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Roast Beef (Use prime cut of beef Trim)
Use prime cut of beef. Trim, and wipe meat with damp cloth. Lay in uncovered roaster on rack, sear in hot (500 degrees) oven about 15 minutes. Dredge with flour, season with salt and pepper and continue roasting until tender, lowering temperature to 400 degrees. Leave uncovered until well browned, then cover.
A short, unfussy sear-then-roast method typical of American cookbooks once home ovens had reliable thermostats. It gives no weight, no total time and no finishing temperature, so those are the gaps to fill.
- The hinge: use a thermometer, not the clockThe recipe judges doneness by "tender," which is meaningless for a roast. Pull a rib or sirloin roast at 120-125F internal for rare, 130-135F for medium rare, and rest it 20 minutes before carving; the temperature climbs several degrees during the rest.
- Timing to expectAfter the 15-minute sear at 500F, allow roughly 12-15 minutes per pound at 400F for a boneless roast, less for a thin one. Start checking well before you think it is ready.
- "Prime cut" is not USDA PrimeHere it means a good roasting cut -- standing rib, rib eye, or top sirloin -- not the grade stamp. Chuck is better suited to long moist cooking; leaner cuts such as round can be dry-roasted but come out markedly less tender.
- The dredging with flourFlour on the seared surface browns fast and was meant to build colour and give body to the pan drippings. It scorches easily at 400F; use a light dusting or skip it and thicken the gravy afterward.
- Salt earlier, not mid-roastModern practice is generally to salt the surface an hour ahead, or the day before if refrigerated uncovered, rather than after the sear as written; the seasoning has more time to work into the outer meat.
- Covering at the endThe instruction to cover once well browned traps steam and softens the crust you just built. It is only worth doing if the exterior is darkening faster than the centre is cooking; a loose tent of foil over the dark spots does the same job with less damage.
- Roaster and rackAn open pan with a rack is still correct -- it keeps the underside out of the drippings. A shallow pan browns better than a deep one.
- YieldFigure about 3/4 lb of bone-in roast or 1/2 lb boneless per person, so a 5 lb rib roast serves six or so.
A large roast of beef was a familiar festive centrepiece in English tradition and held its place on American holiday tables well into the twentieth century, particularly where a household wanted something grander or simply less troublesome than a bird. The two-stage method here -- a blast of high heat to sear, then a drop to finish -- belongs to the era when gas and electric ranges with numbered dials replaced the wood stove, and cookbook writers could print a figure like 500 degrees instead of "a quick oven." The flour dredge is older still, a holdover from spit and open-pan roasting where a floured surface caught the fat and crisped into a crust.