Roast beef is a celebrated family favourite. Roasts are easy to prepare, so healthy, filling and absolutely delicious. But it’s a delicate matter to prepare the ‘perfect roast’ and there’s a raft of different roasts you can make with the different cuts of beef. So I’ve created this straightforward summary, outlining our tips to create the ‘perfect roast’ using the various cuts of beef you get with your Maleny Black Angus Beef orders. I hope these get you excited to turn your ovens on.
Roasting – Whys & Wherefores
Roast beef is a common family-favourite. Roasts are easy to prepare, so healthy, filling and absolutely delicious. Especially when you’re using tender 100% grass fed beef and serving it with a rich gravy or jus, roast veggies and greens. My stomach’s grumbling as I write.
Now it’s a delicate matter to prepare the ‘perfect roast’ and there’s a raft of different roasts you can make with the different cuts. You don’t want your meat dry or overcooked, nor do you want to overshadow the flavour of your beautiful grass-fed beef with too much seasoning.
There are also factors to consider such as the size of your cut, its shape, temperature before cooking, the accuracy of your oven, your type of oven (conventional, fan-forced or gas), and even the shape and type of roasting dish. But don’t be daunted. There are countless recipes online you can adapt according to the weight of the roast you’re working with, to take a lot of the guess-work out.
Before you head off looking for recipe ideas, I’ve created this basic summary, outlining our tips to create the ‘perfect roast’ using the various cuts of beef you get with your Maleny Black Angus Beef orders. I hope these get you excited to turn your ovens on.
Getting started; here’s our straightforward advice for cooking our meat:
- Take your meat out of the fridge (anywhere between 30mins to 1hr ahead of time) before cooking, to bring it to room temperature
- A tied roast gives a more uniform shape for even cooking
- Pat your meat down with a paper towel to dry it before seasoning and before cooking
- Don’t cut any/too much fat off your meat before cooking – the fat is more important than any bones in a roast for adding flavour and moisture (you can always cut it away after you finish cooking if you want)
- Every oven is different so the timing will vary. Always preheat your oven
- Meat thermometers are a great way to test the ‘doneness’ of your roast – internal temperature around 55-60֯C is medium-rare, 60-65֯C is medium, 65-70֯C is medium-well done
- Allow your meat to rest after roasting and before cutting (ie. Put a tent of foil over your meat while it’s still hot and allow it to rest for up to 15mins before carving) to keep your meat moist, soft and delicious. The internal temperature of your roast will continue to increase up to 5֯C while it rests as the meat continues to cook
- Always use your sharpest knife to carve your roast – the photos look better too
Sirloin Roast
- Needs to be given special care so it doesn’t end up chewy or dry, like shoe leather
- This cut is NOT suitable for braising (braising is when you brown the meat first at a high temperature, then simmer it in a covered pot with cooking liquid such as wine, broth, etc)
- Best cooked fat-side up, on a rack (ie. ‘trivet’) with no liquid, using dry heat
- Ensure roast is tied with twine
- Season meat with coarse salt, white pepper & Herbs de Provence
- A simple technique for roasting sirloin; roast it on high heat (230֯C conventional oven) for the first 20 mins then reduce oven temp to 160֯C for the remainder of its cooking time, without opening the door
- Cooking time should take approx. 2½ – 3hrs depending on the size of your roast – if using a meat thermometer, the roast will be cooked when the thermometer reaches 60֯C
- Let it rest for 15mins before slicing
Eye Fillet Roast
- This is a lean, tender cut of beef which cooks quickly
- Ensure your roast is tied with twine
- Take your roast out of the fridge before cooking to bring it to room temperature
- Preheat your oven to 200֯C (conventional oven)
- Rub fillet with oil and season generously with salt & pepper
- Brown beef in a pan on all sides before roasting
- Roast for 15mins per 500g for medium-rare or 20mins for medium
Rump Roast
- Needs care when cooking to avoid becoming chewy – you want it tender, not tough
- Leave some of the fat on your roast to ensure the meat stays juicy (I repeat again: do not remove all the fat) – you can even place slits in your roast and insert thin slivers of your trimmed fat into the slits to use up the perfectly good beef fat and keep your roast extra-moist)
- Rump roasts can be cooked in a variety of ways; oven, slow cooked, roasted, grilled or braised
- If cooking in the slow-cooker, sear it first
- This cut is best cooked for hours at low temperatures. Look for recipes using this technique
Round Roast
- This is another cut that’s best roasted on low heat to keep the meat tender and moist
- This cut works wonderfully with a herb rub
- Do not put the roast straight into your roasting dish – sit it on a wire rack brushed with oil (also known as a ‘trivet’), in your roasting pan so the hot air can circulate around the meat and cook it evenly
- Start the roasting process on very high heat for a short time (say 230֯C conventional oven for 15 mins) to caramelise the outside then turn the temperature down to 160֯C and finish the roast over an hour or so
- When you remove it from the oven, create a tent with tin foil over it and let it rest for 15 minutes before slicing it into thin pieces to serve
Topside Roast
- Topside is a very lean cut of meat so it’s best roasted sitting on top of a ‘trivet’ (ie. a wire rack or a mixture of roughly chopped veggies such as onion, carrot and celery with a bay leaf, sprig of thyme and a few black peppercorns)
- When roasting, it’s best to season your beef then sear it on the stovetop to form a brown, caramelised outer crust before putting it in the oven
- Place the beef fat side up onto the trivet
- Start the roasting process in a very hot oven (230°C in conventional ovens)
- Place your roast in the centre of the oven and roast it for 20 minutes, then reduce the temperature to 160°C. Continue roasting for 12-15 minutes per 500g, reaching a core temperature of 55°C before resting for a medium-rare joint
- Remove it from the oven, put onto a clean tray and keep it warm by covering it with a sheet of foil. Rest for a minimum of 20 minutes before carving, leaving the roasted vegetables in the tray for the gravy
- For the gravy, make up 500ml of beef stock (or Maleny Black Angus Beef Bone Broth), then deglaze your roasting tray with this stock, stirring in all the caramelised juices from the tray. Next, pass it through a fine sieve pushing all the juices from the vegetables into a clean saucepan. Bring it to a simmer and thicken if required by whisking in a teaspoon of cornflour mixed with a little cold water and reduce it until you achieve a rich, glossy gravy
Silverside Roast
- Silverside is a great choice for a roast beef dinner but if it isn’t cooked correctly, it will be tough and chewy
- Cooking silverside well done is best for the most tender slices (silverside roasts shouldn’t be served rare or medium)
- The essential method for a moist silverside roast is; cooking ‘slow and low’, adding liquid to the bottom of the baking tray and covering the roast so no steam escapes sealing in the moisture
- Preheat your oven to 170°C (conventional)
- Create a trivet of onion, carrots, garlic cloves, and sprigs fresh thyme to sit your silverside on
- Sear your roast on the stovetop with olive oil then place it on the vegetable trivet
- Deglaze the pan with some red wine, scraping any sediments off the pan to add flavour then add beef stock/bone broth and bring it to the boil
- Pour stock and wine from the pan into the roasting tin but NOT over the beef
- Cover the whole roasting tray with kitchen foil so that no steam escapes during cooking
- Place in the oven for the following times depending on your joint size:
- 2 kg – 2hr30mins
- 5 kg – 3hrs
- 2 kg – 3hrs30mins
- Cook until the meat reaches at least 70°C on a meat thermometer
- Once finished roasting, remove your beef from the roasting tray and cover with foil
- Rest for at least 30 minutes (the longer the better) DO NOT slice the roast silverside until it’s rested
- For gravy; sieve the juices from the roasting tray into a saucepan using the back of a spoon to squeeze the garlic and vegetable juices through. Add extra beef stock/bone broth and raise the temperature.
- If you need to thicken your gravy, mix cornflour with some cold water in a separate bowl, then slowly pour into the gravy whilst whisking
Blade Roast
- Blade roasts are best cooked in a similar way to silverside, chuck and brisket ensuring there’s moisture in the roasting pan, it’s cooked low and slow and the roast is completely sealed so no steam escapes
- As a general guide, you’ll need to cook your blade roast approx 1hr45mins per kg, at a temperature of 160֯C, but using a meat thermometer and cooking to an internal temperature guarantees a better result
- A roast will rise by up to 5֯C while resting, so cook your blade roast to a temperature of 60-65֯C at its thickest point. This will rise to a perfect medium (necessary for rendered fat and a tender roast at the end)
- Follow a similar method for blade roast as silverside: sear your meat first, place it on a bed of vegetables, pour red wine and bone broth into the base of the tray and seal it all with foil so no steam can escape
- Check on the juices under the roast every hour, and add water to the base if it’s reducing too much during the roasting process
- Make gravy from the contents and juices in the base of the baking tray, once you’ve removed the roast
Chuck or Rolled Roast
- Chuck or rolled roast is best braised or ‘pot-roasted’
- It’s a great comfort meal because it uses simple ingredients, preps in minutes, and cooks all day without any extra involvement so you can serve dinner with hardly any effort and the end result is fall-apart beef with tender flavour-infused-vegetables smothered in a rich gravy
- Season your beef well with salt and pepper then sear it aggressively on the stovetop (this is key for flavour) – set it aside for a moment
- Using the same frypan, sauté some onion and garlic, then deglaze the pan with red wine (or water, beef stock or Maleny Black Angus Beef bone broth) – to thicken your gravy mix together some flour and about 1 cup of the liquid from the pan and add it back into the frypan
- Tip everything into your baking dish along with carrots, celery, a sprinkling of dried rosemary and thyme, salt and pepper, sit your roast on top of the vegetables then slow cook for roughly 8 hrs low temp (120֯C conventional oven) or 4 hours at 150°C – vary your time according to the size of your roast
- There is no need to cover your roast in the oven
- Add cut potatoes around your beef partway through cooking and by the time the potatoes are cooked, the beef will be meltingly tender
Brisket Roast
- Brisket is packed with flavour and can be cooked in a myriad of ways; whether you go for juicy, carveable slices or shreds of beautiful, pulled meat
- If oven-roasting, be sure to roast brisket at a lower oven temperature, between 110֯C to 150֯C (conventional oven) for a long period of time
- Our number one tip for the perfect brisket is dry brining it in advance. Even if you only have an hour or two before you need to cook your brisket, it will still benefit from spending some time with the salt. To dry brine, allow the brisket to sit uncovered in the fridge overnight (24 hrs is ideal), or as long as you can, before cooking it in the oven
- Our second tip is to always use a meat thermometer. For taste and texture, brisket should be cooked to 65֯C to 70֯ Using a meat thermometer will ensure you don’t over or undercook the brisket and that you end up with juicy, tender beef
- At least 30 mins before you want to cook your brisket in the oven, remove it from the fridge to allow it to come closer to room temperature. Sprinkle it liberally with garlic powder and black pepper and a little additional salt (even if you’ve already dry brined it) and allow it to sit
- Transfer the brisket to a long sheet of foil. Double wrap the brisket in foil, then place it on a roasting tray. Roast the brisket in the preheated oven until it reaches an internal temperature of 65֯C to 70֯C, about 1hr20mins per 500g of meat
- Once the brisket reaches about 63֯C, you can uncover the foil and raise the oven temperature to 150֯C to allow the fat to become crispy for the last 45 minutes to 1 hour of roasting
- Once the brisket is out of the oven, allow it to sit for at least 20 minutes to give the juices an opportunity to evenly distribute throughout the meat for the best texture
Rib Fillet Roast
- With a beautiful cut of meat like this, you don’t need to do much to it
- Preheat your oven to 200֯ Tie the beef with string at 5cm intervals
- Brush your beef roast lightly with oil and sear it on all sides over moderately-high heat until evenly browned
- Season your beef with pepper and salt and rub some fresh herbs over it if you’re using them. You can even tuck a few sage leaves under the string
- Place your beef on a rack in a roasting pan. Add a little water or broth to the roasting dish (about ½ cup). Roast for 60mins for rare, 75mins for medium and 90mins for well done. For ease and accuracy use a meat thermometer.
- If using a meat thermometer; the internal temperature of the meat should be: Rare – 55-60֯C, Medium – 65-70֯C, Well done – 75֯
- You can also use tongs to test the roast’s doneness. Gently squeeze the roast – rare is very soft, medium rare is soft, the medium is springy but soft, medium-well is firm and well-done is very firm.
- Remove your roast beef from the oven, cover loosely with foil and rest it for 20 minutes before carving
Rib Eye on the Bone Roast
- The bone-in rib eye is a spectacular-looking cut, but the bone does more than just make your roast look beautiful, it adds flavour too
- Brush your roast with olive oil and season with coarse salt and cracked pepper
- Preheat your oven to 200֯C (conventional oven)
- Use your meat thermometer to test your cut’s final internal temperature. Remember to remove your roast just before you reach the temperature goal, as it will continue to cook while resting
- Use this guide to extrapolate roasting time per 500g rib eye. Final internal temp:
- Rare (6֯0C) – 15-20mins roasting/500g
- Medium (65֯C-70֯C) – 20-25mins/500g
- Well done (75֯C) – 25-30mins/500g
- In our opinion, bone-in rib eye roasts should always be uncovered so that the outside of the roast can form a caramelized crust, further enhancing the flavour. That said, you can cover it with foil after your initial 30 minutes. Or if you notice the bones starting to brown too fast, cover them with foil
- This roast is even more delicious if you use a herbed rub prior to roasting or accompany the finished roast with a flavoured butter (eg. Porcini and port butter)
There’s so much more I could write and other directions we can go… braising, slow-cooking, frying… but for now I hope this summary inspires you to try a few new roasting methods.
Roasting really is super-easy and with grass-fed beef such as ours, it’s one of the best ways to bring out the flavour. Enjoy!
Source URL: https://malenyblackangusbeef.com.au/roasts-best-of-the-best-recipe/
