Deli Style Roast Beef

Intro: Deli Style Roast Beef

Do you love roast beef sandwiches but hate paying deli meat prices?

If YES, then keep reading.

I will show you how to make deli style roast beef at home for a fraction of the cost.

STEP 1: Ingredients and Tools

Things your gonna need:

An oven preheated to 200° F.

A roast of course. I use an eye round beef roast.

Olive Oil

Spices: Salt, pepper, onion powder, and garlic powder. Feel free to add your own flare.

A meat thermometer is necessary.

And some sort of roasting pan.

STEP 2: Preparing the Meat

Start by coating the meat in olive oil.
Then sprinkle with salt and pepper followed by onion powder and garlic powder.
The meat should be well coated on all sides.

**I just had an idea. Mix equal parts salt, pepper, onion, and garlic. Spread on a cookie sheet and roll the meat in it.
I'll give it a try next time.

STEP 3: Cooking

Time to cook the meat.

Place the roast on a rack or a pan. You can line the pan with foil for easier clean up.

Insert a meat thermometer all the way into the meat.

Put the meat into a 200° F oven.

Plan on cooking for 30min/lb of meat. My roast was 2.5lb, so I set the timer for 1.5 hr.

What you want is an internal temperature of 125-130° F. This will insure that the meat is cooked but at the same time keep it a nice pink color and retain the moisture needed.

My meat thermometer doesn't go low enough so after 1.5 hours I checked the roast with another thermometer that won't survive the oven.

First reading: 106° F, not done yet. I put it back in for 30 min.

Overall, It took another hour to reach temp, so for me it was 1hr/lb meat


Cooking temps:
Rare:
120-130 °F (50-55 °C)
This is what I'm aiming for.

Medium-rare:
130-140 °F (55-60 °C)
This will probably be okay if you cook it a little longer, should still be pink in the middle.

Medium (with a touch of pink):
140-150 °F (60-65 °C)
I think this is too much for roast beef, slightly pink in the center but dryer

Well-done:
150-165 °F (65-75 °C)
Over cooked, meat will be cooked through and dry.

STEP 4: Resting the Meat

After 2.5 hrs, the internal meat temperature was almost 128° F.

At this point, the meat needs to rest. Cover it in foil and let it sit for 30 minutes more.

While it rests it will continue to cook and distribute the juices.

It will drip a lot at this point.

STEP 5: Slicing the Meat

After the resting period I like to slice a piece off to make sure the meat is a good pink color.
If you cook it too high you will get a pink center and brown outer portion, which is fine, but I like it rare.

The meat looks good, so now I like to chill the meat in the refrigerator.

It will be much easier to slice when it is cold. Of course if you can't wait, you can take a few slice now to hold you over.

Once fully chilled, use a meat slicer or a sharp knife and cut the meat as thin as possible.

STEP 6: Roast Beef Sandwhich

Now that you have your roast beef, make a sandwich.

I like to use sourdough bread with mayo and creamy horseradish topped off with cheddar cheese.

I don't know how long this will store in the frig because it never lasts more than a couple of days.

Enjoy.

Comments

[cookinalway]

Does anyone think brining could and should be a great idea for several reasons? One, kills bacteria. Two, tenerizers the meat. Three, most all deli's do this as well otherwise their meats would taste like dog food right. So please let me know since I have a roast sitting on my table ready to either roast or be brined. Thanks

[JeffK627]

To make it extra-special, sear the outside of your roast in a hot cast-iron or stainless steel pan after seasoning and before putting it in the oven. Just a minute or two on all sides will seal in juices and give you that awesome "crust" that good deli roast beef has.

[nmallis]

Did you steal all this stuff from my kitchen?! Haha! I have the same meat slicer, meat thermometer, and use the same horseradish as you!

[chrisaudi]

Thank You for sharing this recipe. I am going to a POT-LUCK gathering this weekend. It seems like everybody is bringing PASTA SALADS. Well I got a 7 pound roast, am going to slice it really thin, schlep some dinner rolls and condiments and feed the hungry!

byw...this is the 2nd time I have made this.....it is better than '"DELI"......

[anjelica]

Excellent. Thank you. Looks delicious. September 12,2011 I bought a meat slicer from Walmart for 1/2 price. I also bought about 18 pound of beef to make sliced meat. I have been buying sliced meat from store but it has 480 mg of Salt for every 66 grams of meat! Also has some Sugar and is loaded with other Chemicals and coloring!

[bowow0807]

that looks good ,imagine deli style roast beef with artisan style sourdough bread sandvich (drool)

[antrobus]

try with creamed Havarti cheese is delicous try it instead of chedder.

[SinAmos]

As someone with a ChefsChoice 667 deli slicer, I find this post useful, but probably vexing to anyone without one. The reason I name the model is because I am a complete worshiper of it. I have done roasts and hams, and must say, anyone that is serious about sandwich cuts, you must get one. Plus, the savings on sandwich meat. I mean, once I got a specialty ham for 15 bucks at Sam's Club on sale. That meat lasted for 6 months. I'm actually going to Stater's because they have pork loin for 2.69 lb and a specialty ham for 4.99 a lb tomorrow. Once at cost co, I picked up two roasts for cheap, and again, deli sliced them. Why am I giving you guys all this info? Because people need to know. Stop buying sandwich meat in wasteful plastic packets for ridiculous prices. You can save your family so much money. The one thing I have yet to do is do custom chicken breasts, but it is on my list. Oh yeah, and cutting my homemade bread with it just makes everything wonderful. Oh yeah, 69 cents a lb whole chickens are on sale, so we can do more scoochmaroo inspired roast chickens. Boy, do I love food.

[Kogitsune]

As someone who also owns a slicer ( not a full size one, a normal counter top model ), I can attest to how incredibly useful they are. It does great with most things - it just has trouble with dense cheddars and exceedingly soft things. They do a great job at slicing vegetables too - I've demolished entire heads of lettuce, whole onions and potatoes, and peppers.

If you have the mouths to put it in or the space to make it keep long enough, buying bulk meat from warehouse clubs really can save a lot of money - although you should also check your local stores and see their deals since they can afford to stock all kinds of things while the warehouses tend to have a rather limited selection. My local grocer carries some things I can't get at the regional chain or BJs / Sams.

They also across the board offer lower prices on cheese ( 2 bucks less a pound adds up quick when buy cheese in five pound bricks ).

[mdeblasi1]

Will a mandolin work if you don't have a slicer?

Can you freeze what you don't need immediately, then slice it frozen as you go?

[target022]

That may not work. I don't think you can adjust the blade for thickness and the blade would have to be extremely sharp to cut through without the sawing motion of a slicer. Your best bet would be a knife.
I don't know about freezing, it will affect the texture after you freeze it though. If you have to freeze it, I would slice it first.

[mdeblasi1]

In this case, I am wondering; once you have enough Roast Beef to feed a division, how do you keep it? The only thing I can think of, absent freezing, is keeping it in a crock covered with rendered beef fat. Unpacking it every other week or so, when you are in the mood for it, slicing off a half pound, then packing it up again in the fat.

Any one have any better ideas?

[SinAmos]

Again, once you slice it, you can bag it and it is fine to freeze.

[SinAmos]

Yeah, be careful when freezing anything. This also goes for cheese. The best way to store is after slicing. I'm actually doing a pork loin roast that I've kept over night in a black tea, kumquat, pineapple, lime brine. I'm going to slow cook it. Before I cut it, I will partially freeze it. A mandolin really isn't going to cut it. It barely works with veggies and not that well.

[Kogitsune]

Unless you can take your mandolin apart to clean it, I'd recommended against using a it to cut meat. You would be better off using an electric carving knife or something similar in my opinion.

Also, freezing the meat is different from the partial-freeze recommended here - it will damage the cellular structure of the meat and negatively affect the texture.

When you put it in the freezer for a short while, it firms up and makes it easier to slice. When you freeze it entirely, it turns into a solid mass of iced meat that you will definitely need an electric appliance to cut ( reciprocating saw, hand saw, etc ).

[jackstraw341]

Yummmmo, Salmonella. There is a temp and TIME formulation for this recipe, not just temp. If you are only going to 130, you need to hold it there for almost 2 hours to kill the pathogenic bacteria. Otherwise why cook it at all, just let it warm up in the sun for 3 hours and dig in! There is a chart here: http://www.fsis.usda.gov/Frame/FrameRedirect.asp?main=http://www.fsis.usda.gov/OPPDE/rdad/FRPubs/95-033F/95-033F_Appendix_A.htm
If you don't like my suggestion, I recommend you don't share your "roast beef " with any small children or people who are immunocompromised.

[MercuryCrest]

I actually cook my steaks "tataki" style, where it's seared on the outside, but almost raw on the inside. Although I wouldn't recommend this to children, the elderly, or nursing or pregnant women, it is delicious and just fine, as long as you treat the meat properly and keep it out of the danger zone prior to cooking. In fact, I've seen many a restaurant serve meat much more rare than that in the pictures and no one has any problem with it. It's like saying "over-exposure to the sun causes cancer" and so you never leave the house. This is a delicacy, to be sure, but one that's well worth the risk.

[target022]

Welcome to Instructables and thanks for the info, but I'm not too worried.

While chicken, pork, and ground beef can contain parasites throughout the meat, beef, IFcontaminated, will only have it on the outside.
200° F for 2.5 hours should be plenty of time and temp to kill external salmonella.

The USDA and FSIS will never tell you to cook a steak rare, medium rare is the lowest they will go.

[jackstraw341]

While I agree with your last statement, the rest is incorrect. Sorry. You are instructing people how to make a ready-to-eat product to be served cold and over an extended period of time. At the very least I would have a disclaimer that your method is not the method used by the companies making the stuff found at the grocery store. The method they use has to follow the time and temp standards to be sold in stores legally.

[LilithAvalon]

You're either brave, like your rare meat more than you hate parasites, or you're using this whole thing right away. For a lunch meat that would have to be stored a while, I would be safe and with medium to be safe. I would go rare or medium rare if I was cooking for a large group of carnivores and knew there wouldn't be leftovers. But still, great instructable. My boyfriend will love me. And I will love the meat. (minds out of the gutter, kids!)