Need Tips on Cooking a Beef Roast

[kitaye]

I apparently am hopeless at cooking beef roasts. I've follwed recipes, followed the cooking shows, and even had someone show me how to make a roast. They always turn out dry and tough. What am I doing wrong?

[Kathy]

I roast mine at 350F and put the roast(fat side up) in a roaster and add either white wine or water(about 2-3 cups depending on roaster size or so there's about 1 1/2 inches in the bottom) plus a chopped up onion or about 1/2 cup dried onion and I salt & pepper the meat.
I roast mine covered so it doesn't dry out.
I make my roasts well done and they're never dry. About the last 30-40 minutes of the roasting time I take the cover off the roaster so the fat side browns up a bit.
The juices are so good made into gravy-you can thicken them as is or add some mushrooms and then thicken.

You could also add some garlic but I like it with just onion & wine.

Good luck, I'll be out for a few hours but I'll check back in when I get home.

[kyosa]

This won't be about 'roasting' a roast, but it always turns out moist and tender. Use a pressure cooker. I have a cookbook of pressure cooker recipes and this comes from it:

Brown your roast on all sides in a skillet.

Put the roast in the pressure cooker, season to taste, and put in the appropriate amount of water (I make it about an inch deep, it increases with the cooking).

Pressure cook the roast for 55 minutes, measured after the pressure is up and the 'jiggler' starts to sound off.

Remove the cooker from the heat and let the pressure fall naturally and slowly.

Put in the cut-up veggies (I use the 'traditional' potatoes, carrots, and onions)

Pressure cook veggies and roast an additional five minutes , timed as before.

Reduce the pressure quickly by running cold water over the cooker and 'yer done! Time is just a bit over an hour total and the results are good. Juices can be thickened with cornstarch and seasoned however you like it.

[momo]

What kind of roast is it?

I cook a rump roast alot different than a chuck roast.

[Kathy]

momo said:

What kind of roast is it?

I cook a rump roast alot different than a chuck roast.

True, I should have said I use my instructions on rump roasts & sirloin tip roasts.

[kitaye]

Last night effort was a sirloin tip roast and was rather lean. This post was in response to yet another, last nights, tough roast. I rolled it in spices and searedit in the frying pan. From there I put it in a roasting pan with some carrots underneath to hold it up (cooking show idea) off the bottom of the pan. At the end of the cooking time I might have had 1/8 inch liquid from the roast.

I used to cook mine well done but hubby prefers medium so I've been cooking roasts to about 140F on a thermometer. I find it really to rare for me so I have to eat the end peices.

I have cooked roasts in the crock pot, that fell apart when I took them out, but I find the taste is just not there. It seems the length of time in all that liquid just sucks out the flavour.

[Deleted]

I cooked a Sirloin roast last week for the first time. I normally avoid them because I can't get them tender. The one I made last week was tender, but I cooked it too long, I like mine rare.
I smeared mine with chopped garlic and cracked pepper. I didn't salt it cause I read that salt pulls the jucies out of meat and makes it dry. I roasted mine on a bed of quartered onions. It was really good dispite being overdone. I was reading and didn't check it.

[kyosa]

admin said:

I roast mine at 350F and put the roast(fat side up) in a roaster and add either white wine or water(about 2-3 cups depending on roaster size or so there's about 1 1/2 inches in the bottom) plus a chopped up onion or about 1/2 cup dried onion and I salt & pepper the meat.
I roast mine covered so it doesn't dry out.
I make my roasts well done and they're never dry. About the last 30-40 minutes of the roasting time I take the cover off the roaster so the fat side browns up a bit.
The juices are so good made into gravy-you can thicken them as is or add some mushrooms and then thicken.

You could also add some garlic but I like it with just onion & wine.

Good luck, I'll be out for a few hours but I'll check back in when I get home.

What is the overall cooking time? Or is it so long per pound of roast? I've never tried wine and yours sounds good so I think I'll try my next one like you do yours.

[Kathy]

Darryl, I cook mine about 1 hr a pound but most of the time I go by look & smell-43+ yrs of cooking and I know how done it is by the smell.
If I have company, I will cut it in an inconspicuous place to check it.

If you all want an exceptionally moist and tender roast-start with a frozen roast-do the rest of the things I mentioned but plan on cooking it longer. I'd say it's going to take about 4 hrs for a 3 1/2 # frozen sirloin tip roast but check it after about 3 1/2.

I actually learned this by forgetting to take out a roast out of the freezer and trying to roast it frozen-probably 90% of the time thats how I make roast my beef now.

[ardieonceagain]

I use my crockpot. First, I brown the roast well and put it n the crockpot. then, I add canned beef broth and sprinkle some dry onion soup mix on it. If I am so inclined, I add carrots and cook it slow for 6 hours or so. The beef broth and dry soup seems to increase the beef taste far more than water.