Recipes
Homemade Roast Beef From Eye of Round: Low Heat, Horseradish Sauce and the Perfect Sandwich
Eye of round is a lean cut that turns tender and evenly pink at low temperature. An overnight salt, a 110 °C oven, a quick sear and slices thinner than 2 mm. Plus horseradish sauce and a sandwich.
MYASYA team4 min readupdated
Ingredients
Serves 8 3 h
Roast beef
- 1 eye of round joint, 1.5–2 kg
- 12–15 g coarse salt per kilogram
- 1 tbsp freshly ground black pepper
- 1 tsp dried thyme — optional
- 1 tbsp refined oil
Horseradish sauce
- 150 g sour cream, 20 %
- 2–3 tbsp grated horseradish
- 1 tsp Dijon mustard
- juice of ½ lemon
- salt
Why low temperature
Eye of round is an even, cylindrical muscle from the hind leg: almost no fat inside and long fibres. Over high heat it's tough. But if the meat is held just below 52 °C for a long time, the muscle's own enzymes partly break down the fibres, and the roast beef turns tender. A bonus is an even pink from edge to edge, with no grey ring.
The day before
Step 1. Thaw
In its vacuum bag in the fridge: a 1.5–2.5 kg joint thaws in 30–48 hours.
Step 2. Salt overnight
Pat dry and remove any remaining membrane. Rub with salt on all sides and put it on a rack in the fridge uncovered for 18–24 hours. The salt has time to penetrate, and the surface dries out — the crust will be better.
On the day
Step 1. Pepper and a 110 °C oven
Rub the joint with pepper and thyme and set it on a rack over a tray. The thermometer probe goes into the centre of the thickest part.
Step 2. To 50–52 °C in the centre
Usually 1.5–2 hours for a 1.5–2 kg joint. Go by the thermometer, not the clock.
Step 3. Sear
Heat a pan until it smokes, oil — and 1 minute per side until a dark crust forms. No longer: the inside is already done.
Step 4. Rest 20 minutes
In that time the centre evens out to 55–57 °C — medium rare.
Slicing decides everything
Even perfectly cooked eye of round is chewy when sliced thick. Sliced across the grain at 1–2 mm, it melts. A slicer is ideal. Without one, use your longest, sharpest knife with long strokes and no pressure.
Sauce and sandwich
For the sauce, mix the sour cream, horseradish, mustard and lemon juice, and salt. Let it stand for 15 minutes — the horseradish opens up.
- Rye bread, thinly buttered.
- Plenty of horseradish sauce.
- Several folded slices of roast beef, for volume.
- Pickled red onion and a handful of rocket.
- The second slice of bread — and cut on the diagonal.
Served warm, roast beef is cut into thicker slices with baked potatoes and the same sauce. It's also excellent with chimichurri.
Astra eye of round, 1.5–2.5 kg cut — currently made to order.To the catalogue →
