When I think of a typical English meal, roast beef is the first one that comes to mind. This is a slow cook recipe, so you can use cheaper cuts of meat, but I recommend a good topside, or rib (properly butchered) with a lot of marbling. It is traditionally served with potatoes and vegetables, along with yorkshire pudding and gravy. Nowadays a lot of people prefer their roast beef medium rare (pink in the middle).
Ingredients
- 3 to 3 1/2 lb joint of boneless rump
- Olive oil
- Salt and pepper
- 8 cloves of garlic (optional)
Method
- Remove the joint from the fridge 1 hour before cooking (it should be at room temperature).
- Preheat the oven to 375°F.
- Place the joint in a drip pan.
- With a sharp knife make 8 small incisions around the meat. Place a clove of garlic into each incision.
- Rub the olive oil, salt and pepper all over the meat.
- Put the joint into the oven fatty side up, so that as the fat melts it will bathe the entire joint in its juices.
- Brown the joint at 375°F for half an hour. Turn the heat down to 225°F.
- Roast it for a further 2 to 3 hours. When the joint starts to drip its juices and it is brown on the outside, check the temperature with a meat thermometer.
- Remove from the oven when the inside temperature of the joint is 135° to 140°F.
- Let the joint rest for about 15 minutes, covered in aluminum foil to keep it warm, before carving.
Definitions
To brown: To cook food until it has a brown-coloured appearance, this is usually achieved by grilling, frying or baking.
Marbling: Marbled meat is meat (especially red meat) that contains various amounts of intramuscular fat, giving it a marbled pattern.
To roast: To cook in the oven, usually with the addition of fat or oil.