This is the chuck roast we’re breaking down. Note the seam between the eye and the denver where we’ve already pulled it loose by hand.
I used to sell meat for a living (Allen Brothers, Niman Ranch mail order) yet for the life of me I cannot reliably break down a larger cut of beef. Part of the problem is that the roasts marketed by butchers tend to be irregular and look nothing like the neat diagrams you might find on a website like Certified Angus Beef; the best stuff is separated into steaks and chops and the roast is what’s left over.
But, with spare ribs $10.99 a pound (bones included), chuck eye steaks $7.99 and boneless chuck roast $5.99 a pound at my local supermarket, it was time to give breaking down a chuck roast a try. With the roast pictured above (this is a crosswise cut looking toward the front of the animal) it’s easy to visualize it being attached to its more costly neighbors, the rib eye and the short ribs. You can see the chuck eye in the middle, and at least one denver (the butcher’s term for boneless short ribs) at the bottom. At the very top is the (not at all tender) mock tender and that long piece at the bottom might or might not qualify as a second denver.
Chuck roast, separated.
And here’s what we got after we broke it down. At the top is the chuck eye, which we immediately fried up and enjoyed. Below that are the two denvers. At the right are the mock tender and other bits that will go into stew or be ground into burgers. The very modest amount of fat and silver skin (from the top of the denver) which we removed is at bottom right.
Next time I might try a bone-in chuck roast, which is in some ways more difficult but also easier because the bone gives you a reference point. I am inspired by the Bearded Butchers videos on TikTok, though lately they’ve been into waygu and various gadget cuts. How about you?
This was very educational…and really makes so much sense…when you think about a chuck roast for pot roast…how the meat breaks down..etc…
Thanks, hope I got it right. I can report that the assumed chuck eye and denvers are definitely more tender than you’d expect in a chuck roast.
A lotta work for a chuckeye steak and some trimmings but I’m glad you did it. Apparently there is yet another cut that can be extracted from the chuck, the teres major steak, AKA the (shoulder) petite tender and unfortunately mock tenderloin, not the mock tender you described, and similar beef industry confusion factors. If you can find a place that sells bone-in chuck roasts, which I haven’t seen in years in grocery stores, they may have tares major. Or with your skills, maybe you can carve one out yourself!
Thanks for the feedback Dave. Now I’m curious about the bone-in chuck roasts. I’ve got some good resources here in Saratoga Springs and maybe I can find one to play with.
You’ll find one. Probably in a small store or a butcher shop. 7-Bone Chuck Steak was standard in the 60’s(?). Mom complained about the bones as Dad gnawed on them.