ROASTING BEEF
Cooking meat over an open flame is called roasting. Early cooks placed meat on the hearth, near the hearth or suspended over the fire. Eventually, the oven was invented. And baking has never been easier.
Roasting beef refers to cooking in the oven in a roasting pan with (or without) a grill until browned on the outside but still juicy on the inside.
Roast is one of the easiest ways to cook large chunks of beef. It’s true that, because of their size, most roast beef will take several hours to cook, but with the right cooking, beef can become incredibly tender and tasty.
Here are 4 simple steps to roast beef in the oven:
Step 1
Choose the right piece of meat
There are many kinds of beef from which you can cook steak – any piece of leg (topside, knuckle, silverside, eye of round) or roast beef (skirt steak, ribs, chunck, etc).
The important thing with this cooking method is that the piece is either whole or thickly cut. Plan on 100 to 150 grams per serving for steaks without bone and 150 to 200 grams per serving for bone-in steaks.
Step 2
Prepare meat for roasting
Preheat oven to 165°C. You can choose to season the beef plain with just salt and pepper or do a dry marinade.
Place the meat, fat side up, on a grill in a (shallow) roasting pan. Roasts on the bone do not need a grill. Insert an oven thermometer or probe thermometer into the thickest part of the roast, making sure it doesn’t touch the fat, bone or pan. Do not add water and do not cover the roast.
Tip: A roasting pan intended for the oven is a shallow pan specifically designed for roasting. It has a grill, which keeps the meat above the juices and allows heat to circulate around the meat. Ideally, the sides of the roasting pan should be no more than 5-6 cm high. If you don’t have a roasting pan, place an ovenproof wire grill inside a 33×23 cm baking tray.
Step 3
Cook roast beef in the oven
How long? It depends on the steak you’re cooking and its size. A 1.5 kg steak can be ready in just 30 minutes if you prefer it medium rare. The larger the piece of meat cooked, the longer it will take.
When cooking a steak in the oven, keep it uncovered until it is cooked to the desired doneness. After removing from the oven, cover with foil and let stand for 15 minutes before slicing. This allows the juices to redistribute, preventing them from leaking out during cutting. This process is important to avoid a dry, shrivelled meat.
Tip: Roasts weighing more than 2.5 kg should be covered with a damp foil or baking sheet halfway through cooking to avoid overbrowning.
Step 4
Slice and serve roast beef
Transfer the roast to a wooden rack or platter. With a large fork hold the steak in place while slicing with a long, sharp carving knife.
➤ For your next steak, try a local product, such as Premium Angus beef from the farm in Sibiu.
