For some time now I’ve been experimenting with the Sunday roast (- I’m wary of saying anything about enjoying a Sunday joint since an American thought it meant something rather different from meat)
The inspiration came from something I read of Heston Blumenthal’s in the Radio Times a couple of years ago. He gave a joint of beef a quick whizz with a plumbers blowtorch then cooked it for around 22 hours at 58 Centigrade. His thinking was along the lines that very slow cooking relaxes the fibres in the meat rather than the fast roasting causing them to contract.
I reckoned I could go some way toward following this idea in the aga without too much fuss – I don’t tend to have vats of liquid nitrogen kicking around the kitchen!
Yesterday was typical of recent weeks; I found a small piece of topside – about 1lb – and gave it a quick blast – 15 minutes or so – in the roasting oven (small roasting tin) then popped it in the warming oven – mid level shelf – and left it there. For around eight hours.
A meat thermometer is your friend here as it lets you know about done-ness. The warming oven holds temperature at about 60 centigrade which I understand is a little above food hygiene level and is just about the meat thermometer level for rare beef.
It was Harvest Sunday so Mum wanted to go across to the Church for the evening service. I gave the potatoes and carrots a five minute go on the boiling plate then drained them of all but a tablespoon of water before putting them in the simmering oven whilst we went out. The result was a melt in the mouth joint with lots of beef flavour. The veggies were also more flavoursome for the slow cook and it all went rather nicely with a languedoc merlot. not a stunning wine but good enough for the price.
Tags: aga, beef, cooking, slow roast beef
