Roast Beef Eye of Round
Roast Beef is an extremely versatile dish. It can be sliced and eaten as a roast with potatoes and a vegetable, or can be used for hot and cold sandwiches, as well as a host of other dishes (see below).
Brian and I like to use the eye of the round roast for Beef on Weck and French Dip, but in South Chicago, they use either top sirloin butt, top round, or bottom round to make an Italian-style French Dip. All of these cuts are fairly lean and, if cooked rare to medium rare and sliced thin against the grain, are flavorful and tender.
Tip: If you prefer to cook a smaller roast, you can cut off a smaller roast and freeze the remainder for another meal:
- you could freeze the remaining roast and cut off what you need, as you need it. You will need to defrost it a little in order to cut it.
- another option is to cut the roast into 2 or 3 smaller roasts. You do not want to make them too small or you will not get a nice rare to medium rare roast once baked.
- cut the remaining roast into thin slices (1/2 inch thick) to use for making Swiss Steak, Cube Steaks, etc. The cube steaks could be formed and frozen for later use. These thinner slices could be cut into cubes or strips for soup, such as Vegetable Beef Soup, Chinese dishes, etc.
1 4-6 pound beef eye round roast
Salt
Fresh ground pepper
Let meat stand at cool room temperature about 45 minutes before roasting.
Pre-heat oven to 450 degrees.
Put roast on a metal rack in a roasting pan (fat side up) and sprinkle generously with salt and pepper. Add about 1/4 inch water to bottom of pan and put roast in middle of oven. Immediately reduce temperature to 350 degrees and roast meat until an instant- read thermometer inserted in center registers 120 degrees. Cooking time will vary -- it will be anywhere from 10 to 20 minutes per pound -- depending on size of roast. At 120 degrees the beef will be rare, which is what you want. Internal temperature of meat will rise about 5 degrees as roast stands. Add more water to the bottom of the pan as it evaporates.
Let roast stand, loosely covered with foil, 10 to 15 minutes before slicing. Slice roast thin against the grain; round is a tougher cut of meat and cutting thin slices and against the grain will ensure shorter, thus tenderer, fibers of meat. Add enough water to the juices (about 1/2 to 1 cup depending on the size of the roast) to make the au jus, but do not thicken the juices. You could also add beef broth if water would thin the au jus too much.
If you are serving this as a roast, you can make the au jus into gravy by mixing in a slurry of flour and water and cooking until the gravy thickens. Serve with mashed or boiled potatoes and the traditional peas or corn on the side.
Instead of serving as a roast, you could use the roast for one of the following dishes:
Hot Roast Beef Sandwiches w/ Mashed Potatoes & Gravy
Beef on Weck
French Dip
Chicago Italian Beef Sandwich (w/ giardiniera)
Leftovers can be used for:
Beef Barley Soup
Cold Roast Beef Sandwiches
Roast Beef Hoagies
Salad Julienne
Cold Julienned Beef & Whole Wheat Spaghetti Salad (Italian dressing)
Beef Enchiladas
