Roast Beef Cooking - How To Get It Right

Roast beef cooking is easy – or so your Mom always used to say.

And you remember those family dinners where the meat seemed just perfect, juicy and tender. How do you achieve the same effect when you have expectant guests?

First of all success in roast beef cooking depends on getting a really good piece of meat. Poor meat cooks poorly.

Get your beef from a reliable butcher who ensures the meat is hung properly and is not too fresh –f it hasn’t been hung long enough it will be tasteless. Also, the flesh should be flecked with fat. This helps prevent it being too dry when cooked. If there’s an actual layer of fat on the joint, keep it on. The best joints for roasting are fillet sirloin or rib. A joint with the bone still there tends to cook better and more evenly, as the bone conducts heat into the flesh.

Preparation For Roast Beef Cooking

Before you start the actual cooking, make sure that you know how much the joint weighs, because this is critical to getting the timing right. Then ensure your roasting rack is big enough – if not buy a bigger one!

 First prepare the meat (which should be a room temperature) by rubbing it all over with plain flour to which, if you like, you’ve added some flavouring such as pepper or mustard. Do not add salt as this will make the meat dry. Then put the joint into the roasting tin (no fat needs to be added) and into a very hot oven, which means around 475°F. This seals the meat, and helps to keep the juices in. Keep at this temperature for 20 minutes.

Then the main cooking phase begins. Turn the oven down to 375°F and let it cook for about 15 minutes for every pound the joint weighs. Baste the joint two or three times during this stage by lifting the rack out of the oven, tilting it and spooning the juices over the meat. Keep the oven door closed while you do this, to keep the heat up in the oven.

This will get it to a basic cooked stage, where it is still cooked quite rare. You might want to end there. But if you’d like the joint medium, round off with a further 15 minutes; and if you like your roast beef well done, add another 15 minutes beyond that. You can test that it’s done as you like it by inserting a skewer into the thick part of the joint - if the juices run pink it is medium rare, and if they run clear it is well done.

Finally, take the joint out of the oven and cover with foil, and a towel to keep it warm. This last phase is called resting, and should be from 20 minutes up to an hour. During this period the meat relaxes and is easier to carve. NEVER take a roast joint straight from the oven to the table – it will be very tough to carve and even tougher to eat.

So there you have it - roast beef cooking really is easy!

Carving Your Roast Beef

There is no point in lovingly preparing and cooking your roast beef if you are just going to hack it into chunks when you serve it. The way in which beef is carved makes a great deal of difference to how tender it is. Using a rechargeable electric knife makes the job quicker and far easier.

For help on the correct way to carve read the information on our page about Carving Beef.