Cuts of beef. Some help or advice is needed

[RustyMX5]

This might seem odd but I need some advice from the good people on PH about cuts of beef.

TL:DR - What cuts are best for slow cooking in something akin to a stew?

For those who are interested in what / why, please read on......

My wife likes to make Guláš which isn't surprising given where she hails from but we've often struggled to get the right cut of beef. Typically a good guláš takes most of the day to cook on an open fire outside with the pot hung from a tripod. Significant volumes of beer is consumed to while away the hours as 3 to 4 kg of meat slowly cooks with all of the background herbs and spices. Cooking time can vary depending on the amount you're making but normally ranges from 5 to 7 hours. Due to the extended cooking time, we've struggled to find cuts of meat which can hold together for a long period of time, aren't too fatty or sinewy and have a rich beefy flavour.

So far, we've tried the following:

• Stewing steak
• Beef rib
• Silverside
• Bavette steak
• Skirt

The stewing steak was dreadful because it wasn't particularly beefy and even after an extended cooking time was still sinewy.
The beef rib sort of worked in terms of flavour but was very expensive and quite fatty.
Silverside was an utter disaster as there was absolutely no flavour at all.
Bavette steak. Utterly tasteless.
Skirt seems to be the best we've found so far as it is quite beefy, fairly lean and does hold up to being cooked for hours. But there is a problem........ There doesn't seem to be a universal definition of what skirt is. Typically when I go to the supermarket, I look for packs which have thick slabs of lean meat. Yet when I go to a proper butcher, their skirt is usually quite different from what I can get in the supermarket. A browse on the internet seems to suggest that skirt and bavette are one and the same thing yet my local butcher assures me that they're not the same and what I'm really looking for is onglet.

So the questions to you all... What cut would you suggest for a good guláš? And does anyone have any idea how to differentiate between bavette, skirt and onglet and which one of those would be best?

Edited by RustyMX5 on Monday 13th October 13:53

[piecost76]

The ultimate stewing cut of beef has to be Shin, followed by leg.

Lots of connective tissue to really make it unctuous.

[NorthDave]

Skirt would be my go to. Good luck finding it though even good butchers try and push you in to stewing steak instead.

Booths, the supermarket, do it if you are lucky enough to be up north.

[remedy]

Shin is what you need.

I did a 6 hour slow cooker stew yesterday. About a litre of beef stock made up with 300ml red wine, shallots, fresh tomatoes, celery, carrots, parsnips, mushrooms and some herbs and a bit of cayenne.
Dumplings in towards the end. Delicious.

[RustyMX5]

NorthDave said:

Skirt would be my go to. Good luck finding it though even good butchers try and push you in to stewing steak instead.

Booths, the supermarket, do it if you are lucky enough to be up north.

Sainsbury's and Morrisons both sell skirt in (roughly) 300g packs. Sometimes they're out of stock but they usually have it the next time we go in.

remedy said:

Shin is what you need.

I did a 6 hour slow cooker stew yesterday. About a litre of beef stock made up with 300ml red wine, shallots, fresh tomatoes, celery, carrots, parsnips, mushrooms and some herbs and a bit of cayenne.
Dumplings in towards the end. Delicious.

Sounds lovely but only 3 of those ingredients make it into guláš.

Edited by RustyMX5 on Monday 13th October 16:07

[0a]

I don't know about the beef, but that sounds like a fantastic afternoon drinking beer and getting hungrier and hungrier as delicious smells waft about.

[Shooter McGavin]

I've got John Torode's 'Beef' cookbook and he has a great beef stew recipe in there, he recommends shin or neck of beef.

This post has revived my interest; when my wife was pregnant with out now 10yo son she was obsessed with having beef stew, sometimes twice a week, but as the baby grew inside her she had less meal capacity so I ended up having my portion and half of hers, I can't say I didn't enjoy it, and it had a certain impact on my waistline!

However, too much of a good thing can be too much and I just got fed up of it after a while, so haven't really had it for 10yrs since t'boy was born.

I feel we may need to revisit it.

Incidentally that book is great if you are a bit of a cooking simpleton like me, used copies available for a couple of quid via Amazon.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/John-Torodes-other-Bovine...

Edited by Shooter McGavin on Monday 13th October 16:22

[craig1912]

Brisket?

[OMITN]

For something that cooks that long, I'd say you would want shin, leg or chuck/shoulder.

Generally the older the cow, the tougher and therefore the longer needed to cook. But also more flavour.

(Onglet is also known as hanger and is best fried/grilled as a regular steak. I wouldn't stew it.)

[RustyMX5]

craig1912 said:

Brisket?

I will admit that I've considered it but have never given it a try.

At the moment shin seems to be winning but when I'm chucking in 3-4 kg of meat, that's potentially a lot of fat floating around that we don't want or need. Guláš shouldn't be fatty. Yes, there's always going to be some and that's unavoidable but swimming? Nope.

[W211]

Ox cheek is also very good for slow cooking

[FredericRobinson]

RustyMX5 said:

Sounds lovely but only 3 of those ingredients make it into guláš.

Edited by RustyMX5 on Monday 13th October 16:07

Morrisons should also have shin

[48k]

Shin every time for me.

[21TonyK]

As most have said, shin is going to be the easiest answer.

You most definitely do not want skirt or bavette (which are different but 99% of UK butchers wouldn't be aware of this). And even bigger no to onglet which is completely inappropriate.

You could use cheek but it would probably completely fall apart or you could ask your butcher to cut some decent chunks of braising steak but as said, shin is going to be easiest to get hold of. What you want though are decent size pieces, not diced and prepacked from a supermarket .

[super7]

Does your wife mot know which cut they use from back home or can she not find out?

Personally i use Skirt for stew and a chunky chilli! Get a kilo from the butchers and use half for each, slow cooked all afternoon for both!

[dapprman]

Not quite what the OP is quite after but may be of interest to many here

[sc0tt]

RustyMX5 said:

craig1912 said:

Brisket?

I will admit that I've considered it but have never given it a try.

At the moment shin seems to be winning but when I'm chucking in 3-4 kg of meat, that's potentially a lot of fat floating around that we don't want or need. Guláš shouldn't be fatty. Yes, there's always going to be some and that's unavoidable but swimming? Nope.

Try brisket, shred it and add it back. May not be authentic but its what I have resorted to using when presented with lack of choice.

[RammyMP]

NorthDave said:

Skirt would be my go to. Good luck finding it though even good butchers try and push you in to stewing steak instead.

Booths, the supermarket, do it if you are lucky enough to be up north.

I was in Booths at the weekend and noticed they had beef bones on the butchers counter (presumably shin?), I’d never seen it for sale before.

[21TonyK]

As most have said, shin is going to be the easiest answer.

You most definitely do not want skirt or bavette (which are different but 99% of UK butchers wouldn't be aware of this). And even bigger no to onglet which is completely inappropriate.

You could use cheek but it would probably completely fall apart or you could ask your butcher to cut some decent chunks of braising steak but as said, shin is going to be easiest to get hold of. What you want though are decent size pieces, not diced and prepacked from a supermarket .

[Antony Moxey]

To quote my lad, a butcher: “I would use a slow roasting rib which is also called beef chuck. It’s quite fatty but that will give it loads of flavour. Just dice it into chunks and away you go!”