Rib eye vs. chuck eye

[Jenise]

So on Sunday I served these massive two inch thick bone in ribeyes that were so well marbled they could have been prime. They came from Costco. Last night we had chuck eye steak from the local grocer. Comparing the two was inevitable.

And the winner is? Chuck eye steak, hands down. More flavorful, more tender, more of everything good. I must now rethink my steak strategy.

So on Sunday I served these massive two inch thick bone in ribeyes that were so well marbled they could have been prime. They came from Costco. Last night we had chuck eye steak from the local grocer. Comparing the two was inevitable.

And the winner is? Chuck eye steak, hands down. More flavorful, more tender, more of everything good. I must now rethink my steak strategy.

Confounding variables, Jenise. You need to compare the chuck eye with the ribeye, both from your local grocer, and see which prevails. It may just be that your local grocer sells better beef.

Mark Lipton

[Jenise]

Confounding variables, Jenise. You need to compare the chuck eye with the ribeye, both from your local grocer, and see which prevails. It may just be that your local grocer sells better beef.

Mark Lipton

Or better yet from the same cow. FWIW, I've not thought that market's meat better than Costco's, but it could be.

I don't think I have ever seen a chuck eye steak. Is it ever called something else? (Here we go again. )

[Jenise]

Carrie, I've never seen it called anything else. What I *have* seen is it not separated from the rest of the chuck and sold by itself, ergo it goes away with the roasts.

So on Sunday I served these massive two inch thick bone in ribeyes that were so well marbled they could have been prime. They came from Costco. Last night we had chuck eye steak from the local grocer. Comparing the two was inevitable.

And the winner is? Chuck eye steak, hands down. More flavorful, more tender, more of everything good. I must now rethink my steak strategy.

Jenise, I usually buy "chuck eye" for pot roasts, these are usually at least 2 inches thick, and believe it or not, I had from time to time considered (or wondered) just how they would be if I marinated it and then grilled it like a steak. I guess you have given me the impetus to try it. I really have a hard time thinking it might be more tender, or flavorful than a ribeye though. Thanks for the input and stimulation.

I've never seen chuck eye. We buy rib eye and I love it. I prefer the thick cuts.

I've never seen chuck eye. We buy rib eye and I love it. I prefer the thick cuts.

Karen, I always buy the whole ribeye and have the lip trimmed off. The lip is all fat anyway so nothing lost, except the cost. I have the steaks cut to about 2 inches, and then cook over charcoal with a bit of hickory added for flavor. This is how I am going to do the chuck eye too, and see how that fares.

[Jenise]

Jenise, I usually buy "chuck eye" for pot roasts, these are usually at least 2 inches thick, and believe it or not, I had from time to time considered (or wondered) just how they would be if I marinated it and then grilled it like a steak. I guess you have given me the impetus to try it. I really have a hard time thinking it might be more tender, or flavorful than a ribeye though. Thanks for the input and stimulation.

You won't be sorry, Bob. The ones I bought were about two inches thick too, and I marinated them for a few hours before throwing them on the grill. But a caution--they reshape themselves while cooking--what goes on the grill 2" thick will come off barely an 1" thick, but spread out quite a bit as the fat melts. They'll cook faster than you'd think based on the initial thickness.

You won't be sorry, Bob. The ones I bought were about two inches thick too, and I marinated them for a few hours before throwing them on the grill. But a caution--they reshape themselves while cooking--what goes on the grill 2" thick will come off barely an 1" thick, but spread out quite a bit as the fat melts. They'll cook faster than you'd think based on the initial thickness.

Thanks for the quick come back Jenise. The next time the local grocer has them on special (which is often) I will try cooking on on Hot Mama. What is your favorite marinade for these?

[Jenise]

Thanks for the quick come back Jenise. The next time the local grocer has them on special (which is often) I will try cooking on on Hot Mama. What is your favorite marinade for these?

Bob, I rarely throw a bare-nekkid steak on the grill. The plainest steak I'll do would be coated liberally in salt, pepper, fresh garlic and olive oil. Sometimes thought I change it up and into a ziploc bag I'll pour oil, vinegar, soy sauce and sugar, and sometimes I'll even add a bit of rosemary or dry mustard to that. I am more likely to do the latter for the chuck eye steaks because 1) chuck is not quite the solid mass that rib eyes are so they actually absorb marinades particularly well, and 2) their smaller size means I'm buying four or five to a package (which I'll grill all of--cold steak is one of my favorite lunches in the world) and they just pop into a ziploc, and then the fridge for five or six hours, so easily.

I always buy the whole ribeye and have the lip trimmed off. The lip is all fat anyway so nothing lost, except the cost.

Bob, what do you consider the "lip"? I hope you don't mean the flanken that runs around 1/2 or 3/4 of the outside... That's my favorite part. I could take or leave the middle part.

Carrie, I've never seen it called anything else. What I *have* seen is it not separated from the rest of the chuck and sold by itself, ergo it goes away with the roasts.

I'll have to look closer. I know I have seen "chuck steaks" near the chuck roasts that, like Bob H, I usually buy for pot roast, but I never gave them a second glance assuming they would be tough as shoe leather. I'll get back with you.

[Jenise]

Carrie, I've never seen it called anything else. What I *have* seen is it not separated from the rest of the chuck and sold by itself, ergo it goes away with the roasts.

I'll have to look closer. I know I have seen "chuck steaks" near the chuck roasts that, like Bob H, I usually buy for pot roast, but I never gave them a second glance assuming they would be tough as shoe leather. I'll get back with you.

There are chuck blade steaks (basically, a thin cut of chuck roast including the 7-bone) which I recently lamented butchers in my area no longer carry because the meatpackers no longer sell the bone-in cuts, but that's not the chuck eye I'm talking about. Rather, the chuck eye is a small piece about the size of a large filet mignon, say 2-3 inches wide and 5-6 inches long. That's why there will always be multiples to a pack.

Speaking of which, I grew up in a family that ate filet mignons for dinner almost every Saturday night. They bored me silly. I had to leave home to get something as flavorful as a rib eye. But also, while growing up, I had a friend whose father was a butcher/meat cutter. And she told me of this mysterious cut from the chuck, this one small piece that was "as tender as filet, but much better tasting" that her dad would salvage from every chuck he cut and bring home to his family. The mystery of what that was stayed in my head for years, and it was only since moving here that I've seen it packaged in meat cases. Last week was the first time I saw it at Haggens--hadn't been planning steak that night but couldn't resist when I saw the chuck eyes.

[Jenise]

Carrie, I went looking for a picture of a chuck eye and didn't find it, but I did find that chuck fillet, mock tender and Scotch tender are also names for this cut. I also found this testimonial from someone who started a thread on another food forum: I have always seen them in the meat section but never gave them a shot because Im a T-Bone, Ribeye,Strip Steak kind of Guy. But last night I picked up a couple for like two dollars and something. Well,I gave them a quick marinate and threw them in my cast iron grill skillett cooked med rare,let rested then I put them in the oven for a few minutes and all I can say is WOW!What have I been missing!The flavor was there and very tender also. I will never look down on this cut of meat again.

So now you don't have to take just my word for it.

Nice pix here: http://www.foodsubs.com/MeatBeefChuck.html

The photo in the link Larry posted looks pretty lean. Is it? I always think of chuck as more fatty than most areas of the cow.
I'm definitely going to look for this cut.

[Jenise]

The photo in the link Larry posted looks pretty lean. Is it? I always think of chuck as more fatty than most areas of the cow.
I'm definitely going to look for this cut.

That looks leaner than what I am buying here (in fact, it looks like a cross cut from a particularly fat flatiron steak), but this could all be butcher dependant and what I'm buying is probably leaner than your average rib eye. I'll photograph some next time I buy it.

No doubt, only the finest specimens were photographed.

The photo in the link Larry posted looks pretty lean. Is it? I always think of chuck as more fatty than most areas of the cow.
I'm definitely going to look for this cut.

The chuck eyes I buy here are not nearly as lean as the one in the picture either. Still with some judicious trimming one could get a pretty good piece of meat for the grill, and still have some pretty decent meat for the soup/chili kettle.

Okay, we had it last night. As I mentioned in previous threads, we are heading east this week, so I'm pulling stuff out of the freezer to use/eat before we go. I found a lone Prime NY Strip that I decided to make, and needed to get lettuce for wedge salads anyway, (plus extra meat, since no way would ONE steak feed two of us unless it was one of those Lobels chop-house cut bone-in ribeyes, which of course it wasn't...) So, lo and behold, I found the Mock Tender steaks (see photo below), but of course didn't have time to marinate them. I did season them about an hour before cooking and they were quite flavorful but definitely not tender. Despite them being pretty thin, probably no more than an inch thick, I was able to get a good sear on them and cooked them medium. Our grill gets extremely hot--they were very pink inside. I think they were very lean, in fact, when grilling they reminded me of those boneless pork-loin chops the way they cooked up. It may also have been the purveyor. These were just from Ralph's, so maybe if I had gotten them from a quality butcher (which frankly does not exist around here) they would have been better.
I'll definitely give them another try and will properly marinate them, I promise. The price was certainly right. Only 4.99 lb, as you can see.

[Jenise]

Carrie, in spite of the name, those are definitely not the same cut as the chuck eye steaks I have bought. They're too lean (I compared mine to rib eyes, and rightly so), and the grain of the meat runs in a whole different way than what I was crowing about last week. Damn these meat guys anyway for not using the same words for exactly the same thing.

Carrie, in spite of the name, those are definitely not the same cut as the chuck eye steaks I have bought.

Whew!

[Jenise]

Carrie, in spite of the name, those are definitely not the same cut as the chuck eye steaks I have bought.

Whew!

Yeah, well, yours look like the ones in the other picture someone posted a link to in this thread, more like the cross cut of a flatiron steak with that big gristle rib down the middle (what I bought didn't have that).