I picked up a venison roast labeled as eye of round, and it does look fairly similar to a beef eye of round.
Any reason I can’t treat it the same as I would a beef roast?
Here’s my typical for beef:
Salt at about 1% and slather in a garlic rosemary paste a few hours ahead, then roast in a low oven (about 170°F) to an internal of 128°F, then sear. Slice thin and enjoy.
Thanks for any thoughts!
I’d probably go to a lower internal temp (120), but I like my beef/venison pretty rare.
Many thanks. And I was a bit worried about the leanest cut of meat from one of the leanest animals out there. I don’t have a lot of experience with venison but once grilled some steaks to shoe leather, thinking “when will these get brown?” - that was way back when I didn’t know how to cook much of anything.
I don’t know what “eye of round” is but, generally speaking, I would roast venison rarer than beef. It is easy for it to become tough. You’ve already noted how lean it is, so is always going to be trickier.
A nice gravy calls, enhanced with red wine and a dollop of redcurrant jelly.
Or a blackberry or dark cherry reduction.
How big is it? The last venison eye of round Spawn1 gifted me was fairly small, probably less than a pound. I sliced it thinly and made stroganoff with it. So tasty!
I’m no good with leaner meats and Stroganoff. I know I’m supposed to flash-sear it, but I always end up overcooking and making it tough. So for the `noff, I stick to more forgiving meats like ribeye or tenderloin.
This one [edit: the venison eye round, I mean], after trimming to square it up, was about 670g or close to 1.5 pounds trimmed. The trimmed parts were maybe 1/4 pound, sliced thin and flash-seared for a snack while cooking other stuff (yes, I overcooked them a bit even though I only had a tiny amount to manage).
Also @linguafood and @Harters.
This below is the last of the slices of the two types of meat. Nearer the top is the venison (and John, after looking, it seems in UK the eye of round is a part of the topside of the round, although it is a distinct muscle if you break down a whole round), and nearer the bottom is beef sirloin cap steaks (aka steaks from the rump cap, culotte steaks, picanha).
I treated both the same, except followed my first two advisors who told me to cook the venison to a lower temp than the beef, so it got pulled about 121°F, which nicely was when the beef was around 127°F. I had salted all pieces at 1.3% and smeared on a garlic-EVOO paste several hours earlier. In the oven ranging between 160-170°F, it took about 3 hours, then a very hot pan sear. I made a thin beef-onion-wine gravy (more like a sauce) but more people drizzled it on the potatoes than the meats. Both meats were really great.
Accompanying was a mashed-then-baked cheesy potatoes (Gouda, Monterey Jack, Parm) with bacon, and a tossed Caprese salad. By tossed, I mean rather than the usual layered presentation, I used halved grape tomatoes and cut up smallish chunks of the mozz, and mixed with the basil and a balsamic/honey reduction. This was so my grandson (18mo) would be able to eat it.
Looks great! So glad you were happy with the results.
I’ve Googled (as I should have done before my original comment, then I wouldnt have been guessing). In my part of the UK, we’d call that beef cut “silverside”. Can be a roast but we’d more usually use it for a pot roast. Nice looking meat you ended up with!
If there are leftovers, they’d go great in a sandwich!
