My first time last night making sirloin tip. Delicious recipe but came out chewier than I 'd like. Recipe called for 1" cubes, at least 15 minute marinade in vegetable oil and spices. I did 30 minutes, but maybe not enough?
Do you have a favorite method of making this a softer chew? I have another 1.5 pound, 1" thick slab to use.
TIA.
Dry brining the cubes before adding the oil etc might help. Sprinkle a generous amount of salt on the cubes and toss. Put them on a rack so juices can drip out if necessary. Spread the cubes out so they do not touch and put in the fridge for half an hour or so before seasoning with olive oil etc. The small size of the cubes means the salt will work its chemistry in a short time. Do not let the meat absorb too much salt.
Add the oil and what ever other flavorings and toss again, then cook immediately.
Try what @Dean said, then cook a cube to test, and if it isn’t the tenderness you want, add a pinch of baking soda (no more, or you’ll taste it later) to the rest and toss well, set aside for 5-10 mins, and that should tenderize it. (There’s enough variance in meat that it might just be the meat.)
Aside from just sautéing, sirloin tips would be good with asian marinades and in indian preps, which have their own in-built tenderizers (but also, neither is above using helpers — baking soda, yogurt, raw papaya, a pressure cooker 
).
Of course there’s also sous vide or reverse sear on the whole piece.
I actually keep a jar of baking soda and salt blend for dry brining. I use 1tsp baking soda to 1/3 cup salt. Do not use table salt. Diamond kosher or Mortons or a somewhat coarse sea salt.
I don’t have any further recommendations vs what you’ve already gotten, but remember that this cut is from the round, which is going to be a naturally a bit less tender than a sirloin steak. But it also shouldn’t be super tough, if that’s how it came out.
Agreed, sirloin tips are usually somewhat chewy.
Blade tenderize it.
Sirloin tips work well with low and slow cooking, but can be cooked on the stovetop (or grill) but it needs to be tenderized first, preferrablyl with a blade or a Jaccard.
It didn’t come out super tough. It was chewy but enjoyable. I am not looking for tender, But I’d still like it somewhere between chewy and tender. I don’t want my family tiring of a dish before they can finish it.
So far some very appealing suggestions.
Thanks. How low and slow?
I think it sort of depends on what you are making.
If you have steak tip “cubes” and wanted to make a stew, I would sear them first in a pan for about 45 seconds until browned and then drop them in a crockpot for 7-8 hours on low, or 3 hours on high.
I never cube them; I just leave them whole. Season with coarse salt and pepper and then brown and finish in a 375-400F oven until medium rare (about 7 minutes, but I start checking at 5). Then we just make sure we cut across the grain when serving to help keep the bites more on the tender side. But, as others have pointed out, the cut trends chewier.
A favorite local marinade is ketchup (yes, yes) and Italian dressing. Let marinate for 3 days and then grill to your desired doneness (for those in the Boston area that are familiar with the now closed Sadie’s Saloon in Waltham, that’s apparently the marinade. Some add more sugar beyond what is in the ketchup!).
I just made beef stroganoff and stew from sirloin. After the initial sear, low and slow until they reached the tenderness I wanted.
I’ve only done them whole, too. Reverse sear. Cut across the grain. Rare side of medium rare. There’s a bit of chewiness, but that’s expected. The only beef I cook low and slow is brisket and short ribs.
Reporting back.
I wound up keeping the slab whole, salting it, and getting it to room temperature before cooking it low and slow at 170 degrees for 3 hours. I didn’t need to do it for that long. Reverse sear in a pan. I sliced it very thin to use it for sandwiches, and it worked out very well for that purpose.
I did enjoy the first go around with chopping it into 1" cubes, but this gave me a different way of enjoying it without giving my jaw a workout.
Thanks everyone for chiming in!
Glad it worked out. When you say cooked at 170, do you mean 170°F and via sous vide? Or 170 centigrade/340°F? If the latter, then I’d agree with your thinking that 3 hours was probably too long. Unless you where shooting for fully cooked all the way through, like you might do for pot roast?
I forgot to mention that you can treat sirloin tip as a London Broil if the piece is basically of that method’s standard shape; just marinade and grill or sear. Very thin bias cuts once cooked to med-rare. I’ve made London Broil of pretty much all cuts from the round, except the eye.
I did an eye round Tuesday for sandwiches and had it in a 230°F oven for about 3 hours to get internal 125°F. Then let it rest for about 30 mins while the oven got up to 550F and gave it an 8-minute sear that way. Let it go to RT then chilled it overnight (to slice easier - I have a really cheap slicer and it needs all the help it can get). Then gently reheated a bunch of it for lunch sandwiches yesterday.
I just made a sirloin roast that was possibly the worst piece of meat I’ve had in a long time. Did reverse sear; internal temp finalized at 124 after everything, and it tasted like beef juice flavored cotton, with an awful texture to boot. At the end of the day, the quality of the meat matters, and what it’s graded on the package is no guarantee. I pitched the leftovers.
Ug, sounds horrible.
Special Fork Up, Vivid Description Category goes to:
Which sirloin cut was it?
It just said Sirloin Roast. It wasn’t a tri-tip or top loin. It was, however the store’s best brand.
170° F, not sous vide.
I used a carving knife to slice, don’t have a slicer (well, I am the slicer).
Thanks for the rundown on the eye round. Might try that next time.
Interesting, thanks. I don’t think I’ve ever roasted anything at such a low temp. Did the meat get up into the 120s in the oven? My oven is notoriously uneven below about 200. I mostly use 170 (lowest setting) if I’ve gotten water into a plastic part, like inside the housing of a mini food processor or some such, and need to dry it. It’ll bounce from high 130s to low 200s.
I only got the slicer because at the time I was making a lot of cured and dried meats (capocollo, pastirma, bresaola, biltong, etc.). I haven’t done that in over a year (my extra fridge is too dry, so my results were not optimal and I never got around to putting a humidity control in it).
So I only use the slicer about once a month, if that - usually if I’ve got more than about 4-5 pounds to slice at once. Maybe in a few more years I will have recouped the $120 cost…
