Many supermarkets and grocery stores offer great deals on buying beef cube steaks, but people can shy away from buying them due to not knowing what they are, or how to cook them.
This article will help clear up any questions you may have regarding cube steaks, and allow you to take advantage of those great deals the next time they come up on offer in your local store or meat market.
So what is a Beef Cube Steak? A beef cube steak is usually a tougher cut of beef that has been mechanically tenderized by the butcher to make it less tough and more desireable to eat. Beef Cube Steak is often seasoned with flour and used to make the popular dish ‘Chicken Fried Steak’
Beef Cuts Used For Cube Steaks
Although any cut of beef can be used to make cube steaks, some work out better than others, and it is usually the tougher cuts that are used.
Due to the fact that the beef is going to be tenderized in some way, either by a machine or mallet, it would be a waste to use an already tender cut of beef such as prime steak cuts.
For the best results you want to use solid leaner cuts of beef for cube steaks as they will hold together and keep their shape when run through the tenderizing process. Any excess fat or gristles should be cut away before tenderizing.
Preferred cuts of beef include:
- Eye Round
- Top Round
- Bottom Round
- Sirloin Tip
- Mock Tender
- Shoulder Steak
Although other cuts of meat such as the chuck can be used, these can sometimes break apart during the tenderizing and leave you with smaller pieces or chunks, as opposed to actual steaks.
How Are Beef Cube Steaks Made?
As mentioned earlier, you begin by getting a lean and solid piece of beef and then slice the meat into smaller steaks that weigh between 4 – 6oz and are between 1/4 – 1/2 inch thick.
Due to the volume of cube steaks being prepared, butchers, meat markets and meat packing plants, will use large tenderizing machines to create the cube steak.
They will use larger slices of beef that will be fed into the machine which will partially cut through the muscle fibres of the beef to make it more tender. The indentations left in the meat resemble small squares and hence the name ‘cube’ steak. The large pieces will then be cut down into smaller steaks for packing and sale.
Making Beef Cube Steaks At Home
If you would like to make your own cube steaks at home, there are several ways you can do this that don’t include the requirement of big expensive industrial tenderizers.
Butchers Tip!
Having some form of meat tenderizer in your kitchen is a worthwhile investment. It will enable you to take advantage of buying cheaper & tougher cuts of meat when they go on sale in the grocery store, and allow you to make some tasty tender meals a a result!
Meat Mallets
There are many variations of meat mallet tenderizers on the market, and can be wooden, plastic or metal and can be bought for under $10.
These mallets are basically like a flat headed hammer that is used to pound the meat on a hard surface to make it more tender.
When choosing a meat mallet, I personally would buy one that has a dual head with a flat faced and a cubed face option. This will not only allow you to make beef cube steaks using the cube face, but also allow you to use the flat face to pound chicken breasts, pork steaks or veal when making escalopes.
You also want to ensure it is quite heavy and solid and has a comfortable gripped handle.This meat mallet from Amazon would be my choice: Meat Tenderizer Mallet
Hand Press Tenderizer
A hand press tenderizer consists of a cartridge that holds many sharp needles within its body. They can be purchased for $15 – $20
You place the tenderizer on top of the meat and then press the top whick makes the needles protrude from the base of the unit into the meat.
The needles act like miniature knives cutting into the the meat fibres to break them down.
You continue to press these needles all over the surface of the meat and then turn the steak over and do the same on the other side.
These can be more effective than the mallet as they cut into the meat as opposed to smashing the meat, and can be used to tenderize any kind of meat.
The Jaccard Tenderizer is often used by small independent meat markets instead of expensive machinary and is available at Amazon for around $20. Jaccard Meat Tenderizer
Manual Cube Steak Maker
The manual cube steak maker is based on a smaller version of the industrial machines, however the cutting wheels are turned manually using a crank handle.
These manual cubers are a low cost, quick option if you are making a large batch of cube steaks for freezing or a BBQ cookout.
Many people whole hunt will invest in one of these to make tougher cuts more tender and cut down on processing time required to do the same job with a mallet or jaccard tenderizer.
A popular option on Amazon is the table top Guide Gear Tenderizer at about $95
Cooking Beef Cube Steaks
Although the beef cube steaks have been tenderized in some way, they still benefit from a bit longer cooking method than you would a prime steak.
Also, due to the lean nature of the beef used, some form of seasoning, coating or sauce/gravy os often served with the steaks.
Many people will coat the steaks with a seasoned flour and brown on a high heat skillet or cast iron pan to brown them all over and create a crusty seal.
The browned steaks will then be transferred to the oven to continue cooking until fork tender.
One of the most popular dishes made with beef cube steaks is called ‘Chicken Fried Steak’. It’s an odd name as it obviously doesn’t use chicken, however the method of cooking is the same for fried chicken and so it adopted the name. It can also be known as Country Fried Steak (recipe)
Cube Any Meat!
Just to be clear.
Cube steak refers to the pattern left on the meat after it has been tenderized. You are free to make cube steaks using any meat of your choice and following the same process as you do for beef.
Just ensure that the cuts of meat you use are solid lean pieces, and if you are using a softer meat such as chicken, then you won’t need to tenderize it as much or it is likely to start falling apart or turning mushy.
Go forth and experiment and start turning those tougher cuts of meat into tasty tender meals.
