Braising Steak/Braising beef - difference???

[Harry Bloomfield]

Still wearing L plates for the cooking and finding it easier than I ever thought it could be, I decided to have a go at braising steak/beef, but I wasn't sure which I needed. Google was no help and Lidl had packages marked both braising steak and braising beef next to each other and at similar prices. Steak sounded better, so I grabbed that, but what's the difference?

Not really knowing what I was doing, I bunged it in the slow cooker for 8 hours, with a couple of diced onions, a sliced carrot, mushrooms, a spoonful of mustard and a couple of red wine stock pot. After which it tasted OK, and seemed very tender, and I froze it in 3x containers, one for tomorrow's dinner. Some of the recipes I read, suggested a need to thicken the sauce after cooking, but it seemed OK as was.

Today's dinner was a pint and a magnificent carvery, after a trip to a local hostelry.

 

[Justin Passing]

Beef is cattle.
Steak could be
"Steaks are cut from animals including cattle, bison, camel, goat, horse, kangaroo,[1][2] sheep, ostrich, pigs, reindeer, turkey, deer, and zebu, as well as various types of fish, especially salmon and large fish such as swordfish, shark, and marlin."
!!

I've had a go at a few of those, but deffo not zebu. Horse is fine!

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

"Steaks are cut from animals including cattle, bison, camel, goat, horse, kangaroo,[1][2] sheep, ostrich, pigs, reindeer, turkey, deer, and zebu, as well as various types of fish, especially salmon and large fish such as swordfish, shark, and marlin."

Surely it would (have to) say on the package if the steak was other than beef?

 

[candy1567]

Hi there

i always thought braising steak was slices, whereas brasing beef was a joint such as a briskit you pot roast

 

[Deleted member 18243]

Use shin beef Harry, it's cheaper.

Also, why would you freeze what you cook today for use tomorrow? Just put it in the fridge, or leave it out in the pan, it's cold enough in your house.

 

[SFK]

Well done, sounds great.

If it needs thickening you can use a heaped spoon or two of onion gravy powder (also adds to taste).

A dash of soya sauce or horse radish sauce or mustard improves savoury (Umami) flavor range.

 

[SFK]

Also suggest you try my quick budget healthy spaghetti Bolognese (ish)
Fry mince and chopped onions together (fat from mince cooks onions) until mince is just brown.
Stir in two cans can of chopped toms and two cans of budget kidney beans (healthy and cheap) or baked beans. Based on taste add pepper, chilli, mustard, horse radish, soya, or onion gravy.
Leave to simmer as pasta (penni, shells or spaghetti) boils in another pan for 12mins.

More chili and kidney beans (and even a bit of cocco chocolate) is chilli con carne (ish).

Not true Bolognese, but cheap, high in fibre, and pasta, 4 cans, onions and meat will fill 4 to 8 plates.

 

[JohnD]

Not true Bolognese

Needs a different name.

"British Mince in Sauce" perhaps.

 

[SFK]

British Mince in Sauce"

When being tight, often Kidney beans with mince and tomato sauce.

But not sure that will sell.

 

[Justin Passing]

Try thin Thai/Singapore style rice noodles, the ones like a ball of wire, to take up your flavours. They do that very well. Good for a change of flavour and texture. More interesting than common pasta.

 

[JonathanM]

There is no definition of braising/stewing beef/steak and every supermarket seems to do it differently. I think most of it comes from the Chuck & Blade and Neck & Clod areas. Often the cheaper stuff, with more fat running through it, is better for stews because if you cook it long and slow, it ends up softer and tastier. I've not been for quite a while, but Morrisons used to have several grades labelled stewing beef, braising steak and "best braising steak". They also had some specific cuts like shin and skirt (the front part of the Flank on this picture). I know their "best braising steak" was made from the cut called Thick Rib because the butcher on the counter showed me, but it has almost no fat and could go very dry if cooked too long. Shin is the tastiest IMO. And then there's oxtail as well.

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

i always thought braising steak was slices, whereas brasing beef was a joint such as a briskit you pot roast

The ones in Lidl which I was looking at, both had the same suppliers name on them, and both were slices. They both had 'how to cook' on the back, which read the same. The only difference was the steak/beef description.

 

[JohnD]

it has almost no fat and could go very dry if cooked too long.

Cheaper cuts often lack fat and are better slow-roasted at low temperatures, wrapped or covered, for example topside or silverside

Or wet-cooked or pot-roasted, like brisket which is very tasty but not cheap any more.

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

Also suggest you try my quick budget healthy spaghetti Bolognese (ish)

Thanks, but I have never had much of a liking for spaghetti, or pasta, pizza as a main meal. I spent a year working in Italy and thankfully, I never came across pasta offered to me as the main course. Best I could determine, it is the UK who accept these things as the main course. The only pasta was the first course or antipasto. What I hated with the main course whilst there, was the oft served cold cauliflower, and the lack of chips.

My original partner could turn out a wonderfully tender and tasty braising steak, so this has been my first attempt at reproducing it. Today's dinner, later today, I find out how well I did.

 

[Alec_t]

I was under the impression that 'steak' merely denoted the type of cut, i.e a slice ~1cm thick ?