Roast beef

[pedro]

We cooked a nice roast beef today for lunch, following the method described in the eGCI at Science in the kitchen. It's a slow method that takes a few hours, but you certainly control the degree of cooking that you get. I prefer it on the rare side, by the way.

So, no overcooking problems at all, but I wonder if adding some kind of jus to it while it's in the oven would improve the flavor. Do you use any demi glace or similar to enhace flavor?

[jackal10]

If its good beef, it will have enough flavour. The joint in the picture had no jus. Maybe some salt.

One of the problems with the long time low temperature method is you get very little pan residues to make jus or gravy from. I usually serve (and essential with Yorkshire Pudding) a thin gravy (I hate the word jus) made sepeately from demi-glace, and some Madeira and Soy sauce.

[fifi]

For the type of preparation you are discussing, no. I haven't used jus. I do if I am going for a well done braise of a shoulder cut for example. But I have used some glace de viande to glaze a lovely rare roast at the end of cooking. It was a sensation.

[budrichard]

"After 6 hours in a 65C/150F oven. Final temperature is 55C/130 F – rare. "

I can't think of a better way to ruin a piece of beef!

We roast at high temp of 500F until an internal temp of no more than 100F and then rest. The high temp browns the beef and puts a nice crust on it, the resting allows the beef to be rare i.e not bloody red but a uniform light pink. Individuals that like a well done piece get the ends. There may or may not be liquid in the roasting pan upon the finish of cooking, but there will be jus after resting. The above can do a 17# rib roast in about 3 hours total or any smaller roast in a faster time frame. The key is high heat and resting.

Long slow cooking yields a gray 'yucky' product. -Dick

[Dave the Cook]

"After 6 hours in a 65C/150F oven. Final temperature is 55C/130 F – rare. "

I can't think of a better way to ruin a piece of beef!

We roast at high temp of 500F until an internal temp of no more than 100F and then rest. The high temp browns the beef and puts a nice crust on it, the resting allows the beef to be rare i.e not bloody red but a uniform light pink. Individuals that like a well done piece get the ends. There may or may not be liquid in the roasting pan upon the finish of cooking, but there will be jus after resting. The above can do a 17# rib roast in about 3 hours total or any smaller roast in a faster time frame. The key is high heat and resting.

Long slow cooking yields a gray 'yucky' product. -Dick

←

I suggest you read Jack's eGCI course (linked above). Be sure to check out the photos of his "gray yucky product."

[jackal10]

On the contrary long slow cooking at low temperature yields a fantastic piece of beef.

If the final objective is an internal temperature of 140F, then putting it in a 500F oven is crazy. Meat doesn't conduct heat quickly. Using a 150F oven the process is much more controllable, and some of the collagen has time to soften.

Browning the outside and cooking the meat are two seperate, seperable processes.

If you cook all the way in at 500F you will over cook the outside inch or so of the joint, the proteins will contract and squeeze out the intra-cellular juice (and flavour), while the centre is undercooked and a potential reservoir for bugs, since it never reaches a temperature high enough to be safe. Resting allows some of the osmazone (meat juices) to be sucked back from the inside to the outside, but doesn't really compensate for tight, fiberous overcooked meat.

I used to cook beef the way you describe, but no longer. Long time low temperature gives a better, juicier, tenderer more flavoursome product. The key is never taking any part over 140F/55C, or maybe a little more if you like it slightly firmer. I find 58C optimum. Read the eGCI unit. Try it.

Edited February 27, 2005 by jackal10 (log)

[chefzadi]

I wouldn't add a jus. You could create a jus by adding some water to the pan. Strain the sauce before service. As for some of the meat jus I'm seeing here and there for my tastes they are a little too heavy, sometimes overwhelming. I still like the stock reduction sauces. But for depth of flavor I do a combination of reduction and jus. Strain the sauce for clarity of appearance. The result...refined, earthy, robust and "sublime" (the use of "sublime" is a joke here).

If anyone is interested in this meat jus and stock reduction combination I will be posting it as part of the couscous thread in a few weeks.