Classic Roast Beef

The beef should be brought as close to room temperature as possible before you start to roast it, so that it cooks more evenly. Remove it from the refrigerator at least 1 hour, preferably 2 hours, before cooking. Open the wrapping, sprinkle all sides with salt, and wrap it up again.

(190°C). Move a rack to the center of the oven, and place the other one underneath.

Pat the roast dry with paper towels. Use the tip of a sharp knife to make 8 to 10 small incisions around the roast. Put a sliver of garlic into each cut.

Rub olive oil all over the roast. Sprinkle it all around with salt and pepper.

Place the roast directly on the middle oven rack, fatty side up, with a roasting pan to catch the drippings on the rack beneath it. Placing the roast directly on the rack like this with a pan on the rack below creates a convection type environment in the oven, allowing the hot air to more easily circulate around the roast, so you don't have to turn the roast as it cooks. Place the roast, fat-side up so that as the fat bathes the entire roast in flavor as it melts.

Cook the roast initially at 375°F (190°C) for half an hour, to brown it. Then lower the heat to 225°F (107°C). The roast should take somewhere from 1 1/2 to 2 1/2 hours more to cook. The shape of the roast will affect the cooking time. If your roast is long and narrow, rather than a more round shape, it may take less time to cook, so keep an eye on it.

When juices start to drip from the roast, and it is browned on the outside, check the roast's internal temperature with a meat thermometer. Remove the roast from the oven when the internal temperature of the roast is 135°F to 140°F (for medium rare meat).

Place the roast on a cutting board and tent it with aluminum foil to keep it warm. Let it rest for 20 to 30 minutes before cutting. (Resting the cooked roast is important. If you cut into it too soon, the roast will lose more of its juices.) To make the gravy: Remove the dripping pan from the oven and place on the stove top at medium heat. Note that if you are pulling the roast out early, for rare or a medium rare level of doneness, you may not have a lot of drippings. Hopefully you will have some. If not, you may want to leave the roast in a little longer at even lower heat, 175°F, to ease some more drippings out of it. Add some water, red wine, or beef stock to the drippings to deglaze (loosen the drippings from the pan). Dissolve a tablespoon of cornstarch in a little water and add to the drip pan. Stir quickly while the gravy thickens to avoid lumping. You can add a little butter if there is not a lot of fat in the drippings. Add salt and pepper to taste. Mom adds some fresh thyme too if she has some.

After the roast has had a chance to rest a bit (and reabsorb its juices), thinly slice the roast to serve. (A sturdy long bread knife works well for slicing roasts.) Pour the gravy over the slices or serve on the side. Did you love the recipe? Let us know with a rating and review!