Does the beef cut matter when making stroganoff?

Question

I would like to make a stroganoff recipe I have that calls for cubed Sirloin Tip Roast, but I was recently given some raw steak that I would like to use in its place. The steak I was given was not labeled, so I don’t know what cut it is. How interchangeable are beef cuts in regards to stroganoff making? Is it important to know what cut of steak it is? I’m not sure if this information is relevant, but it is a pressure cooker (instant pot) stroganoff recipe. Thank you!

Answer 1

Beef cut does matter. Sirloin tip is a relatively tender cut, cuts that have done more work like shoulder, round, leg cuts have more connective tissue and need a significantly longer cooking time. In a pressure cooker this isn't that long, 1 hour is what I've seen for instant pot recipes using working cuts.

Also what matters is fat content. Whatever you put in the instant pot is going to come out of it, if you put a fatty cut in you'll have a fatty result, so think about trimming.

I would fry a portion of one of the steaks and see how tender the result is, that's a good gauge. Plus you get to eat steak.

Answer 2

Hard to know how this translates to the pressure cooker context, but I've made stroganoff many times over the years in a skillet using a variety of cuts of beef, and I've never noticed that much of a difference in the quality. I've used London Broil, flank steak, skirt steak, flat iron steak, sirloin and probably others that I'm not remembering. What's more important is that you slice the meat as thin as possible across the grain. The only times I've had stroganoff where the meat was unpleasantly chewy, the thickness was more at fault than the cut.

Answer 3

The cut of beef used for stoganoff matters somewhat. I learned how to make Beef Stroganoff from a Graham Kerr TV show back in the 1980s (back before he went all healthy and still made great food). I still use that same recipe today with only a few tweaks and one major one. On that show he used a tenderloin of beef. I thought that, for me, this was a tremendous waste. I made it first time and since using top round London Broil. I think other cuts of beef round and steaks would be fine (trim off the fat). I would not recommend a cut with a lot of connective tissue like chuck

Answer 4

Do you want it to matter? I have seen it made with ground beef. I like to use steak like tenderloin or rib, grill to rare , slice it and throw it into the prepared (hot) Stroganoff sauce. Very tender. You can do what you want , even use a pressure cooker.