Cooking Cuts of Beef

Croxley Meats offer free cooking advice with our cuts of meat. Please ask our staff.
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Neck
Cubed up as stewing steak or as mince.
In chunks, it is good in slow-cooked casseroles and stews cooked in rich stock with plenty of herbs.

Chuck
This meat is often sold as braising steak, and is excellent for long cooking because it is usually well-marbled with fat, which helps to moisten and flavour it as it braises. It is a good choice for the traditional French Dish "Beef Bourguignonne".

Fore Rib
Traditionally prepared for roasting. It may either be sold on the bone, or quite often boned and rolled, and is generally both tender and flavourful.

Sirloin and Fillet
The centre of the back is where everybody's favourite steaks – sirloin and fillet – come from.
A long piece of sirloin, or a round slice of fillet, are best briefly grilled under high heat.
Sirloin may also be sold as a whole piece, either boned and rolled or filleted, which makes an incomparable joint for roasting.

Rump
Usually sold sliced into steaks, has a positive beefy depth of flavour.
Like the other steaks, it is best grilled.

Topside and Silverside
Although they are traditionally roasted, may be better braised or pot-roasted in stock and/or wine to keep them moist.

Oxtail
Makes superb, gelatinous meat when slow-cooked, and is also the basis for an abidingly popular soup.

Leg and Shin
These are cuts that demand slow cooking, when their gelatinous nature helps to thicken the cooking liquor.

Thick flank
Like the topside and silverside, is better braised than roasted.

Thin flank
It is mainly sold as minced beef, although a fair amount of it ends up being salted and boiled up for corned beef.

Brisket
It can be sold rolled as a roasting joint, but is also often cured with salt and/or spices.
It forms the basis of traditional pastrami, sold cold and sliced as a delicatessen meat for sandwiches.

Shoulder
Perfect for long, slow cooking.
Its connective tissue eventually dissolves, leaving a soft meat that then shreds very easily under a fork.