Sunday Roast: Perfect rare roast beef recipe
Posted by Fiona Nevile in Beef and Steak and Veal | 72 comments
We reward ourselves once in a while with a really good joint of beef. It does a Sunday lunch plus at least a couple of meals during the week. Beef is easy as long as you have the three elements spot on: the choice of joint, temperature and timing. With beef, I found this all a bit overwhelming until I met Tommy Cody.
I worked at Tommy and Peggy’s house for about a month. They always insisted that I joined them for lunch. It was an elegant affair. Peggy and I were given pre lunch drinks to sip and could hear the happy clatter of saucepans and running water, getting more frenetic as the designated time approached. Tommy moved steadily towards the crescendo as we chatted in a wave of anticipation and wafts of delicious aromas.
Lunch was civilised – a starter of great soup, an excellent main course and a tempting pud. Always accompanied with a decent glass of wine. Eating lunch with Tommy and Peggy made me feel special. I loved the conversation, the food, the wine and the virgin napkins. These were replaced every day.
There was one major problem. I needed a snooze after such a spectacular lunch. T and P repaired to thier boltholes but I had to carry on working. It was a battle but so much better than a snatched sandwich in a chilly Jalopy.
Tommy took up cooking when he retired and had made the clever move of doing the shopping as well. As every great chef knows, shopping can be inspirational. And Tommy’s meals were impressive. Four weeks in their house was a great test. He never faltered.
Danny got pretty fed up with hearing about Tommy’s spectacular meals. For example, his roast beef was cooked on an electric spit in the kitchen. I only sampled it cold in a salad but it was heavenly. Eventually D insisted that I asked the name of the joint and its provenance.
Tommy tipped that the best joint for a succulent rare roast beef is a corner cut of beef. When Jalopy and I chugged over to our butcher (Fred Fitzpatrick, in the Exning Road). All I could remember was the word “corner”.
“Ah,” Fred laid down his cleaver.
“He must mean corner cut of beef.” I have never found this labeled as such in any normal supermarket but having researched this, I think that it is similar to the best topside. Fred produced a lovely long joint and proceeded to cut the length we desired.
Perfect rare roast beef recipe
For medium rare or well done, simply cook the joint for longer (testing every 10 minutes)
Most cookbooks will give you timings and temperatures. We find Prue Leith (Leith’s Cookery Bible) gives the best results.
Needless to say we have tweaked. Here’s our favourite roast beef recipe that serves four with seconds. For bigger numbers, do check with Prue’s book or with your butcher.
Ingredients:
- 1.2 to 1.5 kg of corner of beef (less fat than rib roast but juicy, tender and tasty). For best reults use a jont of about 2 kg or over.
- half tsp of ground sea salt (we love Maldon sea salt from a grinder)
- 1 tsp of freshly ground black pepper
- 3 tbsp olive oil
Method:
- Pre-heat the oven to 240 (220 fan assisted, gas mark 9). That blackens the outside for tasty outer slices.
- Make a mini-baking tray from foil, just bigger than the joint and place in a roasting tray. This will contain the juices in a smaller area than if just plonking the joint onto the tray. It helps keep the juices from drying out.
- If the surface of your joint is dry, just rub a little olive oil over it. Usually, we simply take ours from he fridge in its bag, so it’s still moist on the outside.
- Mix the salt and pepper and coat the joint all over.
- Pour the olive oil into your foil baking tray, place the seasoned joint on it and put it in the oven. Make sure that the oven has pre-heated fully.
- After 15 minutes, turn the temperature down to 180 (160 fan assisted, gas mark 4) and let it cook for a further 25 minutes per kilo (11 minutes per 450g/1 lb). For good rare beef, do not exceed these timings.
- Take it out of the oven and place it under a duvet of towels for 15 to 20 minutes. Make your gravy by pouring off the juices and simply adding carrot water (we always cook carrots with a Sunday roast. The juice helps to make great gravy when added to any meat juices).
Tips and tricks:
- I used to think the resting a joint was crazy. Danny insisted on doing this and it really makes a diiference. The meat does relax and become more tender. I did a test. It makes a big diffrence.
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Sounds delicious. I’m going to try this right now – wish me luck! x
Thank you – my search for the perfect roast beef recipe has finally come to an end!
In the past my efforts at making roast beef have always been just shy of disasterous – usually dry and tasteless – but your recipe has come to my rescue. I tried it last night on friends and everyone loved it, especially my partner who is a fine cook himself and loves a good rare roast. They were all amazed that it was so incredibly tender and full of flavour! Before putting in the oven I rubbed the roast with a mixture of oil, pepper, sea salt, a bit of crushed garlic and mustard. And, because we also love roast veg I placed the roast on a bed of chunky root vegetables which added wonderful flavour to the gravy too. This was truly a perfect rare roast beef.
I have already used the same technique with a lamb join and it works great! Because lamb is so fatty it doesn’t need basting but with a small cut you have to cut the period of high heat down a lot.
For years I have used a similar technique to make perfect roast chicken. It comes out with wonderful crispy skin with very tender, juicy meat.
Thanks again!
Hi, will this work with lamb?? I did an online food order and the lamb is not good. Its very small 850g and looks quite fatty (back to the butchers for me). Or do you have any different recipes for a small 1/2 leg lamb?
thanks
marty
I should have commented much sooner than this. I think I’ve been using your recipe for about a year or so now and it is great!
Perfect beef every time – we love rare beef.
With regard to the oven temperature thing I’ve got used to mine now and it’s obviously ‘out’ on the temeperature because I take 20C off your temperatures and it appears to work exactly the same.
An oven thermeometer can be bought fairly cheaply to check if your oven temperatures are right.
Hello Cath
Thanks for leaving a comment.
I would like to buy an oven thermometer as I suspect that our’s is on the hot side.
Many thanks
Please explain the “duvet” of towels. Do they just rest on top of the roast or wrap all around it? Surely even just touching the roast will absorb moisture and impart some dryness?
Hi David
Wrap the beef in foil, with the towels on top.
Hello Marty
Delighted that it worked out well for you!
Thanks so much for leaving a comment. I love this roast too.
Tried this last Sunday and it was FAB. The best roast ever. Hubby had the middle and the boys the pinker edges. Everyone happy. Many thanks.
marty
Hello Paul
Thanks for drooping by.
Danny is king of the Sunday roasts. His beef is generally perfect! But as yu say it has to be the right cut and a fairly substancial joint. A small joint is very hard to cook right.
We slice any leftovers and freeze them to eat later.
I’m pleased to see that I’m not the only exponent of ultra rare beef. Totally agree – you HAVE to start with well aged beef and the correct cut.
It’s alway amusing to watch Sunday lunch guests faces when they see our kids (7 and 12) ploughing through meat so red that it’s no even managed to start running any meat juices. A good vet would surely get it galloping round a field. It shames ’em into having a go and then discovering that they wished they’d been cooking it that themselves way forty years ago.
I have a similar method to your own – interestingly my timings match yours minute for minute so clearly we’re both doing something right.
In this modern world where everything is rushed I think that cooking and eating should be revered and enjoyed at a slow pace.