Carved Roast Beef for a Wedding

[Paul Bacino]

Got a wedding coming up in 8 months. I want to serve a nice quality carved roast beef. We'll have about 200 people. Need a few ideas? What cut do you use ? I was thinking Prime. How many #'s. We are serving a total of three proteins/ entree ideas. Pork and an Italian dish are the others. Any other tips?

Other cut options: Tenderloin, Tri-tip, Sirloin Ball or Prime Rib the way to go?

Paul

Thanks

[Dave the Cook]

Is this a plated dinner or a buffet? If the latter, and you think your guests might heap their plates with samplings of all three proteins, I'd go for something that benefits from being sliced thin -- and you'll get better portion control. That points to tri-tip, I think.

I'm not sure what a sirloin ball is. Is that the same as a strip loin roast?

[Paul Bacino]

Dave,

In NAMP.. ck 1185B pg 69

Ball Tip Steak.. Bottom Sirloin

Best Paul and it is line serve

[HKDave]

Tri-tips and ball tip roasts are small. If you're doing carved roast beef for 200 people, you don't want small. Your carving waste will be high (too many 'end pieces' and shrapnel; not enough nice slices) and it'll be a PITA. You want big.

A common cut for big catering gigs is a steamship round (aka Baron of Beef), NAMP 166B, or similar. They're not expensive and are 30-50lbs each. Carefully cooked and sliced thin against the grain, there won't be much difference on the plate between this and sirloin tip. It's lean, so jus is your friend. Buy small ones if you're doing this in domestic ovens.

If the clients want to pay for it, you could do prime rib roasts. These will cook faster, look classier on a carving station and are far tastier, but your meat cost will be 3-4x higher. Also at the high end, consider whole strip loins, which will give you nice small slices - a plus if there's more than one protein to fit on the plate.

Figure about 8oz raw trimmed boneless protein weight per guest (that's your beef and pork combined), more if there are a lot of big eaters.

You might find this site helpful for estimating quantities:

http://www.angelfire.com/bc/incredible/Buffetchart2.html

[weinoo]

Tri-tips and ball tip roasts are small. If you're doing carved roast beef for 200 people, you don't want small. Your carving waste will be high (too many 'end pieces' and shrapnel; not enough nice slices) and it'll be a PITA. You want big.

A common cut for big catering gigs is a steamship round (aka Baron of Beef), NAMP 166B, or similar. They're not expensive and are 30-50lbs each. Carefully cooked and sliced thin against the grain, there won't be much difference on the plate between this and sirloin tip. It's lean, so jus is your friend. Buy small ones if you're doing this in domestic ovens.

That's the one (steamship, that is). I think it's a whole top round roast - gotta keep it just at medium rare.

[Paul Bacino]

HK Dave

Very good info. I think given that this product will be hot boxed over.. mass is a better thing, anyway. I like the top round idea, steamship, but I have never cooked top, myself. I might just go buy me a small roast and sous vide it.. and see if I can come up with a sauce to dress with ( just as an experiment ).

I like the strip loin option.

Paul

[HKDave]

That's the one (steamship, that is). I think it's a whole top round roast - gotta keep it just at medium rare.

Close, it's both the top and bottom round together. Basically it's the whole round primal with the toughest bits (shank, heel) removed.

You're right about not serving it over Med Rare. Because it's so massive, there's a lot of carry-over, so you need to pull it from the oven much earlier than you think.

[Paul Bacino]

Went to WF and picked up a 2.5 # Top Round to try. Cost 10$.

I wanted to see what a "Steamship" might taste like. The full steamship, can weigh 25#s

With this smaller roast I was worried about drying it out, I thought about low , dry cooking, but went sous vide.

I did a seasoning of Worcester, Malabar pepper and salt: Cooked 4hrs @135, no after sear.

Perect medium rare, I like the texture and flavor of the cut, which i just served with a jus. If I could get a reproduction with the cater for the larger cut, this might work.

Any other thoughts are appreciated. No pic's on this one.. had to much company.

best Paul