My friend Chuck

[Stinky The Clown]

He's very flavorful. Quite inexpensive, too, relatively speaking. My favorite steak in the world, price be damned, is in the chuck. The chuck eye steak.



Flavorful as can be. ***Really*** good *beef* taste. Tender, too. And cheap. Second best is the rib eye, but this one tops it, in my book.

I love a good braise, too. Chuck's great for that. Lotsa flavor. More than the Round ever thought about having. Chuck's better developed flavor stands up to any liquid or aromatic you wanna pair it with.

I have a braise going right now. There's been a lot of talk of braise here in C&B of late. Maybe a good thing. You can turn lousy cuts into the sublime by a nice, slow, long braise.

Its almost supper time here. The meat has begun to fall apart. No surprise. I started the brasie mid morning and the meat went into it right after I grilled it.

I'm going to have it over egg noodles. A nice beefy broth with Merot in it. And garlic and fresh herbs. Onions. Three kinds of peppers (green bell, Cubanelle, Anaheims). Carrots caramelized on the grill. Onions done the same way. I even caramelized the celery and two heads of fresh anise. The stock is so reduced that it is thickened without doing anything. Just good old reduction.

I'm hungry.

And its chuck.

I like chuck.

[yellerpup]

1. That's the cut I use to make chili

I also use the corresponding corner of a pig in more/less equal proportions. Arm roast is it? Makes a stand up and slap yer momma broth when they are stewed together. Your way sounds delicious. I almost never spring for beef any more, though, now that I live on the east coast. I'm from cattle country and the Taco Bells there have better beef than I can buy here. (I last ate in a Taco Bell in 1977)

[hippywife]

2. Excellent

choices for the sides. Those are going to compliment that braise wonderfully. I'm not sure I would want it grilled first because that seems to me like a very distinct and smoky flavoring, but then I've never tried doing it this way.

Hope it knocked your socks off, pardner!

[The empressof all]

3. Chuck is great

So have you tried the flat iron steak yet?

[Stinky The Clown]

4. Gawd, I haven't thought about them in years .......

In another lifetime, I worked for a restaurant chain. I worked with one other person in the corporate test kitchen. One of our chains were small places that did steak and eggs (and other sandwiches and breakfast items) 24/7. The 'signature' steak was a flat iron steak marinated a for goodly while in papain and pineapple enzymes and some spices and herbs. We played endlessly with those damned steaks, trying to improve on the original recipe the company's founder (back before it was just another corporate chain) developed in the 1920's or 30s.

We also played with skirt steaks, but could never get them to be acceptable.

[eleny]

5. I like fixing chuck n the pressure cooker

Talk about a reduction. Yummy. Next day, sliced thin and reheated for finger licking hot sandwiches with horseradish smeared on.

I grew up eating chuck and appreciated Julia Child when she said it's the sweetest because the blood travels to that area when the carcass is hung upside down.

Last thought-
Best.hamburgers.ever.