Cut vs cut
Chuck Eye Steak vs Chuck Steak
The short answer
Same primal, opposite cooking. A chuck eye steak is the ribeye muscle where it runs forward into the chuck, so it marbles like a ribeye and cooks like one, hot and fast to 130 to 135°F. A chuck steak is a slice of chuck roast: several muscles held together by collagen, which needs hours of braising to about 203°F.
Chuck Eye Steak
The first steaks off the chuck eye roll, where the longissimus, the ribeye muscle, keeps going past the rib primal at the fifth rib. Heavily marbled, close to a ribeye, and priced as chuck. The catch is consistency: the further from the rib a steak was cut, the more seams of connective tissue creep in, and only a handful come off each animal.
Chuck Steak
A chuck roast sliced thin. Seven-bone, blade, arm and chuck roll all get cut and sold as chuck steak, and each holds several shoulder muscles bound by collagen and fat. That collagen is elastic at steak temperatures and turns to gelatin after hours in liquid near 200°F, which is the whole cooking strategy. A seven-bone slice includes the flat iron muscle, the most tender bite in it.
Side by side
| Chuck Eye Steak | Chuck Steak | |
|---|---|---|
| Primal | Chuck | Chuck |
| Muscle | Longissimus, the ribeye muscle | Several shoulder muscles separated by seams of collagen |
| Cut from | The chuck eye roll, at the rib end | The chuck roll, shoulder clod or blade section |
| IMPS subprimal | 116D | 116A, 114 |
| Tenderness (1 to 5) | 3 | 1 |
| Cook to | 130 to 135°F, medium-rare | About 203°F, until fork-tender |
| Best methods | Pan-sear, grill | Braise, stew, smoke wrapped |
| Supply | A handful per animal | Plentiful |
| Also sold as | Chuck eye, poor man's ribeye | Blade steak, seven-bone steak, arm steak |
The verdict
Which one to buy
Chuck eye if you want a steak tonight. Sear it like a ribeye and accept some variation from one steak to the next. Chuck steak if you have a few hours and a pot: it braises into beef with more body than a lean cut can give. The mistake is buying a chuck steak for the grill because it is cheap and says steak on the label. We stock chuck eye steaks and whole chuck roasts. We don't sell chuck cut as steaks, so if a recipe calls for them, slice a roast into thick slabs.
The two labels sound like one cut at two prices. They need opposite cooking, and mixing them up is how a lot of people decide they don't like chuck.
Where each one comes from
The chuck is the shoulder, everything in front of the sixth rib. Most of it is hard-working muscle woven through with connective tissue. One muscle runs through it that doesn't fit: the longissimus, the eye of the ribeye, which carries on forward past the rib line. The steaks cut from its first inches on the chuck side are chuck eyes. Almost everything else sliced from the shoulder is sold as chuck steak.
Why they cook so differently
A chuck eye is mostly one muscle with fat marbled through it, so a fast sear to medium-rare works. A chuck steak is several muscles held together by collagen. At 130°F that collagen is elastic sheeting your teeth have to get through. Held in liquid for hours until the meat reaches about 203°F, it turns to gelatin and the meat pulls apart. Between roughly 160 and 195°F it is still tough, so a braise that seems to be failing usually needs more time, not less.
Telling them apart at the counter
A chuck eye shows one large, round eye of marbled meat, often with a seam of connective tissue at one edge. A chuck steak shows several separate muscles divided by lines of silverskin and fat.
For how close a chuck eye gets to the steak it is named after, see Chuck Eye Steak vs Ribeye.
Common questions
Is a chuck eye steak the same as a chuck steak?
No. Both come from the chuck, but the chuck eye is the ribeye muscle where it crosses into the shoulder, and it cooks like a ribeye. A chuck steak is a cross-section of the shoulder's working muscles and needs a braise.
Can I grill a chuck steak?
Not the way you grill a ribeye. At steak temperatures the collagen between its muscles stays tough. Braise it, or smoke it wrapped, until it is fork-tender.
Which one should I use for pot roast?
Chuck steak, or better, a whole chuck roast. A chuck eye would spend its marbling and tenderness in a pot, and there are only a handful on each animal.
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