London Broil – Three Keys to a Most Economical and Flavorful Meal
By Bill Purkins
London Broil
London Broil is probably one of the best kept secrets of the budget minded cook and grocery shopper. Consider that ground beef currently runs about $2.99 a pound on sale (prices last checked May, 2010), while London Broil can be had on sale and with a store shopper card for just $1.69 a pound! That’s just 42.2 cents a serving, which makes it a star baby in our show, truly one of the cheapest cuts of meat you can find.
Yes, you’ll probably have to wait for it to go on sale to get a deal like this, and you’ll also likely have to buy a several pounds, but a price like that, it’s well worth it, and the obvious thing to do is to cut it up into meal sized pieces and freeze them. One key to a successful London Broil experience is to tenderize it. This cut can be tough by nature and if you spend a few good minutes pounding it with a mallet it helps break up some of the muscle. Avoid scoring the meat or stabbing with a fork though. This will result in too much of the good juices being lost to the cooking pan.
Another key to making this cheap cut of beef shine is to marinate it. And there are a million London Broil marinades out there on the web, so here at Dollar a Day Gourmet we’re not going to try to shove one down your throat. Ideally, if you come to enjoy London Broil and make it a frequent feature at your dinner table, you will try different marinades until you find one or two you like best, and after a couple of successes we advise you to be adventurous and modify one until it becomes your very own.
Many recipes call for you to marinate 4 to 6 hours or so, but strongly advise you to marinate your London Broil overnight. In either case, in the refrigerator. But please heed the overnight advice. The extra time is well worth it for a more flavorful dish. Use a gallon sized ziploc bag. It’s simple, economical, super easy, and there’s no mess to clean up. Just toss the bag afterwards and there’s no pan to wash.
Finally, before serving be sure to cut into thin slices, across the grain. This will contribute to more tenderness. So, three secrets for a good London Broil:
1) Tenderize
2) Marinate overnight
3) Cut across the grain
Otherwise? Follow your recipe and enjoy this economical and flavorful dish.
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Thanks for the tricks. I would also recommend trying grass fed Black Angus beef when cooking your london broil steak. It is absolutely delicious and a healthier option. I work with La Cense Beef and because our beef is 100% grass fed it is higher in omega 3 acids and lower in calorie and fat as opposed to traditional grain fed beef. Try grass fed Black Angus Beef and you will be able to taste an even bigger difference!
Gotta try it! One of these days i want to do a side by side comparison on beef grades and grass fed/ grain fed etc… as we recently discussed on http://gratetv.com
Thanks for reading.
I would like to add a few “tips” other cooks might like trying.
I tend to “forget” to put the meat in the marinade a day before or forget to take it out in time to thaw for a dinner so to make this
“fool proof” this is what I do.
I put the london broil in a bag with my choice of marinade and then
put it in the fridge to marinate “overnight”. Next day when I go to
make dinner and there’s 3 or 4 broils in marinade there, I remember
to freeze them, in the marinade. Now it doesn’t matter if I forget
to take them out in time or not.
I try to take them out another day before I am going to cook them to
make sure they have been in the marinade plenty of time.
If I for get to take them out the day before:
When I take them out, I put them in a sink of tepid water for about 20 minutes and they’re just about ready to go…then (while still in
the bag) I put them in the microwave on defrost for the time it takes for 1/4 the weight of the meat. Example 1 lb Broil, on defrost for 1/4th pound Broil and it’s ready to go. It’s thawed enough to get hot all the way through without overcooking.