Roast Beef Such A Very Traditional Meat, Some Tips

I don't think there is a better known British meal than Roast Beef. I think you could perhaps call it the national dish of Great Britain and loved by almost everyone. But is there a good or better way to cook the perfect roast beef. It is actually very easy as you can see with these handy tips below.


1. Choosing the Beef:
The best joints for roast beef are either a Rib of Beef, a Sirloin or a Fillet. Rib works well as usually it will be cooked on the bone as keeping the bone in makes for a tastier piece of beef when cooked but both Sirloin and Fillet are also very good.

The beef should be:
Dark in colour - meaning it has been hung well and is mature.
A thick covering of fat which adds flavor and prevents the joint from drying out during cooking. This layer can be removed, if required, before serving so no need to worry too much about excess fat.

Marbling: Marbling is small slivers of fat running through the flesh which again adds flavour and prevents drying out during cooking.

2. How Much to Buy:
5½ lb/2.5kg bone in will feed 6
3 lb/1.5kg boned will feed 6

Don't worry about buying too much as cold roast beef can be added to a plate of cold cuts with a salad.

3. Cooking Temperature:
There are varying opinions about what the perfect temperature to cook a roast beef but you may find that starting the beef in a very hot oven 425F/220C/Gas 7 for the first 30 mins then lower the temperature to 375F/190C/Gas 5 for the remaining cooking time then ....how long to cook beef depends on your preference for how 'pink' or not you like to eat beef.

Calculate:
Rare - 11 mins per lb/450g
Medium - 14 mins per lb/450g
Well done - 16 mins per lb/450g

These times are based on a normal convection oven, you may want to adjust for a fan oven according to the manufacturers instructions. Another way to work out the cooking time is to use a meat thermometer pushed into the thickest part of the beef.

60°C/140°F - rare
70°C/160°F- medium
80°C/175°F - well done

4. How to Cook:
The beef should be at room temperature. Stand the beef joint in a roasting tin then cook to the temperature and time as above.

5. Rest, Rest, Rest:
An important part of cooking any meat is once it is removed from the oven the meat must rest. Wrap the meat loosely in aluminum foil and put to one side.

The fibers in meat tighten up during cooking and resting allows the fibers to relax, release some of the meat juices (great for the gravy) and results in a soft tender piece of meat. 20 minutes should be long enough but up to an hour won't do any harm. The joint is then ready to carve.


Tips taken from original article here

http://britishfood.about.com/od/introtobritishfood/a/roastbeef.htm

I put this article on the Low Carb Blog and if you 'hop' over and have a read of the comments - there is also some handy tips for some low carb yorkshire pudding

http://thelowcarbdiabetic.blogspot.co.uk/2015/06/roast-beef-such-very-traditional-meat.html

All the best Jan

I love roast beef, but don't enjoy it unless it's really well done. You've got me feeling hungry now. It's a pity we had our roast meal yesterday.

Hi Zand - you can't beat a lovely Roast Beef Dinner. My mum always preferred her meat to be cooked well done ... whereas I prefer mine to be a little pink as you carve it.

Great tasting food though and low carb !

Hope your week is going well.

All the best Jan

P.S. Is anyone else thinking of having Roast Beef Soon?

Ingredients
1 large British beef roasting joint (approx 1.5kg)
1 tbsp plain flour
2 large red onions, cut into wedges
16 shallots, peeled
2 bulbs of garlic, cloves separated but unpeeled
15 g fresh thyme
200 g Chantenay carrots, trimmed
A little (sunflower) oil

Method
1. Take the joint out of the fridge 30 minutes before cooking to bring it up to room temperature. Preheat the oven to 230ºC, fan 210ºC, gas 8.
2. Weigh the beef to calculate the exact cooking time – for medium, cook for 15 minutes per 450g plus an extra 20 minutes; for well-done, cook for 20 minutes per 450g plus an extra 20 minutes.
3. Put the beef in a large roasting tin. Sift the flour and mustard together in a bowl, then use a tea-strainer or sieve to dust it over the fatty side of the joint. Season with freshly ground black pepper.
4. Roast the joint for 20 minutes, then reduce the oven temperature to 200ºC, fan 180ºC, gas 6 and cook for the remaining calculated cooking time. Baste the joint every 30 minutes with the pan juices.
5. An hour before the end of cooking time, put the onions, shallots and garlic in the roasting tin around the meat. Scatter over the sprigs of thyme, reserving a few sprigs for garnish. Toss the vegetables in the pan juices to coat; drizzle them with a little (sunflower) oil if necessary.
6. When the beef is cooked to your liking, transfer it and the roasted vegetables to a serving platter and cover loosely with foil. Let the meat rest for 20 minutes. Carve and serve with the roasted onion, garlic and shallots, plus veggies and trimmings of your choice. Garnish with the reserved thyme.

Idea with links also here
http://thelowcarbdiabetic.blogspot.co.uk/2015/11/roast-beef-with-mustard-crust-super.html

The above will easily serve four with leftovers ...

All the best Jan

Ingredients:
Serves Four
1 (British) Beef Roasting Joint  - approx 1.5kg
2 cloves of garlic, sliced
2 tbsp vegetable oil
2 red onions, cut into 8 pieces each
2 tsp plain flour
1 Beef Stock Cube mixed with 500ml boiling water
2 tbsp balsamic vinegar

Method:
1. Preheat the oven to 200°C/gas mark 6.
2. Make a series of small slits in the beef, and stuff each with a slice of garlic.
3. Add 1 tbsp of the oil to a large frying pan and seal the beef on all sides over a high heat. Place in a roasting tray and scatter the onions around it. Drizzle the onions with the remaining oil and season to taste. Roast for 20 mins then reduce the heat to 180°C/gas mark 4. Continue to cook for 20 mins per 500g, removing the onions after the first 20 mins to prevent them from burning.
4. Once the beef is cooked, wrap it in greaseproof paper and set it aside to rest for 15-20 mins. Heat the roasting tray it was cooked in over a medium heat and add the flour. Cook this for 2 mins then gradually add the stock, stirring constantly to prevent lumps. Once all the stock has been added, add the balsamic and simmer for 5 mins, until thickened. Serve with the beef and onions.

Each serving provides:
6.2g carbohydrate 1.2g fibre 41.6g protein 29.6g Fat

How about some Brussels Sprouts or Green Beans to go with this dish?

Enjoy

All the best Jan

I think for many Roast Beef is the traditional Sunday Roast ...
If you like eating beef you may be interested in reading this article by Michael Joseph

11 Health Benefits of Eating Beef

A generation or two ago, our parents and grandparents viewed beef as a nutritious health food.
But now?

These days it’s much different, and opinion is split between whether beef is healthful or harms our health.

Some of the more extreme vegan views even call for the authorities to remove meat from the food supply.

Whatever our opinion on red meat might be, there are some important health benefits of eating beef.
This article takes a close look at 11 of them.

http://nutritionadvance.com/health-benefits-eating-beef/

All the best Jan

I'll read that later (I currently have 23 windows and tabs open in Opera so it may take a while) but earlier I ate some ground beef with bacon, oyster mushrooms, multicoloured peppers and chillies, garlic, olives, tomato puree, oregano and paprika stir-fried in EVOO and then simmered.

Earlier in the week I had a massive Hereford rump steak grilled with Brussels sprouts. I tend not to do roast beef now I'm alone, it takes so long to cook compared to the time it takes to eat.

There's an important environmental factor too, proper old fashioned beef breeds can graze on the marshes around these parts, and the hills and mountains elsewhere which can't be used to grow crops, and they maintain and improve soil fertility and actually sequester carbon into the soil. Even the cows which go indoors for the winter provide copious amounts of dung which are used to manure the arable crops. Not a lot of vegans understand this.

Robert Carrier's Rare Roast Beef

Dr Katharine Morrison writes:
"Robert Carrier was a very popular television chef in the 80s. He was famous for ladling on butter, cream and booze onto anything on a plate and in due course fell out of favour with the fat police in the later stages of the 80s and into the 90s.

Fortunately one of my flatmates bought me Carrier’s Quick Cook for a Christmas present in 1983 and I’ve used it ever since.

As you know, we are not afraid to chuck fat or booze on our food and the lower the carbs in your diet, the more we encourage you to do so.

A few weeks ago I was visiting my son in Leeds and off we went for an outing to Harewood House. This elegant house is in amazing grounds landscaped by Capability Brown. It is a thought that this man laid out many Victorian gardens but never lived to see them attain their full glory.

The grounds include a gem of a second hand bookshop and there I purchased Robert Carrier’s New Great Dishes of the World.  I already have his original Great Dishes of the World and was thrilled to have more boozy, creamy, meaty recipes at my fingertips.

I am now going to describe the late, great, Robert’s method to get perfect, rare roast beef with minimum effort.  He insists that you must have at LEAST 2.5 kg of boned and rolled meat.  I bought  a stunningly expensive rib eye joint of this weight and having never had a disappointment in 34 years of cooking from Carrier’s books entrusted it to his experience.

This is what you do."

Head over to Dr Katharine Morrison's post on Diabetes Diet Blog for more …
I had to laugh about hiding it from the cats and found it interesting that once you turn the oven off DO NOT OPEN THE DOOR just leave the meat on its own for two hours!

Do read more, here is the link you'll need

https://diabetesdietblog.com/2018/06/25/robert-carriers-rare-roast-beef/

All the best Jan