Silverside substitute

Best substitute

Bottom round or outside round

Use the same amount by weight as the silverside you are replacing

Best for pot roast

Close match

If you are American and reading a British or Australian recipe, buy bottom round or outside round, which is the identical muscle, and use it weight for weight with no other changes. Topside or top round is a very close second and is slightly more tender and more evenly shaped. If the recipe says corned silverside, that is simply brined beef and a supermarket corned beef brisket swaps in at 1:1, coming out fattier and shreddier rather than sliceable. For a slow-cooked pot roast, beef chuck is far more forgiving than silverside, though it falls apart into shreds instead of holding neat slices.

Other silverside substitutes

Ranked, with the exact amount to use

2Topside or top round
Close match
Use the same amount by weight
From the inside of the same hind leg, marginally more tender and more uniformly shaped, so it roasts a little more evenly and carves more neatly, but it is just as lean and just as unforgiving if overcooked.
What changes
Best for
roast beef, pot roast, thinly sliced roast beef sandwiches, braising
Because it is a touch more tender, top round is the better choice if you plan to roast the meat rare and slice it thin for sandwiches. Cook to 130F for medium-rare and no further. For a long pot roast the difference between the two is negligible.
3Eye of round
Different texture
Use the same amount by weight
The leanest and most tight-grained option, with a very clean beef flavour and almost no fat, so it slices beautifully thin when roasted rare and turns dry and chalky the moment it goes past medium.
What changes
Best for
rare roast beef, deli-style sliced beef, steak sandwiches, roast beef for a crowd
Only worth it if you roast it rare. Salt it a day ahead, roast at a low 225F to an internal 125F, rest, chill if you like, then slice as thinly as you can manage. Do not use it for a long braise or pot roast, because with no collagen and no fat there is nothing to gain from the extra hours.
4Corned beef brisket (for corned silverside)
Different texture
Use the same amount by weight
The American default for cured beef, and noticeably fattier and richer than corned silverside, so it comes out juicier but tends to shred rather than yielding the tidy pink slices Australian and Irish cooks expect.
What changes
Best for
corned beef and cabbage, salt beef sandwiches, boiled dinner, Reubens
Simmer the same way, about 50 minutes per pound at a bare simmer until a fork slides in easily. Buy the flat cut rather than the point if you want slices, since the point is much fattier. If you want the leaner texture of true corned silverside, look for corned round or ask a deli counter for corned bottom round.
5Rump roast
Close match
Use the same amount by weight
A little fattier and slightly more marbled than silverside, which makes it more forgiving in a slow oven, at the cost of a slightly less neat, less uniform slice.
What changes
Best for
pot roast, slow roasting, braising, Sunday roast
Note the transatlantic confusion: British rump is a steak from the hip, closer to what Americans call top sirloin, while American rump roast comes from the round and is much closer to silverside. If a British recipe calls for rump steak, buy top sirloin. If an American recipe calls for rump roast, silverside or bottom round is what you want.
6Beef chuck or blade roast
Different texture
Use the same amount by weight
Far more forgiving in a long braise because it is full of fat and collagen, so a pot roast made with chuck is juicier and more deeply flavoured, but it pulls apart into shreds and will not give you the clean slices a silverside pot roast produces.
What changes
Best for
pot roast, slow cooker beef, braises, shredded beef, beef stew
This is the substitution to make if your silverside pot roasts keep coming out dry, because chuck is genuinely a better cut for that job. Cook it to 200F to 205F internal, well past where you would take silverside, so the collagen fully melts. Just do not expect to carve it.

What is Silverside?

Silverside is Silverside is the British, Irish, Australian and New Zealand name for the large lean muscle on the outside of a cow's hind leg, named for the sheet of silvery connective tissue on its surface, and in North America the same piece of meat is sold as bottom round or outside round.

Cooking tips

Silverside is very lean and does not baste itself, so it only has two good destinations: cooked fast to rare and sliced thin, or cooked slow and wet as a pot roast or brined as salt beef. The failure mode is the middle ground, roasting it to medium or well done in a dry oven, which produces grey, dry, stringy meat every time.
If you are roasting it, take it to 130F internal and no further, then rest it a full 20 minutes before carving. Salting the whole joint a day ahead and leaving it uncovered in the fridge improves both browning and seasoning, since silverside has no fat to carry flavour.
For a pot roast, brown the joint hard on every side, then braise it in liquid that comes about two thirds of the way up, covered, at 300F to 325F for three to four hours. It is done when a skewer meets no resistance, and it will pass through a tough stage on the way there.
Carve silverside across the grain and as thinly as you can. This cut has a long, straight, coarse grain and slicing along it produces meat that eats tough regardless of how well you cooked it. Look at the surface, find the direction the fibres run, and cut at ninety degrees to them.
Corned silverside benefits from a soak. If your cured joint tastes very salty, cover it in cold water for two to four hours, or change the water once, before simmering. Simmer it gently in fresh water with bay, peppercorns and onion, never boiling hard, or the outside turns to threads before the middle is tender.
If you want to corn or cure silverside yourself, follow a tested cure recipe exactly and do not adjust the salt, the curing salt or the timing. Curing salts contain nitrite at a specific level for a reason, and reducing them or substituting plain salt is a genuine food safety issue rather than a matter of taste. The National Center for Home Food Preservation publishes tested guidance worth following.

Frequently asked questions

Can I just leave the silverside out?

If it is the main course, no, but you can change the dish entirely. A chuck pot roast, brisket or beef cheeks all give you slow-cooked beef with a richer result. For a corned beef dinner, there is no way around needing cured beef, so buy corned brisket or a deli-cured round instead.

What is silverside called in America?

Bottom round, or outside round. It is the same muscle from the outer hind leg. American butchers usually break the round into top round, bottom round and eye of round, and the bottom round is your silverside. A piece labelled bottom round roast or rump roast will behave the way a British or Australian recipe expects silverside to behave.

What is the difference between silverside and topside?

They sit on opposite sides of the same hind leg. Topside, or top round, comes from the inside of the leg and is slightly more tender and evenly shaped. Silverside comes from the outside and is a little tougher, with a sheet of silvery sinew across one face. Both are very lean, both need either rare roasting or slow wet cooking, and either works in the other's recipes.

Is corned silverside the same as corned beef?

It is one kind of corned beef. Corning just means curing beef in a salt brine, usually with nitrite and pickling spices. Australian, New Zealand and British butchers traditionally corn silverside, which gives a lean joint that slices neatly. American corned beef is usually brisket, which is fattier and richer and tends to shred. Both are simmered the same way.

Why did my silverside come out dry and tough?

Almost certainly because it was cooked to the middle. This cut has no fat to keep it moist and not enough collagen to reward a moderate cook, so anything between rare and fully broken down is bad news. Either pull it at 130F and slice it paper thin, or push on to three or four hours in liquid until a skewer slides in freely. Also check you carved across the grain, since carving with it makes even well-cooked silverside chew like rope.

Related substitutes

More meat & protein substitutes

Silverside substitute

Other silverside substitutes

2Topside or top round

3Eye of round

4Corned beef brisket (for corned silverside)

5Rump roast

6Beef chuck or blade roast