The Main Ingredient
November 30, 2008
The Main Ingredient: Rump roast
It tastes better than it sounds

Pork butt has nothing to do with a pig's posterior. But beef? Let's just say if they included the tail on those little drawings showing cuts of the cow, it would be easy to locate the rump roast.

Rump comes from the round, which includes much of the hind leg. Seeing as how cows like to walk around, it's a well-used muscle. This means two things: tough, but with good beefy flavor.

It's hard to say why it's more difficult to find rump roast in grocery stores than, say, chuck roast. We like them both, and recently ordered a rump roast from Morlunda Farm in Greenbrier County. Morlunda is part of a group of southeastern West Virginia family farms that makes a delivery to Charleston every week or so.

You might have to travel north to find the world's biggest rump roast fans, however. In Wisconsin (Motto: Even Weirder than West Virginia), the town of Minocqua's annual Beef-A-Rama Festival includes the Rump Roast Run, a set of 5K and 10K races affectionately known as the Runnin' of the Rumps. (There are so many bad jokes we could make right here.)

Anyway, the male and female winners in each category are awarded - you guessed it - a rump roast. Obviously, this is what Charleston should do in place of the Sternwheel Regatta.

OK, now for actual cooking advice (or, How to make the most of your rump roast):

Rump roast is triangular and comes with or without bone. Meat is always juicier and more tender when cooked on the bone, but if boneless is all you can find, tie the roast with kitchen string so it's more uniform and less prone to drying out on the edges.

Speaking of drying out, we would highly advise against roasting this roast. Rump roast is leaner than chuck, and it doesn't have nearly as much gristly connective tissue, which turns some people off of chuck, but dry heat is still out. Moist-heat methods - a long, slow braise or a slow cooker - will leave this roast falling-apart tender.

Reach Robert J. Byers at robby...@wvgazette.com">robby...@wvgazette.com or 348-1236.

Reach Tara Tuckwiller at t...@wvgazette.com or 348-5189.

The Main Tip

Braising means cooking in a small amount of liquid. The liquid left in the pot will be highly concentrated and flavorful.

Red Wine-Braised Rump Roast

Serves 6

  1 bone-in, 3-pound rump roast

  3 cloves garlic, sliced

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