How to Handle Cheap Beef Roasts on Carnivore (Blood Vessels, Tough Cuts, and Cooking Tips)

June 9, 2026

A post on r/carnivore caught my attention this week. A frustrated user bought a batch of shoulder roasts and every single one was "absolutely chock full of floppy rubberband like blood vessel roots." They were fed up enough to ask if there's a cheap cut that just doesn't have thoe things.

If you've ever bitten into a roast and gotten that rubbery, chewy tube instead of tender meat, you know exactly what they mean. It's one of the most off-putting experiences in cooking beef. And for carnivore dieters who eat a lot of cheap cuts by neccessity, it's a problem worth solving.

Let's talk about what those things actually are, which cuts have the most of them, and what you can do about it.

What Are Those Rubbery Things Anyway?

Those floppy, tube-like structures in shoulder roasts are blood vessels - mainly veins and arteries. Specifically, you're looking at the brachial artery and its branches, plus the accompanying veins that supply blood to the shoulder muscles. In a mature cow, these can be surprisingly large. Think drinking-straw diameter, sometimes bigger.

The reason they feel rubbery is the same reason tendons and ligaments are tough: connective tissue. Blood vessel walls are made of smooth muscle and elastic fibers. When cooked quickly, they don't break down. They just get warm and rubbery.

Shoulder roasts (chuck) are especially bad because the shoulder is a heavily muscled area with a rich blood supply. Every major vessel that feeds the front leg passes through this area. So when you buy a chuck roast or shoulder roast, you're getting all that plumbing.

Which Cuts Have the Fewest Blood Vessels?

The short answer: the farther from the legs and internal organs, the cleaner the meat.

Rib roasts and ribeye rolls are the cleanest. The rib section has relatively few major blood vessels running through it. That's one reason ribeye commands such a premium - you get almost pure muscle and fat with minimal connective tissue or vascular structures. But this is expensive, and if you're buying cheap roasts, ribeye isn't in the picture.

Sirloin tip roasts are a solid middle ground. They come from the hindquarter but avoid the major vessel bundles. You'll still find some vessels, but far fewer than chuck. Sirloin tip is leaner than chuck, so it's not ideal if you need the fat content, but the texture is much more consistent.

Brisket is hit or miss. The flat cut has fewer vessels. The point cut has more because of the fat marbling, but also more connective tissue that needs long cooking. A well-cooked brisket can be amazing, but it requires time and attention.

Round roasts (top round, bottom round, eye of round) come from the hind leg. These are lean and can be tough, but they tend to have fewer prominent blood vessels than chuck. The tradeoff is less fat and a denser texture.

For a budget-friendly option with fewer blood vessels, sirloin tip or bottom round are your best bets.

How to Deal With Blood Vessels in Shoulder Roasts

If chuck or shoulder roasts are your only affordable option - and honestly, that's most of us - you have a few strategies.

Trimming. Before cooking, run your fingers along the surface of the roast. You can feel the vessels as slightly raised, firm tubes. Use a sharp boning knife to cut along them and lift them out. It takes a few minutes per roast but makes a huge difference. The vessels are usually clustered near the center of the roast where the major arteries enter.

Slicing against the grain. After cooking, slice the roast thinly against the grain. Even if you miss a vessel during trimming, slicing it into thin cross-sections makes the rubbery texture much less noticeable. A thick slice with a vessel running through it is gross. A thin slice that cuts through it is barely noticeable.

Low and slow cooking. This is the most effective strategy. Those blood vessel walls are collagen and elastin. At around 200°F, collagen breaks down into gelatin. Elastin doesn't break down the same way, but prolonged moist cooking at low temperatures makes it significantly softer. A chuck roast cooked at 275°F for 4-5 hours in a covered pot with beef broth will have noticeably softer vessels than one cooked hot and fast.

Pressure cooking. An Instant Pot or stovetop pressure cooker is the nuclear option. The combination of high pressure, high temperature, and moisture breaks down connective tissue faster than any other method. A chuck roast in a pressure cooker for 60-90 minutes comes out fork-tender, and the blood vessels are soft enough that most people don't notice them.

Cooking Methods That Make Cheap Roasts Disappear

Beyond the blood vessel issue, cheap roasts have a reputation for being tough. That's not a flaw in the meat - it's a mismatch between the cut and the cooking method. Cheap cuts have lots of connective tissue. That tissue needs time and moisture to break down.

Here's what actually works.

Braising. Sear the roast hard in tallow or butter, then cook it in a covered pot with a small amount of liquid (bone broth works perfectly) at 275-300°F for 3-5 hours depending on size. The liquid should come about a quarter of the way up the roast, not submerged. This creates steam that tenderizes without washing away flavor.

Sous vide. Set your circulator to 135°F for a medium-rare texture (great for sirloin tip or round roasts) or 155°F for a more traditional pot roast texture. Cook for 24-48 hours. The long cook time breaks down connective tissue without drying out the meat. Sear hard after the bath.

Slow cooker. Dump and forget. Add the roast, some tallow or butter, salt, and nothing else. Cook on low for 8-10 hours. The results aren't as precise as sous vide, but for busy carnivore dieters, a slow cooker lets you set it and come back to a meal that's ready.

Mississippi roast adaptation. This is a popular online recipe that adapts perfectly for carnivore. Take a chuck roast, salt it heavily, add pepperoncinis (yes, these are plants, but a couple pepperoncinis add minimal carbs and the flavor is worth it for some people - or just skip them), a stick of butter, and cook low and slow. The butter adds fat, the long cook tenderizes the meat, and the result is shreddable roast beef that handles those blood vessel issues by breaking everything down.

A good leave-in probe thermometer helps a lot with these methods. You want the internal temp to hit 200-205°F for full connective tissue breakdown in braised roasts. Without a thermometer, you're guessing.

The Bottom Line on Cheap Roasts

Blood vessels in cheap roasts are annoying but manageable. If you can afford sirloin tip or round roasts, those will give you a cleaner experience. If you're stuck with chuck or shoulder, spend the extra five minutes trimming before cooking, use low-and-slow methods, and slice against the grain.

The Reddit user who posted about this ended up with a batch of particularly bad shoulder roasts. It happens. But the solution isn't giving up on cheap roasts - it's knowing how to handle them.

Carnivore is expensive enough without avoiding the most affordable cuts. Learn to work with them and you'll save money while still eating well.

Original discussion: r/carnivore - Is there a cheap roast known to have less blood vessels?

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