Hind quarter Steak, Roast, Jerky, Burger
Whitetail Deer
Guys, I usually just cut backstrap and tenderloins for steaks and maybe a few neck roasts. Feel like I am wasting some of the big muscles in the back legs on burger and sausage products. Lots of information on internet but, I struggle knowing what each muscle is called and remembering the name. To make it really easy I numbered the cuts. Please let me know what you would do with each muscle. If I had to guess off firmness of the meat I would go. 1. STEAK 2. ROAST 3. JERKY 4. STEAK. What do you think? Thank you.
Well, just about anything that you make jerky out of can also be a great "roast" in the crockpot.
And to each his own, but I prefer to cook my tenderloins whole on the grill. A good sear on each side and then I slice them thin to eat.....now I'm drooling!
#1 I usually just leave attached to #4. #2 we call the round & usually goes in the crock pot for stew or the insta pot for pulled meat BBQ or Mexican type dishes. #3 I slice flat horizontally in 1/2 or 1/3ds with a long knife ya get steaks similar to a flank steak marinade & grill then cut thin vertical across the grain is awesome. #4 jerky, steak, roasts, whatever. I do not know the name for each muscle
Not sure the actual names of each piece. #1 eye of round. Stew/small chop pieces. #2 round. I think these make the best steaks (trim the heavy silver shin from the outside). #3 strip steaks. #4 strip steaks. I cut these pieces off each deer unless it’s an old one. Even then I save the round steaks. The rest gets chunked up for sausage/meat sticks/jerky or summer sausage.
I cut it all into steaks,cutlets...quick on the grill,3-4 minutes a side done
#1 eye of round - small medallions steaks if from a big deer. Seared whole to medium rare if a smaller deer #2 sirloin - This is a great cut for a pot roast or something that can be cooked moist, low temperarture for a long time. Lots of connective tissue that breaks down into deliciousness. #3 top round - Jerky, or I like to smoke it whole and then slice it then like roast beef. #4 bottom round - Same as #3
#1-eye of round #2-sirloin tip #3-top round #4-bottom round . #4 looks like it has part of the sirloin attached to it which is actually part of the tri-tip. I steak everything or leave as roasts and cook medium rare then slice for steaks. Get a handheld meat tenderizer and make country fried steak or steak fingers.
I typically don’t find the eye of round (#1) to be very tender.
Me either APaul’s. Typically braise them and there pretty good. Not technically braise but cook in red wine whole with onion garlic shallots and some poblano or jalapeño pepper slices just enough wine to keep 1/4 medallion submerged
I do not like #1 eye of round as a steak. I grind it but open to other ideas. It's tough and I don't love the flavor of the cut itself.
Eye of the round is tough? Huh.
Wild game is a dish meant to be served rare to medium rare. Anything above that is way overcooked.
Yes eye of round is tough. I usually grind it up.... As far as cooking venison I agree that it's best cooked rare or in some form of liquid or sauce until falling apart. Now with that being said some folks just can't eat rare meat. my wife for instance doesn't even Iike beef & will eat deer every day. But hers needs to be well done. So to each his or hers own applies
That eye of round is lighter color which can fool you into thinking it's more tender. Treat it like the rest of the hind quarter and "I" make roasts/stew/chili/stroganoff out of those cuts.
I used to cut steaks out of some of the hind quarter on Elk but all of them were some degree of tough. I burger it now. This years deer I did jerky and burger.
I put 20lbs of elk meat into sausage this weekend. Used hindquarters, front quarters, even backstrap
Who doesn’t like smoked summer sausage? I’m almost done with Christmas gifts
Sirloin tip is the more tough cut on the hind quarter. Round is usually so-so and sirloin is the better of the three.
I've yet to eat a "tough" eye of the round...
My mom would always cut up the eye of round into "breakfast steaks" which she would fry and serve with fried eggs, fried potatoes, biscuits, and gravy. Best breakfast ever. Sure wish I could go back in time and sit at her table one more time.
My mom used to make a mean eye of the round roast melted in my mouth. Just gotta cook it right.
How about a picture of a whole hind quarter with the cuts outlined. Just did a deer yesterday following the muscle lines but not really sure which is which. oh I know - just google it!
Yes Woods, tenderloins whole on grill the way you described just keeps them juices in... after many trial and error on venison imo the best way.
I just cut the last hind of a maybe 3 year old 6x6. Quarters weighed 61# after hanging and drying out (central Montana). Aged the hinds for 7 and 8 days. We tried the eye of round out of the 7 day aged quarter yesterday and it was not tough.
out of the 122# the two hams weighed I put up 35# for later grinding, 28# waste (hind leg bones weighed 8.6# each) . So that leaves 59# for steak and a little stew.
Seems like a waste not to put up the hinds for some steak since I ended with over 120# of grind trim from the elk.
I cut the hinds for steak and while they might not be veal they aren't tough.
Most of the normal steak cuts aren't too bad concerning the round.
We ate some eye of the round today from a deer we shot a couple years ago. I can't understand what people do to it to make it a tough cut other than cutting it with the grain or overcooking it...
JMO….
Anything big enough to be a steak…. IS a steak.
Here’s a hind I cut up today. I’ve never had a tough eye of round.
Matt
Yep, eye of round is usually a fairly tender muscle.
I have a related question.
My father used to leave the hinds intact, including the bone, then he would make 3/4" thick crosscuts perpendicular to the bone. As his loyal helper, my job was to remove the chunk of bone from the center of the cut and trim up the perimeter. The resulting package of steaks had one piece of each of the four muscle groups still attached to each other. Is there a specific name for that type cut? We always just called them "round steaks".
Matt
^^^ I'm sure there's a fancy-cuts name to fetch an additional $1.20 a pound, but I've always heard and seen them called "round steak".
I cut all the individual muscles out of the hind quarter that I can and they all end up being eaten as steak.
Take the whole piece to the right in Grey ghost 's pic cut it horizontally in 1/2 or 3rds marinade & cook rare on hot grill is probably my favorite cut in the hind quarter
I like that sirloin tip sliced about a half inch thick, seasoned with S, P, G and flash fried in ghee to super rare. Damn near cold in the middle. The rarer you cook venison, the less 'gamey' and more tender.
Matt, that is usually the way people cut bone in steaks although I’m not sure why you then removed the bone? Their is nothing wrong with that way however when you cut out the muscle sections it allows you to properly cut against the grain. Normally people call the shoulders the Chuck and the hind end the round however their is also a sirloin in the hind but maybe your father just was differentiating from the shoulder and hind by calling everything round?
Round steak only comes from one place, the hind quarter. When cut by separating the top and bottom round, you start to get into what is phrased as cube steak when tenderized. Then there are the different cuts from the front quarter, or arm and shoulder (arm steak, shoulder steak, swiss steak, chuck steak, etc.).
Round steak normally ends where the sirloin begins.
Spike,
I just did another hind this morning and realized the way my father used to cut them does go against the grain of all the muscle groups. But it also leaves a lot of connecting tissue and membranes, which I don’t care for. Plus there was also a lot of fragments from sawing the bone that had to be cleaned off before packaging. I much prefer separating each muscle, even though it takes a little longer than my father’s method.
Thanks for your reply.
Matt
Folks opinions on food absolutely dumbfounds me. Some want deer with zero silver skin - tendon. Others my father included love cross cut bone in hindquarter steaks. If I had access to a band saw I'd definitely cut some. I don't so I separate the muscles in the hind quarter. Some of the best beef steaks I've ever eaten you'll end up with a hand full of fat & gristle left on the plate. I'm on the coast of VA & local folks love their flounder ya ask why & they say cause it not fishy tasting. Ya ask if they eat freshwater fish & the say no. Cause it has no flavor. ??????? I'm sorry but Folks get really weird when it comes to food especially game & fish.
"If I had access to a band saw I'd definitely cut some."
Band saw? My father used a good old fashioned hand meat saw. If I were to do it, I'd probably use a sawsall.
Matt
Glad this post gained some traction and there has been a bunch of great information shared. Just to follow up, I cut one steak out of each muscle in my original picture and cooked them on my charcoal grill. All 4 of them were delicious but I had my family rank them and #4 was best followed by #2, #1, and #3. I will definitely be keeping these cuts more than I have in the past especially on younger deer. Thanks to everybody that responded.
