The front leg and shoulder of the beef critter. Does a tremendous amount of work moving the animal around, and has a lot of connective tissue. Also relatively fatty, very flavorful, and pretty affordable to the consumer.

Cuts from this primal hit the butcher case under a variety of names: chuck steak, chuck roast, 7-bone roast, arm roast, blade roast, chuck eye roast, chuck wagon roast, and more. There will inevitably be a few steaks in the mix, but you should treat them like the roasts: low temp, long time.

Braises are king for dealing with cuts from this primal. See my details on braising here.

Another option is to dry roast low and slow. It might save you a little time (though likely not much) and give you a different texture, but with far less room for error. If it were my cut, I’d braise it. 

Next up: brisket.