SC - Where's the beef, or, where's the sacrificial lamb?
rcmann4 at earthlink.net
rcmann4 at earthlink.net
Sat Feb 10 20:02:33 PST 2001
My first attemp at redacting the roast beef recipe came out fairly
well. I had a 1.5 pound beef shoulder roast, about 2 inches thick. I
coated it with 2 TBS kosher salt, 2 TBS crushed black pepper, 1
TBS fennel seeds, and a large minced garlic clove. I covered the
meat with plastic wrap, weighed it down with cast iron skillets, and
left it in the fridge for 4 hours.
I preheated the oven to 325F. I quartered an onion, and separated
it into individual layers. I put the onion pieces in the bottom of a
roasting pan, then put a rack over them. I roasted the beef for 1.5
hours. It was medium-well done, and not overly dry, but there were
very little drippings and some of the onion pieces blackened
instead of cooking in the fat.
I made a sauce with 1.5 cups red grape juice (not Concord) boiled
down to 3/4 cup, 1.5 TBS red wine vinegar, and a sprinkling each of
black pepper and mixed sweet spices (cinnamon, clove, nutmeg, I
think). I poured the juice mixture into the roasting pan when it
came out of the oven, so it would mix with what drippings there
were. I strained the sauce before serving.
Results: the meat was a touch more cooked than I cared for. Next
time I would cook it to medium. The seasonings were delicious,
but a bit too intensely spicy, and I found the texture of the whole
fennel seeds annoying. Next time, reduce seasonings, and
possibly used ground fennel instead of whole seeds. Maybe a
fattier chuck roast would produce more drippings?
Conclusion: certainly worth trying again. The flavor combinations
worked much better than I would have guessed.
Lady Brighid ni Chiarain
Settmour Swamp, East (NJ)
mka Robin Carroll-Mann
now at a new address: rcmann4 at earthlink.net
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