![]() |
|
|
||||||||||||
Cooking | Baking | Ingredients | Equipment | Techniques | Entertaining | Holidays | Ethnic | Nutrition | Safety | Desserts | Drinks | History | Science | Kids |
|
||||||||||||||
S-L-O-W Cooking Roast Beef Have you ever noticed how the roast beef sliced at a deli is rare to medium-rare almost to the very edge of the meat? That is the result of low-temperature, slow cooking, and it is the standard method for commercial cooking. When you cook meat at a high temperature, 400°F (205°C) and above, the outside dries out and overcooks by the time the center is medium rare. And at that point, the medium-rare area is only about an inch-and-a-half in diameter.
Cook the roast at a moderate temperature, 300°F to 375°F (150°C to 190°C), and the medium-rare area will be larger, but there will still be a substantial portion of overcooked meat on the outside. Cook it at 200°F (95°C) to the same center temperature, and it will be a beautiful medium rare almost to the edge.
Another strong argument for slow roasting is that meats begin to lose water much more rapidly above 120°F (50°C). One study showed that a 6-pound roast lost more than 2 pounds when cooked at 500°F (260°F). Is it any wonder the meat industry relies on slow roasting? It cannot afford to see a third of each product evaporate for the sake of speed.
Now, one argument the people give for roasting at a high temperature is to allow for the formation of a beautiful, flavorful crispy brown crust. Shirley Corriher, author of Cookwise (Canada, UK), and Chris Kimball, publisher of Cook’s Illustrated have come up with a slow-cooking method that also produced a delicious brown crust.
First, they sear all sides of the meat in a hot skillet on top of the stove. They season the roast with a little salt and pepper, place it on a rack in a roasting pan and slip it into a 200°F oven, where it cooks until it reaches an internal temperature of 110°F (45°C). At that point, they turn the oven up to 500°F and continue cooking until the internal temperature of the meat reaches 130°F (55°C), which should take only 10 or 15 minutes more. Raising the temperature after most of the cooking is done gives you a deep brown crust very fast, Corriher says, because protein- and sugar-laden juices that came to the surface during cooking evaporated, leaving a high concentration of proteins and sugars that brown quickly.
Eight hours may be a little long, though, for all but the largest roasts. A roast cooked at 200°F is going to take about twice as long as one roasted at 350°F. But you will really have to rely on your trusty meat thermometer |
MOST POPULAR |
|||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||
Related Articles:
Bad Way to Slow-Cook A Roast How to Cook a Rump Roast Roasting a Large Prime Rib Browing a Roast Why Let a Roast Rest after Cooking? |
Related Recipes:
Favorite Beef Pot Roast Recipe Traditional Roast Rib of Beef with Gravy |