How to Butcher Beef Sirloin Tip

This is time consuming and requires a steady hand and patience.  If you have the time, have a steady hand, patience, and a REALLY sharp knife…please read on.

First you need to find a store that sells WHOLE SIRLOIN TIPS.  Although prices have risen drastically, it is still the best bang for your buck for a great meal that is lean and flavorful.  They are typically vacuum packed and I get mine at SAMS Club as they usually have the largest ones and the best price.  I used to only keep one roast whole and ground and sliced the rest into steaks, but I now longer do that because it is not worth the work or the expense of wasting that beautiful meat.  I now only butcher the tip into 3 roasts.  You will get a center cut sirloin roast (eye round), a top round sirloin roast, and a bottom round sirloin roast.  The center and top rounds are oven roasts.  The bottom round is a pot roast.  At least that is the best use of meat I have found.

A typical Whole Sirloin Tip costs between $30 and $40 which will give you a roast between 10 to 15 pounds.  The roast I butchered today weighed 12.81 pounds and cost $36.64 ($2.86/pound).

Before Butchering

You will want to remove the sirloin tip from its packaging over a colunder in a large pot or bowl as there will be a lot of liquid that comes out.  I do not waste this, it becomes part of my homemade beef stock and my base for my homemade dog food.  Reserve the liquid for later use.

Once most of the liquid has drained, I place in another colander on a large platter as above.  Then you need to use a very sharp knife and remove all the fat and sinew (silver skin) from the outside of the roast.  This is very important.  The silver skin is a very thin membrane around the meat and is very bitter and can be tough when cooked.  Save all that you cut away from the roast.  If place your knife into the roast just under the skin and get yourself a tag to grab onto and then pull the skin toward you while gently sliding the knife down to remove it, I have found this to be the easiest way to remove it.  This is the most time consuming step, but it is a must.  Some of the skin will come off in tiny pieces and some will just slide off under the knife.  Be gentle or you will remove more actual meat than is necessary.

Sirloin Tip with outside Fat and sinew removed

Now you can see the big veins running through the roast.  There will be two major ones that have sinew on both sides.  At this point, I actually let my fingers do some work as the membranes are very thin and you can puncture them with your fingers to find where the three roasts in the tip separate.  I just stick my hands in and start breaking the membrane and pulling them apart.

Separating the roasts in the Sirloin Tip

You will encounter some places where fingers won't work to break the membranes.  I use the tip of the sharp knife to slowly and easily cut the fat/membranes to separate.

Separating the roasts in a Sirloin Tip

Separating the roasts in a Sirloin Tip

Once you have separated the roasts from each other you will again need to remove the excess fat and sinew.  I only remove this from the outside.  These are very lean roasts so any marbling is necessary for cooking and will disappear when cooked.

Top Round (Eye Round) with Sinew removed ready for freezerCenter Round without sinew removed

Bottom Round with sinew removed

Center Round sinew removed and ready for freezer

Bottom Round with sinew removed ready for freezer

Leftover sinew fat and meat

So, I take the three approximately 4 pound roasts and freeze them.  The post roast gives us two dinners and 1 lunch.  The oven roasts give us 4 dinners and about two pounds of sliced beef for sandwiches for about 10 lunches.  We have a meat slicer so I can thinly slice the leftover beef and freeze it.  So for $36 we get 6 dinners and 11 lunches.  Still is only $2.12 per meal.  I also get beef stock for other recipes and additive for dog food that allows the dry food to last longer and it's free.  Normally this is stuff you would just throw away.

Then I take the leftover sinew, fat, and meat and place it in a large pot.  I fill the pot with water and add onions, garlic, celery, shredded carrots, salt, pepper, rosemary and a little thyme.  I bring to a boil, lower to a simmer and simmer for a couple of hours.  I then strain the liquid to separate the solids left.  I pour the liquid I need to freeze for recipes in small 1 cup containers (usually four).  Then I divide the solids into equal containers and divide the remaining liquid into each container.  This I use as a broth for my dogs.  They get two cups of cooked rice with 1 cup of the beef mixture and 2 cups of water mixed with their dog food every night.  Needless to say, when I speak, my dogs listen!

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Source: https://unpluggingthecord.wordpress.com/her-page/butchering-at-home-save-a-ton-of-money/butchering-a-whole-sirloin-tip/

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