Easy, tender beef roast from round roasts
May. 14th, 2012 06:01 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
cissaljI'm not sure if I've posted about it before or not, but I've put together from several sources a way to make an oven-roasted round roast be really tender and good. (If you roast one normally, it's pretty tough, and while they sometimes make good pot roasts, I usually use shoulder/chuck for that- it's more reliable there; however we get round roasts from the CSA, so I needed to figure out how to make it yummy!)
It takes a few days till roasting, but is pretty low-effort. Also: ideally, you'll have a probe thermometer that you can stick in it and leave there, even when it's in the oven. Mine has an alarm when the temp gets to my goal temp, and that's really handy!
First, unwrap it and dry it off. Salt it lightly with sea or kosher salt. Ideally, wrap it up again and let it sit in the fridge for a day. You can add a rub or something to the salt if you like. This tenderizes the meat without making it mushy, and seasons it, and stabilizes the moisture so it is less likely to dry out in cooking.
Unwrap it, put it on a rack (or put some paper towels under it- you want as much meat exposed as possible), and let it sit in the fridge for another 2-4 days, turning it occasionally (especially if it's on a paper towel). This dries out the surface some, and also allows it to mellow and get more tender- it's a quick version of the "dry-aging" that costs so much when done "right".
If you're time-pressed, you CAN just salt/season it and put it on the rack- it doesn't work quite as well, but it does the job. You can also skip the "aging" step. It's really best when you do both, though.
For cooking, it's mostly done low and slow. You can either brown the roast on the stovetop before roasting, or blast it in the oven after it's mostly done; both seem to work fine.
Heat oven to 225F. Lightly oil the roast and add pepper, or whatever rub you like. Add a bit more oil to a pan that'll hold the roast, and brown it on all sides. (I think the pan-browning does a better job than the hot-oven-blast, but either work.)
Put on rack in pan in oven (or just leave it in the other pan if it's got low sides and is oven-safe), and cook until it measures 115F for medium-rare. How long this takes depends on the size- this approach works for a wide variety (I've done it with 2-pound roasts). For 3.5-4 pounds, expect maybe 1.5 hours.
Turn oven off and leave the roast in, ideally without opening the door (a probe-type thermometer helps here!) till it hits around 130F, usually a half hour or so.
Take it out of the oven. If you did not pre-sear, turn the oven up HOT- like, 500F- and when it gets hot, stick it in for 10 min or so until it's crisped up. or use the broiler. (This is why pre-searing is easier!)
Once it's done, tent it and let it rest ofr 15-25 min, then carve thinly.
You will not get much in the way of drippings, if any, so there's no gravy or yorkshire pudding, alas. However- it makes a tricky cut of beef into a truly delectable roast!
It takes a few days till roasting, but is pretty low-effort. Also: ideally, you'll have a probe thermometer that you can stick in it and leave there, even when it's in the oven. Mine has an alarm when the temp gets to my goal temp, and that's really handy!
First, unwrap it and dry it off. Salt it lightly with sea or kosher salt. Ideally, wrap it up again and let it sit in the fridge for a day. You can add a rub or something to the salt if you like. This tenderizes the meat without making it mushy, and seasons it, and stabilizes the moisture so it is less likely to dry out in cooking.
Unwrap it, put it on a rack (or put some paper towels under it- you want as much meat exposed as possible), and let it sit in the fridge for another 2-4 days, turning it occasionally (especially if it's on a paper towel). This dries out the surface some, and also allows it to mellow and get more tender- it's a quick version of the "dry-aging" that costs so much when done "right".
If you're time-pressed, you CAN just salt/season it and put it on the rack- it doesn't work quite as well, but it does the job. You can also skip the "aging" step. It's really best when you do both, though.
For cooking, it's mostly done low and slow. You can either brown the roast on the stovetop before roasting, or blast it in the oven after it's mostly done; both seem to work fine.
Heat oven to 225F. Lightly oil the roast and add pepper, or whatever rub you like. Add a bit more oil to a pan that'll hold the roast, and brown it on all sides. (I think the pan-browning does a better job than the hot-oven-blast, but either work.)
Put on rack in pan in oven (or just leave it in the other pan if it's got low sides and is oven-safe), and cook until it measures 115F for medium-rare. How long this takes depends on the size- this approach works for a wide variety (I've done it with 2-pound roasts). For 3.5-4 pounds, expect maybe 1.5 hours.
Turn oven off and leave the roast in, ideally without opening the door (a probe-type thermometer helps here!) till it hits around 130F, usually a half hour or so.
Take it out of the oven. If you did not pre-sear, turn the oven up HOT- like, 500F- and when it gets hot, stick it in for 10 min or so until it's crisped up. or use the broiler. (This is why pre-searing is easier!)
Once it's done, tent it and let it rest ofr 15-25 min, then carve thinly.
You will not get much in the way of drippings, if any, so there's no gravy or yorkshire pudding, alas. However- it makes a tricky cut of beef into a truly delectable roast!
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roasts
Date: 2012-12-05 03:30 pm (UTC)Re: roasts
Date: 2012-12-06 01:00 am (UTC)For pot roasts, I generally do them in a dutch oven in the oven.
The above is a regular roast, not a pot roast. You know that roast beef they have at the deli, with a brown outside and medium-rare inside? THIS.
I love both. I generally use chuck for pot roasts, and the oven roast in my post is what I use with round, all the way up to prime rib (on the very infrequent occasions we have such!).