Sunday Roast: Perfect rare roast beef recipe
Comments(58)
We reward ourselves once in a while with a really good joint of beef. It does a Sunday lunch plus at least a couple of meals during the week. Beef is easy as long as you have the three elements spot on: the choice of joint, temperature and timing. With beef, I found this all a bit overwhelming until I met Tommy Cody.
I worked at Tommy and Peggy’s house for about a month. They always insisted that I joined them for lunch. It was an elegant affair. Peggy and I were given pre lunch drinks to sip and could hear the happy clatter of saucepans and running water, getting more frenetic as the designated time approached. Tommy moved steadily towards the crescendo as we chatted in a wave of anticipation and wafts of delicious aromas.
Lunch was civilised – a starter of great soup, an excellent main course and a tempting pud. Always accompanied with a decent glass of wine. Eating lunch with Tommy and Peggy made me feel special. I loved the conversation, the food, the wine and the virgin napkins. These were replaced every day.
There was one major problem. I needed a snooze after such a spectacular lunch. T and P repaired to thier boltholes but I had to carry on working. It was a battle but so much better than a snatched sandwich in a chilly Jalopy.
Tommy took up cooking when he retired and had made the clever move of doing the shopping as well. As every great chef knows, shopping can be inspirational. And Tommy’s meals were impressive. Four weeks in their house was a great test. He never faltered.
Danny got pretty fed up with hearing about Tommy’s spectacular meals. For example, his roast beef was cooked on an electric spit in the kitchen. I only sampled it cold in a salad but it was heavenly. Eventually D insisted that I asked the name of the joint and its provenance.
Tommy tipped that the best joint for a succulent rare roast beef is a corner cut of beef. When Jalopy and I chugged over to our butcher (Fred Fitzpatrick, in the Exning Road). All I could remember was the word “corner”.
“Ah,” Fred laid down his cleaver.
“He must mean corner cut of beef.” I have never found this labeled as such in any normal supermarket but having researched this, I think that it is similar to the best topside. Fred produced a lovely long joint and proceeded to cut the length we desired.
Perfect rare roast beef recipe
For medium rare or well done, simply cook the joint for longer (testing every 10 minutes)
Most cookbooks will give you timings and temperatures. We find Pure Leith (Leith’s Cookery Bible) gives the best results.
Needless to say we have tweaked. Here’s our favourite roast beef recipe that serves four with seconds. For bigger numbers, do check with Prue’s book or with your butcher.
Ingredients:
- 1.2 to 1.5 kg of corner of beef (less fat than rib roast but juicy, tender and tasty). For best reults use a jont of about 2 kg or over.
- half tsp of ground sea salt (we love Maldon sea salt from a grinder)
- 1 tsp of freshly ground black pepper
- 3 tbsp olive oil
Method:
- Pre-heat the oven to 240 (220 fan assisted, gas mark 9). That blackens the outside for tasty outer slices.
- Make a mini-baking tray from foil, just bigger than the joint and place in a roasting tray. This will contain the juices in a smaller area than if just plonking the joint onto the tray. It helps keep the juices from drying out.
- If the surface of your joint is dry, just rub a little olive oil over it. Usually, we simply take ours from he fridge in its bag, so it’s still moist on the outside.
- Mix the salt and pepper and coat the joint all over.
- Pour the olive oil into your foil baking tray, place the seasoned joint on it and put it in the oven. Mke sure that the oven has pre-heated fully.
- After 15 minutes, turn the temperature down to 180 (160 fan assisted, gas mark 4) and let it cook for a further 25 minutes per kilo (11 minutes per 450g/1 lb). For good rare beef, do not exceed these timings.
- Take it out of the oven and place it under a duvet of towels for 15 to 20 minutes. Make your gravy by pouring off the juices and simply adding carrot water (we always cook carrots with a Sunday roast. The juice helps to make great gravy when added to any meat juices).
Tips and tricks:
- I used to think the resting a joint was crazy. Danny insisted on doing this and it really makes a diiference. The meat does relax and become more tender. I did a test. It makes a big diffrence.
Thank you for your comments. And a bit of silly bath time fun with the Frothing Sea Monster trick!
Cutting energy costs
Recipe for sausages baked with herby garlic infused beans, bacon and tomato
Tracing some of my ancestors has taken me on a long journey
Recipe for lamb shanks braised in red wine with shallots: slow cooker/crockpot
The cupboard was bare – so what was The Contessa going to eat last night?
FD
i AM AN ARTIST SO DO NOT HAVE TIME TO SPEND LONG SESSIONS IN THE KITCHEN DOING FOOD PREPARATION, SO LIKE TO LET FOOD LOOK AFTER ITSELF SO TO SPEAK. I TRIED THIS RECIPE AND IT IS WONDERFUL. THANKS A LOT
Hi Helen
Thanks so much for leaving such positive feedback for this recipe. Much appreciated.
My husband loves rare roast beef and I have never been able to get it right. I followed your instructions exactly and it was wonderful! I’m glad I found your site (he is too!) Thanks so much.
Hi Cathy
Good news! Thank you so much for dropping by to leave a comment.
I just had a peep at your website. Your quilts are gorgeous!
its in the oven, i’ll let you know how it goes
Hi
My husbband and I live in Spain, and the cut of meat from our local Spanish butcher resembles your description most,we have tried many different methods of cooking these joints rare, and yours is the only one that works here.
Thanks very much Nicky.(Alicante)
Hi Jimbalin
I’m sorry, I missed your comment coming in. I do hope that it worked out for you.
Hi Nicky
Thanks for leaving this feedback. There’s nothing like a really good joint of rare beef!
All I can say is YUM!!! Perfect.
Hi Natalie
We ate this last night and it was scrummy!
Thanks for leaving a comment.
So grateful. I had an almost identical recipe for absolutely ages, but couldn’t find it.Many thanks.
Hi Linda
I love this too. Danny cooked it last Sunday. Delicious.
Im 30 minutes into the adventure, kitchen smells delicious and homely.
Hello Struan
Hope that the recipe turned out well for you!
I googled rare roast beef and your blog came up. I made it and it was delicious!! Thanks so much for sharing your recipe.
Hi Heather
Thank you for taking the time to make a comment! I love this too – we had it on Sunday.
Oh please let this work..have never had a successful roast beef yet even though I have just about every other other kind of meat down pat! Tomorrow will tell.
Hi Bev
I do hope that this worked for you. We are eating this tonight!
Well, it was almost perfect. A little too rare for an old heavy smoker with false teeth..but an absolute hit with those of us with less tainted taste buds. I THINK I may have needed 10-15 minutes more for the size of the cut, but I now feel very comfortable with doing this roast as and when! Thank you very very much!
Bev
Hi Bev
That’s great news!
Sometimes we put a few slices under the grill for people who like well done meat or put them on plates in a warm oven. That seems to do the trick.
Thanks for the feedback!
Tried this on Sunday and it was one of the best beef joints I have ever cooked. Thanks
Hello Cher
Thanks so much for taking to time to leave feedback! I love this method of cooking beef.
As an Englishman, you’d think I should know all there is to know about roasting beef. The number of times there have been bad words said in my kitchen when the beef doesn’t come out as I would like!!!!!!!
I was cooking an English meal in France for some friends, and decided to try this method (with my fingers-crossed, because I was sure it wouldn’t work).
Why, oh why haven’t I found it before? I was absolutely fabulous – and so easy.
The beef and horseradish sandwiches the next day were equally delicious.
THANK YOU!
Trevor
Hello Trevor
Good news.
I hate overcooked roast beef – school dinners.
It took a while to perfect this recipe. Glad that it worked for you.
,i have tried so many times to cook beef,i have always cooked it on a high temperature and now i know why it always turned out wrong ha ha,now i have read your comments,iam going to try this tomorrow for our sunday dinner,am geting sick of cooking chicken,only i dont want it too rare,so will give it a try and let you know how it went tomorrow
sarah
I avoid cooking beef, because I can never get it just right. And what’s the point in spending all that money on a beautiful joint when it comes out grey?
The timings and temperatures above worked brilliantly! Thank you so much! The beef was absolutely perfect.
I don’t suppose you have similar instructions for medium-rare roast leg of lamb, do you? I find it’s a bit hit and miss – sometimes it’s good, sometimes not.
xx
delish! thanks so much,turned out perfectly
Hello
I just stumbled upon your site in search of a good rare roast beef recipe. The beef is in the oven as instructed. It shall be wrapped and taken to my mother in law’s where she will have prepared the veg.
Before putting the roast in the oven, I cut a piece which I have sliced and fried in a pan with a chopped onion. When they browned, I added about a pint of water with a stock cube and some fresh thyme. I brought to the boil and it is now simmering.
When the meat has cooked I shall drain the juice from the sauce and make the gravy in the roasting pan to incorporate all of the meat residue.
I shall let you know how the roast is, it smells devine….
Thank you for a wonderful site. I have added to my favourites.
Disaster – followed recipe, temperature and timings, with the exception that I chose a rolled sirloin joint. Unfortunately it turned out well done. Sunday lunch guests were charmingly complimentary but we all know what they really thought!
Back to the rare beef drawing board for me!
my dad loves rare beef, and I have never cooked it for him before, so I will let you know his thoughts after sunday lunch. fingers crossed
Hi Sarah – Belated thank you for taking the time to send a comment. We would love to know how it turned out.
Hi Hazel – Great that it turned out well for you! But we are beginning to think that oven temperatures vary wildly (see Marks’ disappointment above). Thank you so much for leaving a comment.
Hi Francine – I have a horrible feeling that the beef went on cooking in transit to Mother-In-Law. But your gravy recipe sounds scrumptious.
Mark, Mark, Mark – We are so sorry that your joint was a total disappointment. I can only guess that a rolled sirloin joint has less diameter or density than our “corner of beef” joint. Either that or your oven cooks at a higher temp than ours. Or both. What a shame. But thanks for posting your results.
Hi Anna – bear in mind that our method can easily be overcooked. Even an extra 5 minutes can change it to medium-rare (pink in the middle only). If your Dad loves it REALLY rare, then give it 7 minutes less cooking time. If any of your guests like prefer more well-done beef, you can pop their slices under a low grill for a few minutes to “ease” the pinkness towards grey.
I’m pleased to see that I’m not the only exponent of ultra rare beef. Totally agree – you HAVE to start with well aged beef and the correct cut.
It’s alway amusing to watch Sunday lunch guests faces when they see our kids (7 and 12) ploughing through meat so red that it’s no even managed to start running any meat juices. A good vet would surely get it galloping round a field. It shames ‘em into having a go and then discovering that they wished they’d been cooking it that themselves way forty years ago.
I have a similar method to your own – interestingly my timings match yours minute for minute so clearly we’re both doing something right.
In this modern world where everything is rushed I think that cooking and eating should be revered and enjoyed at a slow pace.
Hello Paul
Thanks for drooping by.
Danny is king of the Sunday roasts. His beef is generally perfect! But as yu say it has to be the right cut and a fairly substancial joint. A small joint is very hard to cook right.
We slice any leftovers and freeze them to eat later.
Tried this last Sunday and it was FAB. The best roast ever. Hubby had the middle and the boys the pinker edges. Everyone happy. Many thanks.
marty
Hello Marty
Delighted that it worked out well for you!
Thanks so much for leaving a comment. I love this roast too.
Please explain the “duvet” of towels. Do they just rest on top of the roast or wrap all around it? Surely even just touching the roast will absorb moisture and impart some dryness?
Hi David
Wrap the beef in foil, with the towels on top.
Many thanks
I should have commented much sooner than this. I think I’ve been using your recipe for about a year or so now and it is great!
Perfect beef every time – we love rare beef.
With regard to the oven temperature thing I’ve got used to mine now and it’s obviously ‘out’ on the temeperature because I take 20C off your temperatures and it appears to work exactly the same.
An oven thermeometer can be bought fairly cheaply to check if your oven temperatures are right.
Hello Cath
Thanks for leaving a comment.
I would like to buy an oven thermometer as I suspect that our’s is on the hot side.
Hi, will this work with lamb?? I did an online food order and the lamb is not good. Its very small 850g and looks quite fatty (back to the butchers for me). Or do you have any different recipes for a small 1/2 leg lamb?
thanks
marty
Thank you – my search for the perfect roast beef recipe has finally come to an end!
In the past my efforts at making roast beef have always been just shy of disasterous – usually dry and tasteless – but your recipe has come to my rescue. I tried it last night on friends and everyone loved it, especially my partner who is a fine cook himself and loves a good rare roast. They were all amazed that it was so incredibly tender and full of flavour! Before putting in the oven I rubbed the roast with a mixture of oil, pepper, sea salt, a bit of crushed garlic and mustard. And, because we also love roast veg I placed the roast on a bed of chunky root vegetables which added wonderful flavour to the gravy too. This was truly a perfect rare roast beef.
I have already used the same technique with a lamb join and it works great! Because lamb is so fatty it doesn’t need basting but with a small cut you have to cut the period of high heat down a lot.
For years I have used a similar technique to make perfect roast chicken. It comes out with wonderful crispy skin with very tender, juicy meat.
Thanks again!
Sounds delicious. I’m going to try this right now – wish me luck! x
[...] Roast beef Posted in 3, Dinner, Main by lolfitness on July 29, 2009 Original recipe [...]
I’m cooking this tomorrow for m boyfriend’s parents and sister (along wise mini yorkshire puds), fresh bread for starters, and nutella mousse for dessert. *fingers crossed*.
I bought 1.5kg of angus topside from ocado, hopefully it’s good enough 0.o
Hi Diana
Fingers crossed that it worked for you.
I just made this for Christmas dinner. Absolutely amazing. 2.5 KG joint cooked to perfection. You’re my new favourite x
Hi I have a joint of Topside 2.4kg given to me by my Mum. I would not normally use this kind of joint to roast especially for a special occasion but my hands are tied this time. The butcher tells me it is a prime joint from a local farmer and matured for at least 30 days. He vac-packed it for me on the 23rd December and I will cook it on the 2nd Jan.He told me to take it out the day before. I am in his hands that it will remain okay.It is fine as I speak (31st). I am going to try your method and I have calculated the cooking times at 15 mins-220c plus 60 mins-160c. What do you think? If you are unavailable before D-Day I will report back as to how I fared.
I’d probably cook this for no more than the time you suggest, and your temps and timings look pretty accurate.
Do get it to room temperature firstly and resist temptation to keep putting it back to finish off. This is where most people go wrong. And the next time they have a bash at beef they keep to the same timings but lower the oven temp.
Good fine grained beef must be served rare in my opinion. to cook it ‘through’ until grey is a waste of a nice joint.
Go and enjoy, it’s virtually impossible to mess it up and in my opinion it impossible to undercook good beef.
Worked out great in the end but Was probably more medium than rare. This was however my fault I fear. I used the timings I said above and used a meat thermometer which only got up to 54C. I had researched that 60C was needed for rare so I put it back in for about 5 mins. At this point the Thermometer reached 57C but I decided to rest it anyway for 30 mins. When I carved it was very juicy but beyond rare.Fortunately it still carved like a dream and was very very good Beef. I was just glad I didn’t spoil it and I shall cook it in this way again minus the extra 5 mins. Thank you.
Glad you enjoyed. I’m a bit of a caveman in the same way as you – the rarer the better.
If anyone gives you any stick for this (some folk do actually LIKE their beef grey and dry) just play the Eco card ie. minimal use of electricity or gas.
Strangely though, I’ve never heard anyone who’s ‘converted’ to rare beef utter the words “Going back to having it well done”.
Funny that?
I cooked this using a 2.5kg piece of corner for my family last weekend, and was the first time I’d ever cooked roast beef.
It was delicious, completely wonderful, very tender and the perfect colour in the middle. If only convincing my mother than an hour and fifteen minutes was enough time was as easy as actually cooking it.
Will definately cook it again.
Tried this recipe today; it was perfectly cooked & delicious!
I always use this recipe for roasting rare beef, it’s been fantastic. I’m making my mother use it today as she’s cooking a roast, and it’s usually well-done, so I’ve insisted on her following these guidelines.
Take a look at this site http://www.traditional-beef.co.uk/article/Recipes_and_guides has a really simple guide on roasting beef plus other tips
[...] (Adapted from The Cottage Smallholder) [...]
Absolutely brilliant recipe, I cook my 1st roast beef this weekend and it was a huge success!! Followed your instructions down to the last letter and what a treat it was to have beef this way.
Many thanks.
For those with meat thermometers: be aware that the internal temperature will continue to rise after you’ve taken it out of the oven. So if you want it to be 60C for example (too cooked for me), take it out of the oven when it’s no more than 54. The roast I cooked yesterday rose from 38C to 52C (just right) in 15 minutes’ resting! But I cooked it at a high temperature throughout, instead of turning the oven down after 15 minutes. I think the method here would result in a more modest rise.
Thank you so much for posting this recipe! I did this for Christmas lunch (with turkey too) and it was absolutely perfect! It actually made my timings easier as well as this went in after the turkey had come out to rest! We are still eating the leftover beef now and it’s gorgeous