Help with roast dinner

jackie_w

Hi there,

My family and I were treated to a lovely roast beef dinner yesterday by a family member at a restaurant. I was really nice, and I would like to make this myself.

usually on a Sunday we have chicken if we have a roast, I remember attempting to make a roast beef dinner before, and it was a bit of a disaster!
the beef ended up being very crumby when we tried to cut it (even though we let the meat rest for 15 minutes after it was cooked), and very dry, and my Yorkshire puddings were.......well let's just say less said about them the better,

Can anyone give me some tips please? We would usually eat the roast beef well done.

Many thanks x

fairtrade

It will depend on the cut of beef and if you have a fan oven.
For a conventional oven and a well done joint you would want 200c/Gas 6 for 30mins per 0.5kg + 30 mins. The joint would also want to be left with any fat on - this can be removed after cooking. If there is not enough fat the joint will always dry out.

tessie_bear

hi...was the beef possibly a little too well done...i do a joint in the sc and it has always come out nicely....have a read of the pack and see how long the cooking time is per kg

as for carving...we call it hacking here and say meat normally looks rustic on the plate so cant help there

yorkies can be hit and miss i find...delia has a good recipe and you need hot oil
hth

maman

To be honest, although I can make yorkies I don't bother. It's far easier to buy the frozen ones (Aunt Bessies or own brand). That's probably what you had in the restaurant anyway.

Linda32

I'll leave the beef question to others as I only cooked it for the first time yesterday after about 15 years, and although it turned out great it hardly qualifies.

However, yorkshire puddings are more about technique than anything else.
Get you tin (I use a muffin tin) and pour oil into each compartment, the same number and yorkshires you want. Then put the tin in the oven for 15 minutes or so.

Using any receipe you want, make the batter. Then carfully take the muffin tin with hot oil out of the oven and pour the batter into the oil. So the batter sits below the oil. At this point it looks like a pigs ear :rotfl: but put them back in the oven for 20 minutes to cook. This should work.

nonnatus

Getting the right CUT of meat is the difficult bit.

Try to find a nice big bit of TOPSIDE, with a layer of fat on the top. To be honest, it's much better to buy the very biggest joint you can afford as it's so much easier to cook and carve. You will have plenty of leftovers, and if you cook it rare like I'm going to suggest, it stores well and makes any number of new meals.

For instance, for the 4 of us, I'll buy a Topside joint around £30. Roast it all, then have a rare beef salad, beef noodle soup, beef casserole, cottage pie, all from same piece of meat.

To begin, let the joint get to room temperature BEFORE cooking. It's really important that it doesn't come out of fridge straight into oven.

Place it in a large baking tray with a load of peeled onions and unpeeled garlic cloves, rub the top of the meat with salt and cracked black pepper.

Fire the oven up to HOT and put the tray of beef in.

After 20 minutes, turn the oven DOWN to 180-ish and finish cooking for 15 minutes per lb in weight that your beef was.

When that time is up, get the tray of beef out, place it on top of the oven, or somewhere warmish and cover with couple layers of tin foil. Make sure to seal well, to avoid letting any heat out!
The beef should rest like that for about half an hour.

Then carve! The ends are for people who like cooked meat, the inside are for the people who understand how fabulous a pink and juicy a bit of beef can taste.

Making my own mouth water

ENJOY

nonnatus

Sorry! Forgot to say, the meat juices will leach out whilst the beef is resting. Combined with the onions and garlic (squeeze the cloves out of their little paper jackets first!!) it makes wonderful gravy.