How to make a roast be ready when I want it to be?

November 8, 2015 10:20 AM

How to make a roast be ready when I want it to be?

We are having ten people over for dinner tonight. I’m a little inexperienced at cooking and at having dinner parties. We’ve decided to make a big roast beef, with some mashed sweet potatoes and salad. Exciting! And also a little scary!!

The few times I’ve made things like roasts in the past, they’ve always come out great. I use a thermometer to check the temperature, let them rest a while, and they are delicious.

The one tricky thing is that I find the timing very unpredictable- different recipes seem to vary a lot in how long they say to cook the roast, I’m not sure how accurate my oven thermostat is, and my own experience is somethings these things get to the right internal temperature a lot slower or a lot faster than recipes say.

I don’t want everyone to have to wait forever while the roast cooks, but I also don’t want it to be ready super-early and then get dry (from overcooking) or cold (from sitting outside of the oven for too long).

What strategies can I use to make sure the roast beef is ready more or less when I want it to be? It is okay err on the side of cooking it a little early and keeping it in a low-temp over or will that overcook it? Are there other ways to check the timing?

(If it matters: I have a crazy assortment of thermometers to help: One that shows the temperature inside the oven, a thermapen which I use for everything, and a measurepro dct350 which is a digital leave-in thermometer which I expect I’ll be using today for the first time)

Also I’ve looked at this thread, which is helpful, but I'm looking for specific advice on timing, which seems not to be found there…

posted by ManInSuit to Food & Drink (14 answers total)

I'm on my phone, but check out The Food Lab's reverse-sear technique for prime rib. It's perfect, controllable, comes out whenever you want, and doesn't need to rest. The sear serves to warm it up.
posted by ftm at 10:29 AM on November 8, 2015 [3 favorites]

I go by the pounds when I make my roasts and use the thermometers to double check. I'm normally within like 10-20 minutes of when I wanted to serve it and that's fine. Check out sites like this to help you out.
posted by FireFountain at 10:33 AM on November 8, 2015 [2 favorites]

Best answer: Also I just want to say that practice helps. I messed up the first couple times but you learn as you do it. If you have the time and means I'd highly suggest practicing more and take note of pounds vs. time , oven temp, etc.
posted by FireFountain at 10:37 AM on November 8, 2015 [1 favorite]

What ftm said. Roast low and slow, sear at end. Serious Eats article.
posted by wonton endangerment at 10:40 AM on November 8, 2015 [5 favorites]

Another time, consider cooking the meat sous vide then searing. Reverse sear methods take the guesswork out and make timing a lot note flexible.
posted by wonton endangerment at 10:44 AM on November 8, 2015

Thirding ftm and wonton endangerment - the reverse sear is the way to go. I've used it for prime rib (fantastic) and for sirloin tip roasts a couple of times (amazing).

The only problem I ran into with the sear-at-the-end technique was with the prime rib - I left it in the same roasting pan when I put it back in the searing hot oven and the drippings smoked like crazy. Rookie mistake, I guess, but make sure to pour off any fat in the pan before you return the roast to the oven to sear.
posted by pocams at 11:34 AM on November 8, 2015 [3 favorites]

Properly rested roast meat will always be a shade cooler than many people would typically choose to eat. The upside that resting gives in terms of texture and flavour outweighs the downside of temperature IMO.

A typical restaurant trick for roasts - especially for beef or lamb joints that you want to serve rare - is to ensure they're cooked to internal temperature ahead of everything else and well rested, then ensure that the gravy or sauce that the meat is served with is straight-out-of-the-pan piping hot.

Added benefit of doing things this way - especially if you're limited on oven space - is that it can give you plenty of time and space for roast potatoes; yorkshire puddings etc - which you'd normally want to cook at a higher temperature than the meat in any case.
posted by bifter at 11:35 AM on November 8, 2015 [4 favorites]

Response by poster: The roast I have is, it turns out, around 8 pounds (big, I realize, for just 10 people). It is a top sirloin roast. I admit - I do not know exactly what that means. Does anyone know- would the reverse-sear work for this? It sounds like a good idea! Or are there other particular tips/concerns for this cut?

(bifter: I *love* the hot-gravy for cool meat trick. I think we are not doing gravy but I will try that next time. That seems smart!)
posted by ManInSuit at 1:19 PM on November 8, 2015

Response by poster: (oh wait: I don't think I have enough time to reverse-sear at this point, since the roast is still in the fridge, and the guests arrive in 3.5 hours. Okay. Back to work...)
posted by ManInSuit at 1:25 PM on November 8, 2015

I left it in the same roasting pan when I put it back in the searing hot oven and the drippings smoked like crazy.

now imagine doing this in a condo building with a shared, very loud smoke alarm that can only be shut off by the fire department. On thanksgiving. Recommend just using a cool pan, personally.
posted by ftm at 2:01 PM on November 8, 2015

If you can, leave at least 30 minutes to let it rest out of the oven after it's done. It helps keep the juices inside.
posted by CrazyLemonade at 2:49 PM on November 8, 2015 [2 favorites]

Response by poster: I’m not sure how accurate my oven thermostat is

Oh ffs. It turns out, if the in-oven thermometer, that the thermostat is fairly useless. At any given moment, it seems the temperature can be, like 50 degrees lower than what is says on the dial, or 25 degrees higher. So I think I'm relegated to being a human thermostat for the next three hours, trying to keep things at a reasonable temperature. (I guess, when I think about it, I've barely cooked anything in this oven since we moved it, at least nothing very temperature-sensitive...

So the advice I'm marking as "best" is the one suggesting some practice before trying to cook a roast for 10 people. Oh except one more person is coming so now 11. This is not work I am cut out for.
posted by ManInSuit at 3:04 PM on November 8, 2015

If it's not too late... I do the 7 rib Prime Rib thing every year -it's a big roast. I find that since, like you, I couldn't estimate the time needed correctly the roasts were either onder or over done, I needed a alternative method. Here's what works for me;

Cook the roast with the "450F sear and then turn down the heat" method. Allow allow extra cooking time time, use a thermometer and stop the roast about 30-40 minutes early and about 10 degrees (internal) short of desired doneness.

Then take the roast out of the oven - tent it loosely in foil, and leave the oven door open until the temp of the oven drops below 200F. about 2-3 minutes. Back goes the roast into the oven which is now set to 150F. The roast will stay warm and the internal temp will rise about another 10 degrees - just to where you want it - in about 10 minutes. I find that I can leave the oven at 150 and the roast can stay warm for almost 30 more minutes. Plenty of time to arrange the gravy/au jus and to serve the veggies. Then the roast makes it's appearance at the end and we carve away.

BTW it took 3 very expensive Prime Rib roasts before i nailed it so even with all the advice - practice AND record what you did - times, oven temps, meat temps, etc.
posted by Zedcaster at 4:16 PM on November 8, 2015 [3 favorites]

I tend to do my beef roasts by roasting in a 500F oven for 5-7 minutes per pound and then shutting the oven off but keeping the door closed and letting it sit for an hour to an hour and a half. It comes out medium-rare and can roast potatoes but just wrapping them in foil and leaving them in along with the roast. Your oven must hold temperature fairly well, (putting firebrick in it help if it doesn't hold temp well) but otherwise it is quite simple to do and ready in 2 hours on the dot.
posted by koolkat at 5:18 AM on November 9, 2015