The beef knuckle is a sub-primal from the beef round. It weighs from between 4 kg to 6.5 kg, depending on the carcase weight.
The knuckle goes by many names: The ball of the round, sirloin tip, round tip, tip center (centre in UK and Ireland) and sometimes thick flank, beef ball tip roast, sirloin tip roast and French roll roast (there are different names around the world). Confusing, isn’t it?
After the knuckle cap is removed this is a very lean .
What Is The Beef Knuckle?
The beef knuckle is a very versatile beef sub-primal cut and a great source of lean beef.
There are four main muscles in the Beef Knuckle.
- Rectus femoris
- Vastus intermedius
- Vastus lateralis
- Vastus medialis.
The rectus femoris, vastus lateralis and vastus intermedius , known to customers in the USA as the tip center , tip side and tip bottom.
I mention them here for completeness, but in the real world, we use everyday terms.
Mind you, each country has different names for these muscles so it can get kinda confusing after a while. I’ll use photographs to give a better understanding of what it is we are talking about.