SC - "Dining with William Shakespeare"

[Elaine Koogler]

Stefan li Rous wrote:
> 
> > 2lb Blade roast sliced into rolls
> What does this mean? Most roasts I can think of are more or less brick
> shaped and are not flat. Does this mean get a roast that is sliced
> fairly flat? If so, how thick? What do you mean "sliced into rolls"?
> Shaped like biscuits or dinner rolls? Or sliced flat for rolling into a
> snail/spiral shape?

The latter, more or less. (I'm guessing, anyway.) For example, start
with a hunk-o-meat shaped roughly like a small loaf of bread, grain
running lengthwise, and approach with a long, sharp knife held parallel
to the cutting board, maybe half an inch off the board, making an
incision along the length of the roast. When you have a respectable flap
cut free, but still attached on one edge to the hunk-o, roll the hunk-o
away from you, leaving the flap flat on the board with the hunk-o
attached. Repeat this process of slicing and rolling until you have the
entire roast reduced to one large, continuous slice.
> 
> How do you fill this roast? Do you slice the slices and inject it there?
> Or do you mean between two slices and roll them up in the snail shape?

Spread your filling across the slice and roll it up like a jelly roll.
> 
> Do you place this snail shape lying on it's side or upright? I assume
> the former since that would absorb/keep the sauce on top better.

Not sure. On occasions when I've done things like this, I've found it
better to cook it on its side.

What I did find was an excellent way to cook from the original recipe
was to ask my butcher to run trimmed bottom rounds of beef through the
deli slicer about half an hour before scheduled pickup (this type of
meat, most raw, thin slices, in fact, will begin to deteriorate and
oxidize fairly quickly, losing its bright red color and becoming
somewhat brownish... of course this happens when you cook it, too, but I
wouldn't want the slicing done too far in advance). We then held a
stuffing bee on site, roasted them till almost done, and when they were
sizzling hot, dipped the skewers in a tall pitcher of our egg-yolk
batter for glazing, which promptly began to cook and stuck to the hot
meat. We then finished them in the broiler, and they went over extremely well.

Considerations about bottom round being tough weren't much of an issue
between the thin slices (perhaps 1/8" thick) and the moist,
marrow-filled stuffing. I'd chosen that cut for its, um, structural
integrity. Top rounds, for example, are made up of more than one muscle
and would lead to split slices.
   
Adamantius
- -- 
Phil & Susan Troy

troy at asan.com