Top Round substitute

Best substitute

Bottom round or sirloin tip roast

Use the same amount by weight as the top round you are replacing

Best for roast beef

Close match

The best substitutes for top round are bottom round or sirloin tip roast at 1:1, or eye of round if you plan to slice very thin. Top sirloin is the swap that makes the dish better rather than merely equal. The job top round does is provide a big, cheap, uniformly lean block of beef that slices into wide neat pieces, which is why it is the standard cut for home roast beef, deli slicing, jerky and marinated London broil. It has almost no marbling, so its tenderness comes entirely from cooking no further than medium-rare and slicing thin across the grain.

Other top round substitutes

Ranked, with the exact amount to use

2Eye of round roast
Different texture
Use the same amount by weight
The small cylindrical muscle in the middle of the round, often the cheapest roast in the shop.
What changes
Best for
very thinly sliced roast beef, cold beef sandwiches, carpaccio-style dishes, jerky
Even leaner than top round, with tighter fibres and a neat round shape that slices beautifully. The margin for error is smaller: at medium it turns dry and faintly livery in a way top round tolerates slightly better. Salt it a day ahead, reverse-sear in a 250 F oven, pull at 130 F and slice paper-thin, and it is excellent. Rush it and it is the worst roast in the case.
3Top sirloin roast
Close match
Use the same amount by weight
A modest step up in price for a real step up in eating quality, stocked in essentially every supermarket.
What changes
Best for
roast beef, steak sliced for a crowd, London broil, sandwiches, cooks worried about dryness
Noticeably more tender and juicier, with a richer beefy flavor, because it carries some marbling that top round simply does not have. That also means it is more forgiving if you overshoot the temperature by a few degrees. The trade-offs are cost and marinade penetration: an acidic marinade flavors lean round more deeply than it flavors sirloin.
4Rump roast
Close match
Use the same amount by weight
The cut just above the round, sold in the United States as rump roast or bottom round rump roast.
What changes
Best for
pot roast, slow-cooker beef, roast beef, shredded beef sandwiches
A close cousin with slightly more fat and connective tissue than top round, which makes it a better choice when the beef will be slow-cooked and shredded and a slightly less neat choice when you want wide even slices. If you are roasting it to medium-rare, treat it exactly like top round. If you are pot roasting, expect a moister, more shreddable result.
5Beef chuck roast (for slow-cooked recipes only)
Different texture
Use the same amount by weight
A shoulder cut that is far better than round for anything braised, and far worse for anything roasted rare.
What changes
Best for
pot roast, shredded beef, stews, slow-cooker dinners, beef and gravy
If your top round was headed for the slow cooker, chuck is the better buy: it is full of collagen, so it turns silky and moist where round turns dry and fibrous. But it cannot replace top round for roast beef or deli slices, because seams of connective tissue never soften under two hours of dry heat and it will not carve into clean wide slices.
6Flank steak
Different texture
Use the same amount by weight
A thin lean steak from the belly wall, useful when the top round in your recipe is being marinated and sliced.
What changes
Best for
London broil, marinated grilled beef, steak sandwiches, stir-fry, salad beef
Similar leanness and a similar reliance on thin cross-grain slicing, but the flavor is a little richer and more distinctly beefy, and it is much thinner, so cooking time drops from perhaps an hour of roasting to eight minutes of broiling. It cannot be carved into a roast, so use it only where the beef ends up in slices or strips.

What is Top Round?

Top Round is Top round is a large, very lean, boneless muscle from the inside of the steer's rear leg, sold as top round roast, top round steak, inside round in Canada and topside in Britain and Australia.

Cooking tips

Top round has essentially no marbling, so the difference between good and awful is about ten degrees. Cook to 130 to 135 F for medium-rare and no further, and use an instant-read thermometer rather than a timer, because roast weights vary wildly.
Salt the roast and leave it uncovered in the fridge overnight. On a cut this lean, dry brining is the single most useful thing you can do: it seasons the interior, holds on to moisture during cooking and dries the surface so it browns properly.
Reverse-sear works better than a hot roast for round cuts. Cook at 225 to 250 F until the centre reaches 125 F, then blast it at 500 F for eight minutes or sear it in a pan. The gentle first stage keeps far more of the interior pink and juicy.
Slice as thin as you physically can, across the grain, ideally with a long sharp carving knife on a chilled roast if you are making sandwich beef. Thin slicing shortens the muscle fibres and is what turns a lean cut from chewy into tender.
Top round is the classic jerky cut precisely because it is lean, since fat goes rancid in dried meat. If you are substituting for jerky, choose eye of round or bottom round rather than sirloin, and trim every visible scrap of fat.

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between top round, bottom round and eye of round?

All three come from the rear leg and all are lean. Top round, or topside, is the largest and most tender of the three and slices widest. Bottom round, or silverside, is a little tougher and coarser. Eye of round is the small tight cylinder in the middle, the leanest of all and the least forgiving. They substitute for each other freely.

Can I just leave it out?

No, it is the main protein. But it is one of the easiest cuts to replace, because its job is only to be a big lean block of beef. Any lean roast from the round, rump or sirloin, cooked to medium-rare and sliced thin, will give you the same dish.

Is top round the same as London broil?

Usually, yes. London broil is a store label rather than an anatomical cut, and in most American supermarkets it is a thick piece of top round sold ready to marinate and broil. If you find top round but no London broil, you already have what the recipe wants.

Why did my top round come out tough and dry?

Almost always because it went past medium-rare, or because it was sliced with the grain instead of across it. There is no marbling to hide overcooking, so 140 F and above reads as dry. Cook to 130 to 135 F, rest fifteen minutes, and slice thin at right angles to the fibres.

Can I use top round for pot roast?

You can, but chuck is better. Round has little connective tissue, so hours of braising dry it out and squeeze it stringy rather than melting it into something silky, and the gravy stays thin. Keep round for roasting rare and buy chuck or brisket when you want to slow-cook.

Related substitutes

More meat & protein substitutes

Top Round substitute

Other top round substitutes

2Eye of round roast

3Top sirloin roast

4Rump roast

5Beef chuck roast (for slow-cooked recipes only)

6Flank steak