What cut of beef is a "Beef Roasting Joint"?

Posted by Lake-Swimmer@reddit | AskUK | View on Reddit | 23 comments

I am looking for a cheap-ish joint of beef to slow cook to make burritos/tacos/anything else with pulled beef, but I can't seem to actually find what cut a "roasting joint" is to see if it will be good for this?

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Boldboy72@reddit

in Britain it's "Topside"

Don't know why you'd use anything other than mince for Mexican food.

Go to your local butcher and tell them what you are trying to cook, they'll guide you.

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TTNNBB2023@reddit

If they don't mention it then its silverside, which is similar to topside but generally a bit tougher if you are not careful.

But it can be just as nice, you just can't cook it quickly like you can topside, slow and very low is best, 10 hours at 60c.

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Lake-Swimmer@reddit (OP)

Have you done it before? I was planning on just using my slow cooker on low and 8-10 hours like you say

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surfermark99@reddit

Stick quarter onions in the bottom of of the slow cooker for the beef to sit on. Then pour a litre of beef/veg/bovril broth over it. Add any other seasonings to it. Low and slow for 10-12 hours. Drain away any excess broth and you've got fall apart, delicious and moist beef from a very cheap cut.

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TTNNBB2023@reddit

Yes but only in an oven, not sure i would trust a slow cooker, but potentially that should work, i would get a meat thermometer if you don't already have one.

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NortonBurns@reddit

Topside, silverside. Too lean to make a good 'pulled' anything.
Supermarkets are poor for long-cook beef generally - for some reason they always want to sell you 'lean stewing steak' which will overcook like pulled shoelaces as soon as look at it. I often fall for it, then occasionally come to my senses & do it properly. Sometimes they'll do actual braising steak, but it will be too thin cut to be useful.

This is one thing you really should get to a proper butchers for. Tell them what you're making & they'll know exactly what to offer you. Chuck & blade (from the shoulder), braising steak tends to be low in visible fat but high in collagen, perfect for this. Get them to cut you a thick chunk if you want to pull it, so you get long fibres.
Butchers' stewing steak is cheaper but fattier & won't be as good for this.

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Lake-Swimmer@reddit (OP)

Thanks, there's some pretty cheap butchers near me so probably will be even cheaper than that :)

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Exact-Put-6961@reddit

Morrisons is or was, the one supermarket that regularly has brisket. Sadly the houswife mistakenly believes that over lean topside and silverside is better. A real butcher will have brisket, which is the cut you need.

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PM_ME_BEEF_CURTAINS@reddit

It can vary, usually topside but sometimes other cuts

If buying in person, it is usually printed on teh label in tiny print

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Exact-Put-6961@reddit

Topside is too lean for the purpose described

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PM_ME_BEEF_CURTAINS@reddit

Supermarket butcher, innit

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AromaticVacation3077@reddit

A roasting joint isn't necessarily right for pulled beef. It's usually topside which can vary in terms of how much fat it contains. Sometimes low and slow works for topside, sometimes it doesn't and it comes out dry. Try something like rump in stead.

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djwillis1121@reddit

I would say brisket rather than rump. Rump is also very lean

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djwillis1121@reddit

It usually says somewhere on the packaging. I think it might be stamped in the white space above the security warning in the actual shops. I think this is Aldi? I think in the actual shops they might have topside and silverside in the same place with different price/kg stamped on.

Although for your use case I would say that something like this is probably too lean, all supermarkets sell beef brisket which is perfect for what you're doing and is usually clearly labelled.

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One-Program6244@reddit

Why don't they say £6.20/kg? Somebody needs talking to.

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spaceshipcommander@reddit

To make it more difficult for people to compare across different products

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West_Yorkshire@reddit

I'm guessing because sometimes the joints are less than 1kg.

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Heck_@reddit

Because they probably also use the £x/0.5kg measurement for loads of other stuff that weigh less and wouldn’t really make sense to do /kg, and this just standardises is.

Just speculating. Really really bored at work and I’m off next week and can’t muster any enthusiasm, so speculating about supermarket meat weighing standards instead.

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