Know your : Cuts March 25, 2016 best for smoker, grill By Martha Filipic 614-292-9833 When I grill a , how can I make [email protected] sure it’s not tough? Also, I just got a meat smoker as a gift. What cuts of Editor: This column was beef would be best for the smoker? reviewed by Lyda Garcia, Ohio State University Extension meat specialist and assistant Nothing is worse than grilling a steak, enjoying the professor in The Ohio State aroma as it cooks, and then barely being able to University’s Department of cut through it with your best . The issue photo: Hemera Animal Sciences. probably isn’t your skill on the grill. It’s most likely a bad match of cooking method and cut of beef. palatable it will be — flavorful, tender and juicy. The Chow Line is a service of the Lean cuts of beef — those with little marbling and rib and tend to have the most marbling. College of Food, Agricultural, external fat — are better suited to slow cooking The sirloin, which offers lean, tender cuts of meat and Environmental Sciences and its outreach and research methods, such as smoking. Slow cooking allows without much fat, is situated behind the short loin and in front of the round. arms, Ohio State University connective tissue and muscle fibers to break down. Extension and the Ohio The process tenderizes what otherwise would be Cuts from the rib, short loin and sirloin that would Agricultural Research and a tough chew. Those cuts are from the parts of the be great on the grill include: Development Center. Send animal that work the hardest, the muscles used for questions to Chow Line, c/o • Bone-in and boneless ribeye Martha Filipic, 2021 Coffey walking and locomotion, which have little fat and • Back ribs Road, Columbus, OH 43210- the most connective tissue. Generally, those cuts 1043, or [email protected]. are the round, which is at the hindquarters of the • , such as New York or Kansas City strip animal, and the chuck and , which are at the • T-bone steak front of the animal, from the shoulders to the chest. • Porterhouse steak Cuts of meat from these areas, which would be good for your smoker, include: • • Brisket • Tenderloin College Marketing • Chuck roast Skirt steaks, which come from the middle part of and Communications the animal’s underside, found in the flank area, are 2021 Coffey Road • Arm roasts good quick-skillet muscle cuts best used for , Columbus, OH 43210-1043 • Top and bottom round roasts tacos and in salads. 614-292-2011 • Tip roasts Whatever cut you choose, when the meat is done, 208 Research Services Building let it cool slightly to let the juices settle, and always 1680 Madison Ave. • Eye round roast Wooster, OH 44691-4096 slice against the grain. That will break up the 330-263-3780 • Boneless rump roast muscle grain into small pieces, which will make the In between the round and the chuck are the meat less chewy. © 2016, The Ohio State University

“middle meats,” which are best for grilling. They To see a short video to learn where various cuts of CFAES provides research and tend to have a lot of marbling, which is the little meat come from on a beef carcass, see Ohio State related educational programs to clientele on a nondiscriminatory white flecks of fat throughout a piece of meat. University Extension’s “Beef Cuts for Fast Grilling Generally, the more marbling in the meat, the more basis. For more information: and Slow Smoking,” at go.osu.edu/beefcuts. go.osu.edu/cfaesdiversity.

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