London Broil

There really is no meat that shouldn't be smoked (refer to my avatar line)...where there's a will, there's a way. London Broil is typically from the primal round cut, top round in specific, and is very lean (often found to be cut on the bias, not directly across the grain). Depending on the butcher and meat dept manager, if buying from the supermarket, there may be variations as to where this labeled cut is taken from. Being lean, it should be cooked med-rare to medium, at most. There is a bit of, what some would say, deception, on the label of a London Broil, as it's not the cut so much as the cooking method. London Broil recipes usually call for marinating the beef, then oven broiling or grilling. Nonetheless, you may want to consider a reverse sear, if you wish to smoke it, giving the best of both worlds (smoke flavor and light charring with grill marks). You could also smoke and pan-sear (cast iron does a great job for this). If you have the typical ~2" thickness that I generally find with the London Broil (quite similar to the cross-rib chuck roast), it makes a great subject for slicing thin before serving/plating. These also make good subjects for fajitas with some light trimming prior to cooking, again, providing the beef is not overcooked. Don't forget to rest it for a few minutes after the sear to redistribute those precious juices before slicing.

Eric

forluvofsmoke said:

 
There really is no meat that shouldn't be smoked (refer to my avatar line)...where there's a will, there's a way. London Broil is typically from the primal round cut, top round in specific, and is very lean (often found to be cut on the bias, not directly across the grain). Depending on the butcher and meat dept manager, if buying from the supermarket, there may be variations as to where this labeled cut is taken from. Being lean, it should be cooked med-rare to medium, at most. There is a bit of, what some would say, deception, on the label of a London Broil, as it's not the cut so much as the cooking method. London Broil recipes usually call for marinating the beef, then oven broiling or grilling. Nonetheless, you may want to consider a reverse sear, if you wish to smoke it, giving the best of both worlds (smoke flavor and light charring with grill marks). You could also smoke and pan-sear (cast iron does a great job for this). If you have the typical ~2" thickness that I generally find with the London Broil (quite similar to the cross-rib chuck roast), it makes a great subject for slicing thin before serving/plating. These also make good subjects for fajitas with some light trimming prior to cooking, again, providing the beef is not overcooked. Don't forget to rest it for a few minutes after the sear to redistribute those precious juices before slicing.

Eric

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Yeah, what Eric said  

If you do a reverse sear, remember that you want to pull it off the smoker 1 "temp" earlier than normal as the sear will take it up a temp.

When cured London broil is good for dried beef.

Excellent summary Eric. I'll take a minute and add some specifics from my experience(s) with London Broil. I have long been a fan of LB and cook it on a regular basis. The most recent was weekend before last. We just finished construction and moved into the new house. I had a built-in 42" Lynx Professional grill installed to complete my arsenal...for now anyway. Wife says four cookers is enough.....but what does she know?? :-) The grill is equipped with a sear burner that will go up to 1100 degrees and I put it to good use. Starting out I lightly coated the LB with olive oil then covered it with coarse ground black pepper. Montreal Steak Seasoning is great too but be careful not to over-do it. You can easily overpower the flavor of the meat with too much seasoning. With the grill heated up I seared the outside of the roast for about two minutes per side. This gave the beautiful grill marks that I love and it seemed to seal in some of the natural juices. I then moved it over to the smoker which was at 230* and smoking nicely with some Pecan wood. It only took a couple of hours to finish so it didn't have a heavy smoke flavor but it was definately noticable. You'll want to pull this cut at an IT of 138 to 142. It's a lean cut of meat and this will give a nice medium rare finish. If you cook it much higher than this you'll lose a lot of the flavor and tenderness due to it being so lean. I then wrapped it in foil and put it in the cooler with some towels to rest for a bit. While resting I made some garlic mashed potatoes and grilled asparagus basted with garlic and butter. It was a fantastic meal and I can't say enough good about smoking a London Broil. They are great just grilling them but much better with the light smoke flavor you'll get with a couple hours of time in the smoker. Sorry...no pics though. I wasn't expecting to post about it so I didn't bother. Bottom line Rob....I say go for it!!

Hope this helps,

Robert

I also like to use London broil (on sale) for making my jerky. If you buy a top round roast, you'll need to trim off the fat cap, cut into slices and cut into strips. With LB you just trim the edges of fat and slice into strips.

I use London broil for beef jerky exclusively but I'm not smoking my jerky. I have a commercial grade dehydrator I do mine in. Can't see any issue smoking it. Like the other fellows say searing first would be the best option.

Also, regardless of which cut of meat is packaged as your London Broil, it works well to slice it on the bias across the grain as shown here.