Authentic Recipe Slow-Roasted Beef with Horseradish Cream Sauce

JD

October 03, 2019

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tasty-beef-recipe, tasty-food-recipe

Without proper preparation, inexpensive beef roasts can turn out tough and flavorless. To transform an affordable boneless eye-round roast into a centerpiece-worthy dish, we started by salting the meat and then
searing it before roasting. We also roasted it at a very low 225 degrees and then turned off the oven toward the end of cooking. This allowed the meat’s enzymes to break down the roast’s tough connective tissue. Open the oven as little as possible, and remove the roast from the oven (and close the oven door) while taking the meat’s temperature. If the roast has not reached the desired temperature in the time specified in step 5, reheat the oven to 225 degrees for 5 minutes, then shut it off and continue to cook the roast to the desired temperature. We don’t recommend cooking this roast past medium. Buy refrigerated prepared horseradish, not the shelf-stable kind, which contains preservatives and additives.

Serves 6 to 8
Total Time 2 hours 30 minutes (plus 18 hours for salting)

Ingredients

BEEF

• 1 (3½- to 4½-pound) boneless eye-round roast, trimmed
• 4 teaspoons kosher salt
• 2 teaspoons plus 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• 2 teaspoons pepper

HORSERADISH CREAM SAUCE

• ½ cup heavy cream
• ½ cup prepared horseradish, drained
• 1 teaspoon salt
• ⅛ teaspoon pepper

Cooking Procedure

1. FOR THE BEEF Rub roast thoroughly with salt, wrap in plastic wrap, and refrigerate for 18 to 24 hours.
2. Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 225 degrees. Patroast dry with paper towels, rub with 2 teaspoons oil, and sprinkle with pepper.
3. Heat remaining 1 tablespoon oil in 12-inch skillet over medium-high heat until just smoking. Brown roast well on all sides, 12 to 16 minutes; reduce heat if pan begins to scorch. Transfer roast to wire rack set in rimmed baking sheet and roast until thermometer inserted into center of meat registers 115 degrees (for medium-rare), 1¼ to 1¾ hours, or 125 degrees (for medium), 1¾ to 2¼ hours.
4. FOR THE SAUCE Meanwhile, whisk cream in bowl until thickened but not yet stiff, 1 to 2 minutes. Gently fold in horseradish, salt, and pepper. Transfer to serving bowl and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes or up to 1 hour before serving.
5. Turn oven off and leave roast in oven, without opening door, until meat registers 130 degrees (for medium-rare) or 140 degrees (for medium), 30 to 50 minutes.
6. Transfer roast to carving board, tent with aluminum foil, and let rest for 15 minutes. Slice meat crosswise as thinly as possible and serve with sauce.

HOT FOOD KEEPS COOKING

To get a cut of meat to the table cooked just right, you have to know a little bit about physics. The temperature of meat keeps rising even after you stop cooking it. This is an effect called carryover cooking,
and it happens for two reasons: First, the exterior of a large roast gets hot much more quickly than the interior. Second, because heat always moves from a hotter to a cooler area, as long as there is a difference
in temperature between two areas of the meat (the very-hot outside and the less-hot inside), heat will keep moving from one to the other, even after you remove the meat from the heat source. Eventually the inside and outside will reach equilibrium, but before they get to that point, the carryover cooking can cause a significant increase in temperature at the center of a large roast, bringing it from a perfect pink to a disappointing gray. This means that if you wait until your meat is at your desired doneness before you take it out of the oven, it’ll probably be overdone by the time you sit down to eat.

Timing Is Everything

So when, exactly, should you remove meat from the heat source to ensure it finishes at the perfect temperature? Both the size of the food and the heat level during cooking will affect the answer. A large roast
will absorb more heat than a thin steak, which means that there will be more heat in the meat and therefore a greater amount of carryover cooking. Similarly, carryover cooking is greater in a roast cooked in a hotter oven. In general, however, meat should be removed from the oven when it’s 5 to 10 degrees below the desired serving temperature.

Exceptions to the Rule: Poultry and Fish

Carryover cooking also applies to poultry and fish, although they don’t retain heat as well as beef, lamb, and pork, which have denser muscle structure. For this reason and for optimal food safety, poultry and fish should be cooked to the desired serving temperatures. Cooking loosely structured proteins like fish at lower temperatures is a good way to avoid overcooking; the hotter the oven, the more dramatic the effect of carryover cooking.