My husband and I go to a discount club (BJ’s), similar to Costco or Sam’s, to purchase all of our meat. Beef is so expensive that I only purchase the cheap stuff - London Broil, I don’t even know what the other stuff is, but whatever I get is priced around $5.49 lb., which I have no problem paying. The London Broil and other steak I buy is sliced thin. I flash sear it in my cast iron skillet and it comes out medium rare with a nice crust. Incredibly delicious with great flavor and really not tough. The key is not to overcook it. I tried cooking beef on the grill, but it comes out like shoe leather. I’m fine using my tried and true cast iron skillet. Last night I mention to my husband that we’ll probably never see strip steaks again, let alone ribeye or porterhouse. I’m not going to pay that for beef. A package is like $45. We eat a lot of pork, which again, is super delicious if you don’t overcook it.
Cooking beef
Look also for the “rounds”, top round, eye of round, bottom round. London Broil where I live is thinner slices of top round.
Note that these are all relatively lean cuts of beef. If you want “high fat”, you’re going to want to add fat somehow.
Lots of ways to cook it, too, like:
There are many of them. I usually salt the outside and let sit for 2 hours. Then put on the rub, high heat (say, 425F) for 15 min, then 200F until a probe thermometer gets to 120F or so. It’ll rise 5-10 degrees after you take it out of the oven.
I usually cook one day, then take for lunches or reheat.
Yeah. Technically, London broil is a method of cooking, not a cut of meat. I only learned that a couple of months ago.
Better than me. I learned it about a week ago.
I was looking at calories/protein, and realized many of the “London broil” calories also said “top round”. I finally researched it.
Now, I never using the cooking method of “London broil”, but I will buy the “London broil” meat sometimes. Usually, I just buy top round, but sometimes it’s easier to have something thinner.
Ha! I never put it together - even though I’ve seen all sorts of meat marketed as “London Broil.”
I’m all for it, though.
Yes, they are pretty lean, but have great flavor. I pan sear them in ghee. After I take them out, I add a little water to the skillet to “deglaze” and get up all the brown bits and then pour it over the steak. Provides more fat and tastes delicious.
This is one example that describes “London broil” and the cooking technique:
I usually sous vide the “London broil” (which for me is top round), putting it in the sous vide in the morning and taking it out at night. I’ve done the same with top/bottom/eye of round.
Many times, I vacuum seal them, put them in the freezer, then put them directly into the sous vide for 8-10 hours or whenever I remember to take them out.
I have yet to marinate “London broil”. I’m not against it, but since these are usually for my lunches, I don’t need a marinade. I usually take cold to lunch, and just add salt and maybe some olives or sometimes capers. Most times, I just eat meat.
I also have yet to actually cook a London broil meat in a pan. To me, the sous vide technique is so simple and I don’t have to do much at all to have a lunch.
Same here. I’m a Restaurant Depot person, but we belong to Costco and Sam’s too - it pays to check everywhere. We do a lot of chuck roasts, chuck shoulder, chuck roll, bottom round, top round, butt, top butt, inside top round, eye round, and brisket. I don’t know the exact location of every single one of those on the cow by heart or anything, but we’ve done well with them all, and sometimes it’s just “Ooh, that looks good…”
And yeah - the price is 1/3 or 1/4 or even like 1/6 the price of more expensive cuts. A few times around the Holidays I’ll get a whole beef tenderloin and butcher it myself - it’s half or less the cost of ‘Filet Mignon.’
I agree. A couple years ago I got a ‘Chuck Steak’ (really cheap, and I guess for a reason) at a local grocery store and cooked it in my office - all I had was an electric skillet. It was pretty thick, and I don’t like it really ‘rare,’ so when I got done with it it was laughably tough. I don’t mind truly gnawing on a tough hunk of meat, and I was alone, so I ate it all, but my jaws were friggin’ sore when I was done.
This is genius. 
I love ghee - the smoke point is so much higher than regular butter that it works fantastically. And for sure - the ‘brown bits’ have great flavor. For sous-viding and even slow-cooking I always try to sear all the way around.
So true about the leanness, Bob. Here’s a seared and marinaded bottom round that’s now in a slow-cooker:
I have only done a “roast” a couple of times, I guess because I like to cook a fresh piece of meat each night for my husband and I, and it’s no trouble. There is definite value out there with beef, and it tastes great.
Haha! That just happened to me, too, as well! I cooked a steak on the grill (big mistake). I don’t waste anything, but this was really a nasty eat, it was so tough. I considered tossing it, but like you, just powered through it. 
Yes! I get the skillet screaming hot and our meat cooks in less than five minutes. I’ve never “cooked” so much as I have on keto/carnivore, but it is so hassle free and enjoyable. It’s a nightly ritual that I really enjoy. My husband and I marvel at how well we eat.
Not sure if you remember @FishChris. He discovered sous vide and he made everything that way. I’ve debated about getting a sous vide machine, but it’s still so foreign to me, I’m not quite ready. I understand it makes everything so tender.
Straight-up ‘cooking beef’ stuff. I love sous-vide, and even some monumentally tough cuts can come out great after a long cook. I tested beef ‘chuck roast,’ so something like the shoulder or neck muscles, which get used a lot; gonna be tough. 138°F or 59°C. 12 hours, and 24, 48 and 72. Both my wife and I liked the 72 hour the best. There is a noticeable change that occurs with long versus short cook times - the meat gets more like a ‘roast’ and less like a ‘steak.’ It shreds easily and is almost ‘terry cloth-like’ in consistency.
This was beef cooked to ‘Medium.’ A couple degrees less, and it would be ‘Medium Rare,’ which is a big favorite with a lot of people. I eat all the fat, no matter what, and don’t eat almost nothing. It has to be a really big and gnarly piece of hard gristle before I don’t swallow it. The longer cooks do break down the connective tissue - this is one big benefit. Flavor - the meat is sealed in a bag for sous-vide, and I’ve never seen a problem with flavor - it’s always good, regardless of cook time.
I also think that sous-vide truly shines with chicken and pork, because there is no need to overcook it to higher temperatures, ‘just to make sure.’ Both come out incredible juicy, compared to what many of us were used to in the past, with cooked chicken or pork. Beef, on the other hand, is easier to do.
Lately, I’ve been loving the slow-cookers, for beef. I’ve got the biggest Instant Pot - which is 8 quarts or 7.6 liters. For sauces, stews, anything - what’s great is that nothing will burn or stick to the bottom of the pan. I let it go overnight, which with a pan on the stove I would not do. I think most ‘slow cookers’ would work, for this. Not advertising for Instant Pot - it just works really well for me, and from what I’ve read the 3 ‘slow cooker’ settings are 85/91/96 degrees C or185/195/205 degrees F.
Bottom Round beef roast - going to be cooked for some hours, at least 7 or 8. My wife doesn’t like ‘slimy’ mushrooms, so I simmered some mushrooms to extract the flavor - Shi-itake, Porcini, Oyster, and Boletes. I think any mushrooms would be fine, but these have more flavor than the familiar white ‘button mushrooms.’
So, beef goes into the slow cooker, and vegetables if one wants, and salt and pepper ‘to taste,’ as they say - which includes a wide range. 
I made a spice infusion, also, since my wife doesn’t like ‘hard’ or ‘sharp’ stuff like Rosemary needles. No picture, and I used a spice bag - crammed it with basil, rosemary, oregano, thyme (which is often “Italian Seasoning”) and simmered the bag in water. A lot of work; next time I think I’ll just simmer the herbs in water and then strain it all.
The mushroom ‘juice’:
In my opinon, beef and umami (the mushrooms) flavors go together extraordinarily well. Add in spices of one’s choice, and you have an awesome dish.
Never thought about slow cooking them. I usually use a sous vide (or a long cook in the oven at low temp, like 200F), but a slow cooker is a good idea, too.
Another benefit: you can drink the liquid that results. Or at least I drink it.
I think you could make a sauce from it too, but I’ve had mixed results with that. Probably because I’m not familiar with sauce making.
@gingersmommy and @OldDoug I am a big fan of the sous vide. We even bought reusable bags so that we throw away less plastic (the one downfall to sous vide).
I sous vide tons of stuff. By far the best way to cook shrimp is to buy raw (frozen) and sous vide:
You can combine sous vide with smoking:
There’s one for pulled pork, too.
If you want to get a sous vide, wait until Thanksgiving/Black Friday and get one with a container and top. This makes it a lot easier.
I certainly hear that. A ‘pork roast’ or "porkloin’ or ‘porkloin roast’ is often really cheap, though (like half of less what even a cheap cut of beef is), and if you like it, it’s easy and does really well in the oven, uncovered. More expensive beef - rib roasts or standing rib roasts, etc., also do fantastically well, and so easy; almost can’t mess then up but definitely significantly more expensive.
Making stuff every day - I hear you there too, and that often works well and you get the freshest possible that way. I retired last year, and my wife is still working - we are big on storing stuff in the refrigerator. So, I make a ‘lot’ of something and we have it a couple times more during the following week, and my wife takes a little to work for lunch a time or two…
Same here, and I’ve eaten some pretty bad stuff, for the sake of that.
I found an untrimmed brisket at my local butcher shop and cut it into fourths.
I sous vide one section for about 30 hours, then refrigerated it.
Today I smoked it for a couple of hours.
It is the VERY BEST brisket I have EVER cooked! And so easy.
Thank-you for the link @ctviggen.
This is my first post in a year as I was crazy busy and fell off the keto wagon. But I’m back and saw this thread as I was scrolling.
I raise beef and pork and we waste nothing , I believe I have eaten every inch of animal. Lol
Some cuts that are cheap and on my top favs that get so over looked.
Cheeks (as in on the face) go to your local farm or butcher and ask for them. So delicious! So cheap!
Flank
Brisket
Chuck
Tongue
All of these need to be cooked low and slow. I cannot stress this enough!
Brisket and chuck are my fav roasts (besides Prime rib of course)
Tongue! I love tongue! And it’s so hard to find, these days.
Oxtail used to be dead cheap, but people discovered how tasty oxtail soup is. It’s no longer popular, but 30 years later, oxtail still costs as much per pound as steak. And not the cheap steak, either; I’m talkin file mignon.