The right way to do roast beef.

[Eccles]

Finally got it right after many years of trying and having had advice from son who did Exeter Catering college:-
1. Assuming you can afford it always buy Sirloin or Topside which is at least 28 days old. Around a kilo is best but adjust times a bit if larger.
2. Bung in roasting tin and pour over 1/2 glass of red leave at room temperature overnight.
3 Get oven up to 220 before putting it in for 20 mins then reduce temperature to 180 and cover the tin to help keep moisture in.
4. After another 25 mins check temperature with a meat thermometer (not essential but gives a more certain result). Hopefully the inner temperature should now be 55 -58 and you can take it out to "rest" on a decent plate for at least ten mins.
The result will be what is known as medium rare, tender and juicy,Yum!
Yes I have done "well done" in the past but it was always dry and tough and professional chefs never do it.

 

[MNW67]

@Mottie has a way of roasting beef which he says is foolproof and always seems to come out perfect. I believe he uses a meat thermometer. You could exchange notes!

I always like it well hung. Love the smell when it's gone really funky. Sometimes the topside has gone almost black on the outside from our butcher.

 

[fillyboy]

I always like it well hung

 

[Notch7]

I use a thermapen One, a bit pricey at £58 but they are the best accessory for meat cooking especially BBQ.

 

[Lower]

+1 for the thermapen. A meat thermometer is the difference between average and excellent.

I did a three rib of beef on the rotisserie on my bbq today. The satisfaction you get as the chef for cooking the food is huge when the food you’ve cooked is enjoyed.

 

[Mottie]

@Mottie has a way of roasting beef which he says is foolproof and always seems to come out perfect. I believe he uses a meat thermometer. You could exchange notes!

I always like it well hung. Love the smell when it's gone really funky. Sometimes the topside has gone almost black on the outside from our butcher.

Get the joint (topside) at room temperature. Season and seal it. Cook in the oven at 160° until it reaches 40° inside. Remove from oven, cover loosely with foil. Rest it for at least one hour before carving. Job done. Perfect medium rare. Can’t go wrong.

 

[Murdochcat]

Slow cooker

 

[Atgni]

Getting to room temperature is the hidden secrete -- but its not hidden is it !. Also the bigger the piece the better it cooks. I am big on BBQ cooking and have my own that I built and cook big joints of brisket/leg of lamb and wrapping and resting is a big part of it - butchers paper is best as it allows the joint to breath

 

[Atgni]

Motties "cover with foil loosely" is what the butchers paper is doing only it keeps more in at the same time as letting out steam

 

[MNW67]

Motties "cover with foil loosely" is what the butchers paper is doing only it keeps more in at the same time as letting out steam

I'd never heard of it!

 

[Mottie]

Also the bigger the piece the better it cooks.

Yeah, I’d definitely agree with that. When I buy a small topside joint for just me and Mrs Mottie, after sealing, it can reach the required internal temperature in 25 minutes! Leave it in just a few minutes more and it’ll be over cooked. When we used to go away with friends (anywhere between 10 and 18 of us) over the new year and I’d cook the beef and lamb on New Year’s Day using the same method, it took longer obviously but it came out bloody lovely. Off topic but when I cook lamb, I stab it all over and in each stab hole, I put a slice of garlic and a sprig of rosemary as well as roasting it on a bed of rosemary. It would end up looking like a little forest. Something like this:

 

[Atgni]

Yeah, I’d definitely agree with that. When I buy a small topside joint for just me and Mrs Mottie, after sealing, it can reach the required internal temperature in 25 minutes! Leave it in just a few minutes more and it’ll be over cooked. When we used to go away with friends (anywhere between 10 and 18 of us) over the new year and I’d cook the beef and lamb on New Year’s Day using the same method, it took longer obviously but it came out bloody lovely. Off topic but when I cook lamb, I stab it all over and in each stab hole, I put a slice of garlic and a sprig of rosemary as well as roasting it on a bed of rosemary. It would end up looking like a little forest. Something like this:

View attachment 380148

Yep me too - our poor rosemary bush never gets a chance to grow. I also cook lamb leg on the BBQ rotisserie after first cutting off the shank to use - well as lamb shanks. Otherwise the shank part ca get over done, with the shank off its a nice compact piece without and thin sticky out bits to get overdone. But for BBQ lamb I tend to sort out the smaller legs. I also chuck on the BBW rosemary sprigs to generate rosmary smoke.
Over Easter lamb was half price so I have 3 legs in the freezer. A tip for cutting off the shank is to freeze the leg first otherwise the holding and sawing dislodges the meat off the bone

 

[Atgni]

Also the bigger the piece the better it cooks.

That's why when you go to a carvery its really good meat because the use massive pieces

 

[securespark]

I did a Food Technology course at Hollings College in Manchester (famously known as "the egg and toast rack") in the early 80s.
It wasn't a Catering course as such (it encompassed all aspects of food manufacturing from farming, butchery, bakery, margarine manufacture, including hydrogenation (frowned upon today), processing, packaging, food chemistry, microbiology etc.

But we also did a heck of a lot of cooking too, especially cooking of meat and bakery products.

The standard way we were told was a basic 20 mins a pound and 20 over.

It's the way my Gran always taught me how to roast meat and birds. And if you cook a bird from frozen, you work out the fresh cooking time, then multiply it by 1.5.

I cooked a 1.4 kg piece of beef to take over to friends in Yorks. the other day to be served cold. They (like Mrs S) like it well done.

In the industry, the ovens that cook meats to be packed sliced have steam introduced into them.

So I set our fan oven at 140 (normally set at 160), placed this hunk of roasting beef in a dish with a half pint of water and sealed it as tightly as I could with foil.
I didn't have a thermo, so took it out after an hour and stabbed it with a skewer.

It moo-ed and started bleeding, so I put it back in for 45 mins more.

Didn't look at, didn't even open the foil, just let it rest, cool and took it to Yorkshire, where it was unwrapped, sliced and gobbled up by three very appreciative people, along with my chickpea, butter bean lentil and vegetable casserole. The meat was soft and easy to slice and not chewy, which it can be if it's well done.

Slow cooker

I do beef and carrots in the slow cooker. Or pulled pork. The boys go nuts for pulled pork.

A good shoulder of pork, take the skin and fat off, dry it, salt it and roast it separately. Then rub a mix of herbs, spices and sugar and salt into the meat and leave it for as long as you dare (I do 24h) in the fridge.

There are various recipes online, but my mix for the rub is garlic powder, onion powder, smoked paprika, a smidge of chilli, oregano, cumin, salt and brown sugar.

I give the piece of pig a good pat dry then put it in a clean washing up bowl and give it a bl00dy good knead with the rub, until it's all thoroughly coated with all the rub. Then into a clean bowl with cling film in the fridge for 24 hours. I regularly turn it over without taking off the cling film to get it well coated. Then when it's had its day in the chiller, I leave it out a couple of hours before sealing the outside in a wok, using some of the lard rendered by roasting the skin.

Then I chop some onions which I put in the bottom of the slow cooker. Then Mr Piggy goes on top. If there is some left over rub in the bowl, I put 400ml boiling water in there and swill (see what I did there?) it round and chuck it in the slow cooker.

Then that goes on for 24h.

Then I serve it like this:

The meat gets pulled apart with forks.

The onions at the bottom get rescued. If people want, they can add them.

I make a slaw with carrot, white cabbage, red cabbage and sometimes celeriac. Bind it together with a good quality mayo.

Sometimes I make a BBQ sauce from scratch. Often I just buy one!

The youngest lad likes Sweet Baby Ray's, although it is a bit dear.

And the whole lot gets served in soft white rolls.

 

[Atgni]

Don't forget to make the gravy by de-glasing the beef tray with red wine and then thickening the gravy with left over Yorkshire pudding mix