Tenderizing Round Steak: Good Tips

Last Updated on February 2, 2021 by SteakEat

This article is a part of section about cooking round steak (follow the link for more).

It’s lean, it’s tough and it’s dry, if cooked the wrong way. Please welcome – round steak!

The good news – there are ways to resolve this “issue”.

Shall we get started? 🙂

5 Ways of Tenderizing Round Steak Without a Mallet

Not willing to destroy your steak with a hammer? I salute and admire you – thanks for that.

Here is something you may consider instead.

#1 Meat Tenderizer

Piercing steak using meat tenderizer breaks down protein molecules and other connective tissue mimicking a typical cooking process.

In more simple language, meat tenderizer can make your steak (meat and poultry) a lot more tender!

Personally, I never use meat tenderizer for these 2 reasons:

• Needles that pierce your steak get in touch with the steak’s surface, which means you’d need to (ideally) cook the steak thoroughly to avoid any potential foodborne illnesses (waazzuuuup e.Coli!); Given that I like my steak rare/medium-rare, I am not willing to take that risk
• There are other, less invasive, ways to make your round steak soft and tender – keep on reading! 😉

However there are other BIG advantages for using it.

• First, you definitely can turn a cheaper, tougher cut into an almost premium high-end steak and…only takes a few moments!
• Needle-type meat tenderizer helps any marinade to soak into your steak rather than just stay on the surface.

If you are curious to learn more about the best models out there, check out this meat tenderizer list here. You can also check out the PRO needle tenderizer we have on sale here.

#2 Use a Marinade

What’s the best way to make a steak burst with some fancy flavor and tenderize it at the same time?Yeap, marinade…

Even though marinades can make your steak softer, there are limitations:

1. Marinades can’t go into steak deep enough so even if you soak your meat in it for a long while, it won’t help – it just won’t enter.A possible solution to this is vacuum marinator. Vacuum “pushes” marinade inside your steak, making it softer and more flavorful.I personally never used one, but this marinator is something I would consider – check it out.

2. You have to be careful with how you cook your steak afterwards – a lot of marinades have sugar (or glucose syrup – buaaaaa), so it can easily burn at high heat.

#3 Cook Round Steak Properly

It’s a tough cut and you need to take care of it to make it right.

I recommend you can try my low and slow stove & oven cooking method to get best results – it’s awesome!

The idea is that, if you cook this cut slowly, it will keep its juiciness and tenderness (as opposed to when you just destroy it at high heat for too long 😉 ).

#4 Dry/Wet Aging

Also called maturing or aging…

The idea is very similar to what meat tenderizer above does but on a chemical level (and not mechanical).

If you leave beef under right conditions, the protein molecules will start breaking down making your steak a lot more tender.

Dry aged steaks are more expensive because they take quite a while to produce.

#5 Grind It!

Certainly a solution! 😀

You can grind your round steak and make a burger out of it…or even cook it into a stir fry of some sort.

Here is a nicer meat grinder, if you are curious – click here.