Shirley's Perfect Rare Roast Beef

Linda's Busy Kitchen's Note:

My mom showed me how to make the perfect roast beef, and I mean PERFECT! I love my roast beef rare to med-rare, and this is how I do it. IMPORTANT: Take your roast out of the fridge, and let it set to get it to room temp! If you like really rare bake for 13 mins. at 500. If you like your roast beef cooked medium, put in for 18 mins. at 500. If you like it well done, then just burn the darn thing LOL. What's nice about this roast is, if someone likes it done a little more, please keep in mind that the end pieces will be done a little more. Keep in mind this cooking time is for a 4 lb. roast only, so adjust your time in the oven according to the size of your roast! DO NOT MAKE using this method with a roast SMALLER than 4 lbs., as I can't guarantee how it will come out. ***(The roast in the series of photos that I took was a 2.75 lb. bottom of the round roast. I baked it at 500 for 15 mins., then turned the oven off and left it in the oven for 45 mins. for a rare roast.)

• Total Time: 1 hrs 5 mins
• Prep Time: 5 mins
• Cook Time: 1 hrs

Ingredients:

Servings: 4

• 4 lbs roast beef , tenderloin, tip, eye round, bottom round, rump, any you like (you can use any size roast, just adjust the sitting time in the oven 15 mins. per lb.)
• 1 onion , cut into thin rings
• garlic powder

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 500 degrees. Wait for a few minutes before you put your roast in, so it gets as hot as possible.
2. Put the roast in a shallow pan.
3. Cut onion into thin rings, and put all over the top and sides of the roast using toothpicks if necessary. I sit a few slices on the bottom of my roast too.
4. Sprinkle roast generously with garlic powder, or to your liking. DO NOT SALT roast, or you will dry it out.
5. Put roast in the oven on the middle rack.
6. Bake at 500 degrees for 15 minutes, then shut off oven, and let sit in the oven for 15 minutes per lb. (For this 4 lb. roast, 1 hr.). DO NOT under any circumstances open the oven door! VERY IMPORTANT!
7. After you bake your roast the 15 minutes per lb., take it out of the oven, and let sit for 15 minutes, to allow juices to distribute in the roast.
8. I use my electric knife to cut my roast, and place on a serving dish.
9. Don't forget to make the gravy!

Reviews

[CassiaDawn]

Excellent way to cook a roast! I did a 2.5lb roast at 500 for 15 minutes, then left it in the oven for about 40 minutes turned off. It came out a little on the rare side, but that suited DH fine, and I ate the end pieces. Very lean roast, so I made a packaged gravy to go with it. I wonder if some of the people that had real difficulties with the recipe have newer ovens? Many of the new ones have ventilation fans to speed cooling once they're turned off, which would be a disaster with this method.

[Chef #1533365]

Unfortunately this recipe didn't work for me either - the beef was way too rare. Like another member, I also have a double oven (which also happens to be a gas oven) so maybe this is the reason? The oven was only 'very warm' after being shut off for 50 minutes.

[Pam in the Kitchen]

I don't know what went wrong. I used an exactly 4# roast at room temperature and after following the directions exactly, I got a 4# roast at room temperature with a browned crust. Very, very, very rare. I like medium rare to medium, but this roast was still mooing!