Cheap Meat: it's all about cooking method

So cheap meats don't have to be tough, dry, bland (or any other unappetizing adjective).  It's all about how you cook them.   I made an eye of round roast--a very lean, usually tough, inexpensive cut of beef. 

First, I salted it (1/2 tsp per pound or so) with coarse kosher salt, and put it in the refrigerator, covered, for 24 hours (actually about 22....). 

I took it out of the fridge about an hour before putting it in the oven, to bring it up to room temperature.  Always a good idea when roasting meats.

After browning it in a hot skillet with a bit of oil, I placed it, on a rack, set in a baking sheet, in a very slow oven--only 225 degrees for about an hour, until it registered 115 on an instant-read thermometer.  Important thing  here--take the meat out of the oven to take its temp; don't leave the oven door open or you lose too much heat.  Then I turned the oven OFF, but left the roast in the oven for about 30 minutes or so.  This brought the temp up to about 130 degrees--perfect for medium rare. 

I took the roast out of the oven, allowed it rest another 10 minutes under a tent of foil, and then sliced it thinly.  While it didn't have filet mignon texture, it was juicy and tender--and surprisingly flavorful.

All meats are not created equal, and neither are all cooking methods!  This same method would probably ruin a well-marbled filet mignon. 

Croquettes to the leftover rescue--again!

Sorry, no pic to share with this post.  I posted last year, I think, about croquettes, and what a great recipe to keep around for dealing with leftovers.  I had leftover Turducken from Christmas (it was stuffed with dirty rice), plus some leftover ham.  Just pile everything into your food processor and grind it all up until it is quite fine.  Make a thick white sauce (I use 3 tbsp butter, 3 tbsp flour and one cup milk--in fact I make white sauce now in my MICROWAVE...it's awesome...message me if you'd like to know how!), combine the white sauce with the ground up meat mixture, and perhaps throw in some shredded cheese of your choice.  Taste for seasoning--it probably won't need salt.  Now, shape the mixture into croquettes about the size of a large egg.  You might make them a bit more cylindrical.  At this point, I coat the croquettes lightly in very fine bread crumbs (something I make with leftover, stale bread.  Keep frozen).  Refrigerate the croquettes for one to several hours to let them "dry off."  When you're ready to cook them, you have two choices, fry or bake.  Either way, beat an egg or two in a bowl, and put more fine bread crumbs in another bowl.  Dip each croquette in egg and again in bread crumbs.  Toss them lightly back and forth between your hands to remove excess bread crumbs.  Once they're all coated, it's a good idea to chill them again for 30 minutes or so, but not essential. 

You can fry them in 1/2 inch of oil or fat (I've used beef drippings, which gives a wonderful taste but some folks might shy away from the saturated fat content....meh...not something we do often enough to worry about it).  Or you can drizzle lightly (or brush lightly) with melted butter and bake them.  400 degrees for 20-25 minutes should do the trick.  Frying is much faster--just a few minutes per side.  Drain on paper towels and enjoy.  A note on frying--they don't seem to absorb that much oil, so I encourage you to try frying them at least once.  The crisp outside and creamy inside is a real treat--and not one anyone would suspect is made from leftovers!