Cheap Roast Beef
Making the Best of a Cheap Roast
This is an article I've been wanting to publish for a few years. But it's huge for something posted on the Web so bear with me.
Pause for a moment and look at the photo above. Notice that the meat is a perfect reddish-pink (medium rare) from the center all the way to the edges. Unlike most roasts it isn't grayer (more well done) towards the outside. It is perfectly cooked from edge to center. What you can't see in that photo is that it also has a deeply-browned, flavorful crust. You also can't see that it cost me $3.99 a pound at the grocers.
But there are two tricks you can employ on a cheap rump or bottom roast to drastically improve the experience: aging and slow-roasting.
Aging Beef
As the meat ages, natural enzymes in the meat alter both the chemical and physical structure of the meat resulting in a more flavorful and more tender roast. You sometimes run across meat advertised as "wet-aged" that has been vacuum-sealed in plastic before aging. This does eliminate moisture loss and waste from drying, but some oxygen is necessary to promote the enzymatic action that gives such a big boost to flavor and tenderness so, although wet-aging does help, it doesn't help much.
The drawback to dry-aging is waste. First, you lose some volume in the form of water that evaporates, this can translate to as much as a 15 percent reduction in weight. Second, the dried flesh on the outside needs to be cut off and discarded resulting in another 15 percent reduction in weight. (Note: the larger the roast you begin with, the less waste you'll have by percentage.) This waste increases the cost per pound of the finished roast. However, you will still spend less than you would for a non-aged rib roast and with proper cooking you'll end up with almost as good a result.
Slow-roasting
But as you noticed with the knife experiment, the transfer of heat isn't instantaneous, it's gradual - how gradual depends on the material being heated. If too much heat is applied too quickly the distribution of heat is uneven - the parts directly exposed to heat get far hotter far more quickly than the parts further from the heat.
In slow-roasting the goal is to apply heat to the outside no more quickly than the heat can be passed on to the inside. Doing so avoids overheating the areas closer to the heat and results in a more even heat distribution throughout the roast. The result is that the meat is cooked much more evenly throughout. A roast slowly cooked to medium rare will be medium rare from about 1/4-inch inside through the center. On the other hand, a roast cooked at higher heat is often well-done at the outside, medium toward the center, and only medium rare at the core.
Furthermore, heat cause muscle fibers to contract. This contraction forces out the juices in and between the fibers drying out the meat. The higher the heat, the more juice lost. A more gently heated roast loses far less juice than one cooked at high heat
So at some point, beginning or end, of the cooking process you want to blast the exterior with high heat to produce those wonderful flavor compounds. In general I prefer blasting the meat in the beginning for beef, pork, and lamb because it seems to me the flavors then intensify even while slow-roasting. However, I've never performed a proper experiment to verify this. My evidence is a matter of impressions, but a friend of mine, Chef Robert del Grosso who writes A Hunger Artist, says he has done the experiments and his results bear out my impressions. Further, he notes that the searing reduces surface moisture to around 12 percent, which is ideal for forming the Maillard compounds.
How to Do It: TANSTAAFL
TANSTAAFL means, "They're Ain't No Such Thing As A Free Lunch." You can save money, and get an outstanding roast by following these directions, but the process requires time. Not direct, involved, effortful time. It's almost all just letting things take their course. But to get the best results you can't decide this afternoon to have a roast for dinner (although, the slow-roasting alone will help if you want to cook the roast today).
Aging
2. When I got home, I lined a cookie sheet with foil, set a wire rack on it and the roast on that, fat side down. A cookie sheet and wire rack allows air to circulate all around the roast and the foil collects any liquids that leak out. Air circulation is critical - always use a wire rack and I prefer the lack of sides on a cookie sheet (as opposed to a baking sheet) to enhance air flow.
3. Set the roast on the bottom shelf of your refrigerator, but avoid the coldest corner, which often hovers around freezing. Ideally the ambient temperature surrounding the roast should be 35 degrees F.
4. Wait five to seven days. That's it, just wait. The roast will get very dry, dark, and crusty, don't worry, this is what it should do.
5. Using a very sharp knife, carefully shave off the dried flesh and dried fat. Discard dried flesh - your dogs will love it.
You now have an aged roast ready for cooking.
Slow-roasting
2. Heat oven to 225 degrees.
3. Season according to your preferences. I like a bit of ground rosemary, a touch of granulated garlic, and a liberal dose of salt and pepper.
4. Heat a tablespoon or two of oil over medium-high heat in an oven-proof skillet and brown roast on all sides - about 2 minutes per side. Turn roast fat-side up and place skillet in center of oven.
5. For medium rare, cook until 135 degrees F in the center according to an instant-read thermometer, this will take about 1 1/2 hours for a 2.5 pound roast.
6. Remove from oven and tent with foil for 15 minutes. When slow-roasting there is almost no carryover cooking, but you do need to give the juices time to redistribute.
Slow-roasting produces few additional juices for making sauce or gravy, but by using the skillet to roast in you will have some goodies in the skillet that you can work with.
Notes
The roast pictured was a 3.42 pound bottom round roast for which I paid $3.99/pound.
After aging for 7 days in the refrigerator the weight had dropped to 2.88 pounds or $4.74/pound.
After trimming the final weight was 2.38 pounds, which works out to a final cost of $5.73/lb.
I lost 1/3 lost of the original roast to drying and trimming.
The roast was delicious - packed with beefy flavor. It was not fork tender, it required a knife and some chewing, but prepared any other way it would have been far more tough.
Again, my thanks to Bob del Grosso for making sure I didn't get anything wrong.
Elise has a similar slow-roasted recipe at Simply Recipes.
This is an article I've been wanting to publish for a few years. But it's huge for something posted on the Web so bear with me.
Pause for a moment and look at the photo above. Notice that the meat is a perfect reddish-pink (medium rare) from the center all the way to the edges. Unlike most roasts it isn't grayer (more well done) towards the outside. It is perfectly cooked from edge to center. What you can't see in that photo is that it also has a deeply-browned, flavorful crust. You also can't see that it cost me $3.99 a pound at the grocers.
If you're a beef eater there is little to beat the flavor of a prime rib roast.
If you're a beef eater there is little to beat the flavor of a prime rib roast. The best rib roasts are prime-grade beef and are dry-aged for 20 or more days. The best roasts are well-marbled with fat, juicy, fork-tender, and packed with beef flavor. But at $25 - $30 a pound, bone-in, this is not an everyday meal. You may be able to find a choice-grade rib roast, un-aged, for as little as $10 - $12 a pound. Still not cheap and certainly not as good with poor marbling, less juice, requiring a knife to cut, and a bit bland. Turn to a cheap supermarket roast like rump or bottom round and the eating experience is far poorer - hardly worth while. Such low-end roasts tend to be both bland and tough however they're cooked.But there are two tricks you can employ on a cheap rump or bottom roast to drastically improve the experience: aging and slow-roasting.
Aging Beef
As the meat ages, natural enzymes in the meat alter both the chemical and physical structure of the meat resulting in a more flavorful and more tender roast. You sometimes run across meat advertised as "wet-aged" that has been vacuum-sealed in plastic before aging. This does eliminate moisture loss and waste from drying, but some oxygen is necessary to promote the enzymatic action that gives such a big boost to flavor and tenderness so, although wet-aging does help, it doesn't help much.
The drawback to dry-aging is waste. First, you lose some volume in the form of water that evaporates, this can translate to as much as a 15 percent reduction in weight. Second, the dried flesh on the outside needs to be cut off and discarded resulting in another 15 percent reduction in weight. (Note: the larger the roast you begin with, the less waste you'll have by percentage.) This waste increases the cost per pound of the finished roast. However, you will still spend less than you would for a non-aged rib roast and with proper cooking you'll end up with almost as good a result.
Slow-roasting
But as you noticed with the knife experiment, the transfer of heat isn't instantaneous, it's gradual - how gradual depends on the material being heated. If too much heat is applied too quickly the distribution of heat is uneven - the parts directly exposed to heat get far hotter far more quickly than the parts further from the heat.
In slow-roasting the goal is to apply heat to the outside no more quickly than the heat can be passed on to the inside. Doing so avoids overheating the areas closer to the heat and results in a more even heat distribution throughout the roast. The result is that the meat is cooked much more evenly throughout. A roast slowly cooked to medium rare will be medium rare from about 1/4-inch inside through the center. On the other hand, a roast cooked at higher heat is often well-done at the outside, medium toward the center, and only medium rare at the core.
Furthermore, heat cause muscle fibers to contract. This contraction forces out the juices in and between the fibers drying out the meat. The higher the heat, the more juice lost. A more gently heated roast loses far less juice than one cooked at high heat
So at some point, beginning or end, of the cooking process you want to blast the exterior with high heat to produce those wonderful flavor compounds. In general I prefer blasting the meat in the beginning for beef, pork, and lamb because it seems to me the flavors then intensify even while slow-roasting. However, I've never performed a proper experiment to verify this. My evidence is a matter of impressions, but a friend of mine, Chef Robert del Grosso who writes A Hunger Artist, says he has done the experiments and his results bear out my impressions. Further, he notes that the searing reduces surface moisture to around 12 percent, which is ideal for forming the Maillard compounds.
How to Do It: TANSTAAFL
TANSTAAFL means, "They're Ain't No Such Thing As A Free Lunch." You can save money, and get an outstanding roast by following these directions, but the process requires time. Not direct, involved, effortful time. It's almost all just letting things take their course. But to get the best results you can't decide this afternoon to have a roast for dinner (although, the slow-roasting alone will help if you want to cook the roast today).
Aging
2. When I got home, I lined a cookie sheet with foil, set a wire rack on it and the roast on that, fat side down. A cookie sheet and wire rack allows air to circulate all around the roast and the foil collects any liquids that leak out. Air circulation is critical - always use a wire rack and I prefer the lack of sides on a cookie sheet (as opposed to a baking sheet) to enhance air flow.
3. Set the roast on the bottom shelf of your refrigerator, but avoid the coldest corner, which often hovers around freezing. Ideally the ambient temperature surrounding the roast should be 35 degrees F.
4. Wait five to seven days. That's it, just wait. The roast will get very dry, dark, and crusty, don't worry, this is what it should do.
5. Using a very sharp knife, carefully shave off the dried flesh and dried fat. Discard dried flesh - your dogs will love it.
You now have an aged roast ready for cooking.
Slow-roasting
2. Heat oven to 225 degrees.
3. Season according to your preferences. I like a bit of ground rosemary, a touch of granulated garlic, and a liberal dose of salt and pepper.
4. Heat a tablespoon or two of oil over medium-high heat in an oven-proof skillet and brown roast on all sides - about 2 minutes per side. Turn roast fat-side up and place skillet in center of oven.
5. For medium rare, cook until 135 degrees F in the center according to an instant-read thermometer, this will take about 1 1/2 hours for a 2.5 pound roast.
6. Remove from oven and tent with foil for 15 minutes. When slow-roasting there is almost no carryover cooking, but you do need to give the juices time to redistribute.
Slow-roasting produces few additional juices for making sauce or gravy, but by using the skillet to roast in you will have some goodies in the skillet that you can work with.
Notes
The roast pictured was a 3.42 pound bottom round roast for which I paid $3.99/pound.
After aging for 7 days in the refrigerator the weight had dropped to 2.88 pounds or $4.74/pound.
After trimming the final weight was 2.38 pounds, which works out to a final cost of $5.73/lb.
I lost 1/3 lost of the original roast to drying and trimming.
The roast was delicious - packed with beefy flavor. It was not fork tender, it required a knife and some chewing, but prepared any other way it would have been far more tough.
Again, my thanks to Bob del Grosso for making sure I didn't get anything wrong.
Elise has a similar slow-roasted recipe at Simply Recipes.
