Top Round Roast Beef Recipe (2024)

FAQs

What is a top round roast good for? ›

Top round is often mislabeled and sold in supermarkets as London Broil, which is not an actual cut of beef but a method for cooking tough cuts. Top round roast can also be braised, roasted, stewed or cooked in a slow cooker. You can even slice it for use in sandwiches.

Essential Tips for a Tender Top Round Roast

More specifically, we mean to cook it using low heat and over a long period, both of which work together to break down fat and tenderize the meat. If you cook it too fast, the natural tenderization process won't have time to work its magic.

Despite being an inexpensive slice of meat, it is lean and very flavorful. Like its name suggests, roasting is the most common way to cook a top round roast, although it can be incorporated into stews. Once the meat reaches the desired temperature, it can be eaten right away or even used as deli-style roast beef.

A top round steak is lean, flavorful, and budget-friendly. It is an excellent candidate for marinades, and it's at its best when cooked to medium-rare, which is about 145 F. This is a great steak to grill but if it's not grill weather then you can get a similar effect by broiling it.

Brown the outside of the meat well.

Don't be afraid to turn the heat up high on the stove to brown the meat before roasting. The oil should shimmer it's so hot (definitely turn on the stove exhaust fan). Lower temperatures won't brown the outside of the meat completely before the inside starts to cook.

Because it's essentially muscle meat, a top round roast is lean and very flavorful, but it lacks fat and marbleizing throughout – so it can be tougher, and not as juicy as roasts made from more expensive cuts of beef.

Chuck pot roasts have more fat, and therefore more flavor, than those from the round. Beef round roasts suitable for pot roasting are round tip, round rump, bottom round and eye round roasts. Most beef round and chuck pot roasts can be used interchangeably, with only slight adjustments in cooking time.

If you have the time, you should always strive to get your roast seasoned the night before roasting to let the flavor really sink in. The most basic seasoning is rubbing your roast liberally with kosher salt and pepper before setting it on a sheet tray or roasting pan in the fridge.

Salt tenderizes a hunk of meat, or the stalk of fibrous vegetables, in the same way it preserves them. Adding salt to the exterior of a piece of steak draws out the moisture in the steak. The salt then dissolves in this moisture, creating a brine that is then re-absorbed back into the steak.

When roasting meat and poultry, set the oven temperature to 325°F (163°C) or higher. Explore the charts below to learn how to get great results every time you cook.

What is another name for top round roast? ›

But the top round (also called inside round, because it comes from the inside of the leg), is actually a good cut of meat for roasting, as long as it's done slowly at a low temperature.

I recommend pulling this recipe out of the oven at 135 for the medium rare you see here. If you would like the beef more rare, pull it out at 125. Pull it out at 145 for medium, and 155 for medium well. I don't recommend cooking it past 155.

As far as cheap cuts of beef go, top round roast is relatively lean and flavorful since this muscle isn't as heavily worked. Roasting is the best cooking method for top round roast, although it can also be used for quicker-cooking stews and braises.

Also known as inside round, the top round is most often roasted whole and sliced for roast beef, but the meat is fabricated into steaks as well, making for the most tender steaks to come out of this tougher section. This cut tastes best marinated and cooked to between medium-rare and medium (135 F to 145 F).

Top round and bottom round cuts come from the back end of the cow. The top round is very lean but tends to be more tender than the bottom round, and is often cut into steaks (which are sometimes labeled "London broil"). The bottom round, which is divided into a bottom round roast and a rump roast, is a bit tougher.

Tenderloin. The most tender roast of all—it's under the spine— with almost no fat or flavor. It's tapered in shape, the middle being the "center cut." The labor involved and waste produced in trimming and tying a tenderloin drives up the price. Top sirloin roast.