                                                                 Rump

One of the best roast beef and Yorkshire pudding dinners I have had recently was here. (Scroll down to see) .They said they used sirloin, which would be a large cut of rump in the UK. It was medium rare, juicy and very flavourful.

I have tried in the past to recreate the perfect roast, trying prime rib and brisket, nothing so far has come up to Neil's expectations, then again, it's his mum, perhaps nothing ever will!

The outside round roast on day 2. The meat was much tenderer after sitting in the sauce overnight and re-heated.

How to cook meltingly tender and tasty brisket

I have a confession to make, my kitchen is not perfect, far, far from it. I have bugs which I will call beetles for lack of  proper recognition. They're not always there, but enough times to annoy. I think flour is their favourite snack as I found an entire beetle civilization living in a bag of forgotten self-raising sitting at the back of a cupboard. They were quickly evicted and relocated to a better place, (the garbage disposal). Ziploc bags and plastic bag clamps have become our best friends, sealing anything that may otherwise be exposed and prove to be a temptation to these little mites. Neil is so disgusted by these bugs that when I opened a drawer earlier, I was greeted by this extreme measure to keep them out of his ginger biscuits. In the absence of clamps, he has resorted to adapting something from his toolbox more equipped to deal with pieces of wood. Not only that, but realising how extreme a measure he is taking, he took a photo of it himself which I just found on the hard drive! I appreciate the fact that my husband is conscious of food safety but also a little amused at the lengths he will go to to keep some minuscule bugs from helping themselves to his biscuits.