Hi,
I have a 1.8kg topside joint for the Sunday roast - I can’t find any information on time or temp for this cut\size? Any suggestions?
Thanks
It appears that cut is known as an “eye of round” in the US. I’ve cooked them 18 hours at 56C, chilled them and then sliced them on a meat slicer for sandwiches. While this is good for sandwiches and works because it’s thin sliced, I don’t think this would give you the knife and fork plate texture that you want, it would still be tough when cut thick. I’m thinking like maybe double the cooking time to 36 hours. If you like it a little bit more well done, then up the temp a few degrees.
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Great, I prefer it medium well, do you think 58C for 36 hours would be a good starting point?
I wasn’t sure if I should cut it up before cooking, although I guess it doesn’t matter considering the length of time?
I’ve found that with long cooks, the doneness often ends up one level more done than the temp would dictate on a traditional cooking method. In other words, 58C or 59C, which is right in the middle of “medium” tends to yield “medium well”. Of course there is some factor played by the meat itself, but generally, when I want “Medium” I have to aim for the bottom end of the temp range or even a degree below. And, worst case, I can always cook it a bit longer in the sear to make the meat more well done, but I can’t make well done meat more raw. This is just my experience and while I have calibrated the offset on my unit vs a known accurate thermometer, I haven’t really investigated the phenomena that much to see if it’s all cuts, or at what point in the cooking the meat passes from one doneness to another.
If you cut the roast up into steaks, you can shorten the cooking time considerably by bagging them individually, but the texture will be different. They will be more, well, like a steak, than like a slow cooked roast.
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This is one of those instances where the naming if cuts makes for a lot of head scratching.
Your reference to topside labels you as potentially Aussie or Brit. Aussies use the British style of breaking down most meats. The beef topside is on the higher part of the steer’s rump (round for Americans). It is a large, solid muscle with a narrow fat cap and a very obvious grain. It’s not a strongly flavoured piece of meat and tends to be best with a fine slice for a stir-fry or similar cooking method. It makes for good jerky. 
I seem to recall my mother pickling it.
Can’t help much on your cook time, sorry. But looking forward to hearing how it goes.
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In the US you can buy something called “corned beef round” prepacked in most supermarkets. I think this would likely be that cut cured/pickled. I have no idea where the “corned” part came from. You can also get corned beef brisket, which is a breast cut.
Corn(ed) is an old English world. Apparently it’s a reference to the large grain of the meat, but eventually got substituted for the pickling process which was usually applied to the large grained meats.
The cured topside is usually sold as ‘silverside,’ so called because of the silverskin or membrane that delineates the muscle.
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Thanks @Ember.
Never head it referred to as “silverside” here. The corned beef round sold in the package here has the silverskin removed btw.
@madlan what did you end up doing and how did it go? I have a 1Kg 2.5" thick piece to cook in the near future.
Thanks
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