14632 522 261 522 0 405. We earn a commission for good beef roast cuts purchased through some links in this article. From lavish to thrifty, a hunk of roast beef spans all the budgets, and is simpler to cook than you think.
Here, our expert Cookery Team reveals their go-to method for making the perfect roast. After all, you get what you pay for in the flavour stakes. If you’re looking to splurge, there’s no piece of beef more extravagant than fillet, though this is much harder to cook to perfection, and best given the beef wellington treatment . To impress a true food-lover, your best bet is a hearty-yet-deluxe rib of beef – it’s full of flavour and stays juicy as it’s a bone-in joint and has a good dose of fat marbling through it. People who like well-done meat can have slices off the ends, whereas those who prefer it pinker get the pieces from the middle. Any leftovers can be sliced and chilled for cold cuts or a salad the next day. The easiest way to work out how long to roast beef for is to weigh it.
If you like your beef well done, calculate the cooking time as you would for medium meat, then add an extra 25min on to it. Prep your beef properly Remove from the fridge an hour before roasting, getting rid of all packaging and wrapping and then patting dry with kitchen paper. Rubbing the beef joint with some oil, herbs and seasoning pays-off no end. Rosemary, thyme and mustard are tried and tested flavours, but coffee, chilli, star anise and cinnamon make a warming alternative. This gives the joint good caramelisation without over-cooking it.
If you’ve got a larger joint, blast in the oven on a very hot temperature for 15min before lowering. Give your beef some TLCDon’t just chuck the joint in the oven and forget about it until the timer goes off. Make sure to give it a little attention throughout the cooking time, too. But don’t overcrowd the tin with veg or the beef will stew rather than roast. During the cooking process don’t forget to baste a couple of times too with the tin juices.
But do this quickly, and close the oven door as soon as you can to retain the heat. If there don’t seem to be any juices at first, some melted butter helps to keep it from drying out. You can keep it warm by covering it loosely with foil and then some clean tea towels for insulation. This allows the fibres in the meat to relax and the juices to redistribute themselves throughout the meat, so it’s delightfully soft and tender, rather than tough and grainy. These tend to rip meat and aren’t worth the bother. Ultimately, the most important factor is that your knife is sharp, so even a large chef’s knife that’s just had a few turns on the sharpening steel will do a decent job.