A great British tradition - Roast Beef

Britain has a great tradition of roasting meats - the French don't call us Roast Beef for nothing. This is partly due to the Brits having long had separate beef and dairy herds. So when you tuck into that French steak, while it has tons of flavour it is noticeably tougher and chewier than a British steak.
Unfortunately, British supermarkets don't have a great tradition of selling good roasting joints. Recently at the butcher counter of my local supermarket, I noticed that the loin of pork didn't have any skin - when I asked the 'Butcher' about it he told me that's how it comes. Surely there's some law against breeding pigs without skin??
Most beef sold by supermarkets is too lean and too young - for beef to develop the full flavour and texture it requires for roasting, it needs to be hung. For a long time. And hanging beef takes time and space. Time and space both cost money - and we all know how keen supermarkets are to save money on their produce.

Thank goodness then, for Sainsbury's new range endorsed by celebrity chef Jamie Oliver - matured for 21 days.
I've previously bought the steak (very good, phenomenally expensive and badly portioned), but this weekend I tried a joint. Oddly, the actual joint was unspecified - but we'll assume it was a rolled rib. At £9 per kilo, this is not cheap beef - however, cooking shrinkage was virtually nil - so you were buying meat not water - another one of the supermarket's little tricks.

The meat was surprisingly lean - not much fat on the outside and not much marbling of fat through the joint. This worried me slightly as it is the fat that provides moistness and much of the flavour. I needn't have worried though - the meat was quite delicious and had a lovely texture.
The grain of roast beef should be nicely open, in my opinion, making it more succulent and tender - this was quite open grained, and very moist considering the lack of fat.

The instructions given with the joint called for it to be cooked for 45 minutes per kilo or 20 minutes per pound for 'pink'. The result, I'm afraid to say, was very rare, rather than pink - OK for me, less so for Spud. I did manage to get some more cooked slices for her. Overall, I would still have added another 15 minutes overall cooking time for pink meat.

FYI, before cooking, I brought the meat up to room temperature by bringing it out of the fridge an hour or so before cooking and removing all the packaging. Before roasting, I coated the joint in a mix of mustard flour, salt and pepper. I tried to baste the joint a couple of times during cooking, but it was so lean it threw off very little fat. A drizzle of olive oil did the trick.
Most important of all in cooking any kind of meat - beef in particular - was the resting time - I gave it a full twenty minutes - it really does make a huge difference.
Served with roast potatoes and parsnips (roasted in duck fat - I always keep a jar in the fridge), carrots, savoy cabbage and a few shallots and mushrooms roasted round the joint, a gravy made from pan juices and a splash of red wine. And a big dollop of horseradish on the side.

So overall, Jamie Oliver's 21 Day Matured Beef from Sainsbury's gets my recommendation!

So now I need to work on my Yorkshire pudding... my batter was too thick, and they didn't rise. Better luck next time!
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