Roast Beef and Gravy

Okay, before telling me to search the site, I tried it and I have a harder time figuring out this search function than I care to admit. I've even done a google x-ray search on the LTHForum site and didn't see a recipe for this dish.

Now, on to my question - I'm looking for a dead simple roast beef and gravy recipe. Now wait! - What I have in mind is what you would find on Sunday dinner menus all across the Midwest, especially the rural Midwest. My wife's 90 year old grandfather was recollecting about tender roast beef with that salty gravy over mashed potatoes and I knew exactly what he meant but I can't seem to find a recipe for this specifically.

I'm not talking about rare roast beef. Or a wine reduction / gravy sauce. Or a slow cooker with onion soup packet recipe. Or a roast beef rubbed with all sorts of herbs and spices - I like all that, I just don't want it this time.

So, I'm guessing a cheaper cut of beef roast, seasoned with salt and a little pepper, cooked until "done" and served with it's own gravy.

Specifically, I'm wondering what the best cut of beef would be. Then how best to roast it - low and slow? covered? I can figure out the gravy with basic beef stock (when he said "salty gravy," I'm sure I can get to that with canned stock). I'm also wondering if cream of mushroom soup comes into the mix somehow? I guess this would be a circa 1940's -1970's style of roast beef and gravy.

Any ideas? Thanks much!

What you describe is probably what my grandmother made during the 1950's on the rare Sundays that she didn't roast a chicken.
Sunday Pot Roast
INGREDIENTS
Top or Bottom Round Roast 5 Lbs
water 1 1/2 Cups
Onion diced 1 each
Carrots peeled and diced 2 each
Garlic minced 2 Cloves
Celery diced 1 Stalk
Salt and Pepper To taste
Beef Bouillon 6 Cups
lard ¼ Cup

Method
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Heat the lard in a large pan over medium-high heat. Brown the meat on all sides and remove the meat to a roasting pan. Pour the water around the meat. Sauté the cut vegetables until golden brown and add to the roasting pan. Pour the beef bouillon into the pan. Pour liquid over the roast and cover. Cook 30-45 minutes per pound. Remove from oven and let rest for 15 minutes.

OR
Sunday Beef Roast
INGREDIENTS

1 (4-to-5-pound) boneless beef bottom round roast or rump roast
2 tablespoon(s) Worcestershire sauce
1 teaspoon(s) powdered garlic
1 teaspoon(s) onion powder
1 teaspoon(s) paprika
1 tablespoon(s) (plus 1/4 teaspoon) coarsely ground black pepper
2.5 teaspoon(s) coarse salt

Method
Adjust the rack to the bottom of the oven and heat to 425 degrees F. Blot any excess moisture from the roast, rub the Worcestershire sauce over the entire roast, and allow to marinate for 30 minutes, turning it twice.
Combine the powdered garlic, onion powder, paprika, and 1 tablespoon coarse-ground pepper in a small bowl; sprinkle the seasoning mixture evenly over the roast, pressing it, and let the roast stand for 20 to 30 minutes. Rub the meat with 2 teaspoons salt, place fat side up in a shallow roasting pan, and roast for 15 minutes
Reduce oven temperature to 325 degrees F and continue to roast until the meat's internal temperature reaches 130 degrees F -- about 2 hours. Let the roast stand for 20 minutes before slicing.


Pan Gravy:

3 tablespoon(s) all-purpose flour
2 cup(s) beef broth

Skim any fat from the liquid that remains in the roasting pan. Whisk the flour and 1/2 cup water together to a paste; set aside.
Scrape the drippings from the bottom of the roasting pan, add the beef broth, and stir over medium heat until the mixture begins to simmer. While continuously whisking, add the flour paste and bring to a boil.
Reduce heat to medium-low and let simmer for 4 to 5 minutes. If needed, add a little water to thin the gravy. Add remaining salt and pepper; serve warm.

Serve with mashed potatoes, green beans and home made bread or dinner rolls.

Thanks to Grandma Anastasia for the delicious memories.

Thanks much!

This recipe sounds very much like what you are looking for, I've used it a number of times with great success. Cheap cut of meat, salt, pepper, that's it. http://allrecipes.com/recipe/high-tempe ... etail.aspx

I flour and liberally salt and pepper a chuck roast and sear it in a Dutch oven in a little oil. After I turn the meat I add a whole onion chopped. After the meat is browned and the onion cooked I add water and more salt and pepper and throw it in the oven at 350 covered. I let it cook maybe two hours and then throw in potatoes and carrots and cook til veggies are tender and meat easily pulls apart with a fork. Easy as pie, but the secret is plenty of salt and pepper and add more water if necessary. The gravy will make itself.

Hi,

My Grandmother would add Jolly Green Giant canned button mushrooms to her gravy.

She would buy an inexpensive roast, the type tied tightly into shape with butchers string. Her roasting style was rather hit and miss: because it could be well done to medium rare to raw. Pan gravy with those canned mushrooms I just adored.

Tyrus - I just adore your posts when you remember these family recipes. My first inkling of beef noodles over mashed potatoes was from you. Thanks!

Regards,

I know this isn't precisely the same thing, but I made some pot roast yesterday. I combined a couple of recipes I saw online with techniques and it came out wonderfully. I used a chuck roast I got from Harvesttime for 2.69 lb and seasoned it, browned all sides on the stove for a minute or so and roasted in the oven at 200 degress for about two and half hours. I learned that low and slow and using a nice marble roast is the way to go so I would imagine the same would be for roast beef. Actually now this thread is making me eager to try making some roast beef. The only thing I was not crazy about was the gravy. I use a basic flour and butter combo and added some of the drippings and some stock but I did not like the way it came out. I want a more beefy slurp it all up off your plate type of gravy.

I also boiled some potatoes and then chopped and whipped them up with seasoning, cheese and milk in my old Sunbeam mixer and it all comes out delightfully light and whipped.

I'm with those who suggest a chuck roast rather than a round roast. The best would be a prime rib roast, of course, but for a less expensive regular Sunday dinner, I think chuck would be good. My experience with round roast has been consistently disappointing. Careful low and slow roasting will keep it from over cooking, but (as far as I know) there's no getting around the fact that a round roast is a tough cut of meat.

Cathy2 wrote:Hi,

My Grandmother would add Jolly Green Giant canned button mushrooms to her gravy.

She would buy an inexpensive roast, the type tied tightly into shape with butchers string. Her roasting style was rather hit and miss: because it could be well done to medium rare to raw. Pan gravy with those canned mushrooms I just adored.

Tyrus - I just adore your posts when you remember these family recipes. My first inkling of beef noodles over mashed potatoes was from you. Thanks!

Regards,

Thanks Cathy. There just seems to be something in the back of my mind that tells me not to forget these basic recipes or preparations. Thanks also for your insight. Btw, my family reunion is next weekend in Central IL and I can guarantee that there will be three or four pots of homemade beef noodles - even if it's 100 degrees outside!

Thanks again to everyone's posts. I appreciate the pot roast ideas but I was going for that traditional Sunday roast. Yeah the meat could be tough but the gravy and potatoes put it all together. Cheers.

We opt for the Sirloin Tip roasts when doing ours...pan drippings added to a nice commercial broth. The seasoning is simply kosher salt, cracked black pepper, and a bit of minced garlic.

Tyrus,

Seems to me that what you're looking for is a *classic* roast beef, something like what they make in Buffalo to be sliced and served on weck. I went looking around and found the recipe that the Buffalo news paper recommends here. They say make it, but leave off the Italian herbs. It looks right to me--and I've had some awfully good roast beef on weck whilst passing through Buffalo! Consensus seems to be that Charlie the Butcher is the top o' the line; based on my experience, I'd have to agree: just *look* at that roast beef in the picture!

Geo

The first recipe sounds like what the neighbor always served, with the exception of carrots and celery.
And I agree with Cathy2 about the canned mushrooms added.

Jon M.

Katie wrote:I'm with those who suggest a chuck roast rather than a round roast. The best would be a prime rib roast, of course, but for a less expensive regular Sunday dinner, I think chuck would be good. My experience with round roast has been consistently disappointing. Careful low and slow roasting will keep it from over cooking, but (as far as I know) there's no getting around the fact that a round roast is a tough cut of meat.

If you dry roast it, the round roast can occasionally be tough. However, cooking it in a moist manner, at a low temperature, and for sufficient time will result in an excellent roast beef.

And I much prefer the top inside round over the bottom round.

Tyrus,

I recently enjoyed a roast beef church supper, which reminded me of your efforts to replicate.



How did yours go?

Regards,

jlawrence01 wrote:If you dry roast it, the round roast can occasionally be tough. However, cooking it in a moist manner, at a low temperature, and for sufficient time will result in an excellent roast beef.

Actually, I think top round is quite nice dry roasted at 200F (that's usually the cut used for beef-on-weck and is a common cut for Italian beef), but you do have to be careful to cut against the grain, and it suffers from overcooking (unless you can slice it really, really thin.) Top round, along with top sirloin, are the cuts I usually buy for the dry roasted style of beef, as I'm not made of money and can't shell out for rib roasts more than once or twice a year.

As for what the OP is asking about, if it's what I'm thinking of, I seem to remember that kind of Sunday church roast beef being more of a round roast rather than a chuck roast type of thing, based on its texture. My mother would take top/bottom/eye-of-round (in order of preference; I don't like eye-of-round), brown it in a Dutch oven, put some cut-up onions over the roast and add a cup of water or broth into the Dutch oven, and set it, covered, into a 325 degree oven until tender. Maybe 2-3 hours.

My mom did that too, Binko, but she called it a "Swiss steak".

Geo

What I'm thinking of is a little different than Swiss steak. Swiss steak is usually "Swissed": pounded, needled, or run through one of those bladed rollers, like a cube steak (actually, I'm not sure there is much of a difference between Swiss and cube steak, except that Swiss steak is usually served in a tomato sauce, in my experience.) It's also cooked already sliced. The way my mom would make the roast beef is as a whole roast, and then cut it later. (Although she also would make a Swiss/cube steak type of dish, as well.)

My mom would use a whole chunk of beef--round roast--untouched by any device, brown it, add onions, some water, and sometimes, some tomato paste. Lots of paprika. There'd be lots of gravy, she cut it against the grain, I can still remember how stringy the meat was. Mom's mom was Polish-American, and maybe she taught it to my mom.

Noodles or whole, small, boiled potatoes.

Geo

Yep, that does sound exactly like the same thing my mom made. That's a little different than what is usually known as "Swiss steak." Basically, I guess it's a type of pot roast.

Cathy2 wrote:Tyrus,

I recently enjoyed a roast beef church supper, which reminded me of your efforts to replicate.



How did yours go?

Regards,

Thanks for posting. That's what I was looking for. I haven't tried it yet as it's been flirting with 100 degrees most of time but I'll have to pick out a Sunday and try it out. Thanks again.

-Russ

tyrus wrote:

Cathy2 wrote:Tyrus,

I recently enjoyed a roast beef church supper, which reminded me of your efforts to replicate.



How did yours go?

Regards,

Thanks for posting. That's what I was looking for. I haven't tried it yet as it's been flirting with 100 degrees most of time but I'll have to pick out a Sunday and try it out. Thanks again.

-Russ

I grew up in a "meat-and-potatoes" home, so I think I know exactly what you are describing. My efforts to replicate what I recall have been for naught over the years, so I quit trying, but after I read your post, I remembered reading about the best way to achieve a tender roast with a cheap cut in Cook's Illustrated.

Their cut of choice is boneless eye-round roast; the secret in their method is to salt the beef, wrap in plastic, and refrigerate for 18 to 24 hours before cooking. Then, it's low and slow all the way.