Every January 10th from the age he had teeth until he was married, Gary asked mom to make her famous roast beef dinner. It was the cheapest roast made in the simplest way, but we kids loved it – and so did the grownups. Dark brown on the outside, slices evenly pink from edge to edge, plenty of natural juices-no gravy. It was an easy, relatively fast, and classic Sunday dinner.
Usually we served it with mashed potatoes and asparagus from a can warmed on the stove and topped with a dollop of mayonnaise. We like to joke about it now, but that asparagus was delicious-and very Spanish. Though hollandaise or aioli would have been more authentic, this was the 70s, we didn’t have time for that. Nonetheless, these days, we far prefer to roast it fresh with olive oil and salt.
Any leftovers can be sliced thinly for an epic sandwich. Works better than reheating and losing all the rare pink color and juice, though it is still tasty cooked medium too.
Gary’s Birthday Roast Beef
Ingredients
- 3-4 pound Eye of Round beef roast
- salt
- pepper
- olive oil
- 1 tablespoon Italian herbs
Instructions
- Let the roast come to room temperature 30 minutes to one hour before roasting.
- Preheat the oven to 480F.
- Rub the roast with olive oil, then sprinkle generously with salt and pepper on all sides.
- Set roast on a rack in a rimmed baking dish, fat side up. Press the Italian herbs onto the top of the roast.
- Insert an oven-proof meat thermometer into the thickest part of the roast and roast for 20 minutes.
- Lower the temperature to 350F and roast for ten minutes per pound, until internal temperature is 120. Keep an eye on the temperature the last five or ten minutes, as eye round is very lean it will get tough if it gets overdone. If the temp hits 120F before time is up, take it out. And if it is not quite 120F at full time, take it out. It will continue to cook while resting.
- Remove from the oven and tent with foil. Let rest at least 10 minutes, maybe even 15 if you took it out before 120F. You can check the temp again before slicing if you want to be sure it reached 125-130 for medium rare.
- Slice thinly against the grain. Serve with roast potatoes and asparagus or roast veggie of your choice.