""Roast Beef with Ancho and Coffee""

- November 03, 2014

Where's the beef? I got the beef!! I love beef and if you love it as much as I do you will love this version of roast beef. I am no newbie when it comes to cooking roast beef and I am here to tell you that herbs and spices aside what separates a good roast beef from a poor one is the way in which you cook it. What ever combination of rubs, spices and herbs you come up with won't make a darn difference if you poorly execute the roasting of the beef. You notice how Ulra-Red the meat is? That's because I pulled it out of the oven at 118 F which makes for a very rare piece of meat. Of course oxygen hitting the the virgin sliced meat will create that red color too. An hour later it was not this red but still extremely rare. If you don't like red meat you might as well quit reading. Dang there is nothing better than tender rare meat but that's just my preference.

In a previous post I made Tri-Tip using the same ingredients but used a different technique. If you like Sous-Vide cooking read that post. In the Tri-Tip post I contrasted the fat content of the Tri-Tip to the Top Round Roast beef and indicated that the Tip has way more fat and is my preference for roast beef. However the Top Round Roast beef still produces great sandwich meat!!! Take a look at the different cuts of beef from the picture. Very interesting!!! I am using this cooking technique that can be found here Rosy Roast Beef but is outlined below too.

After you unwrap the Roast there is very little trimming that needs to be done. Just clean it up a bit and dry if off.

This recipe is a snap. These are the ratios I used but it's just a personal thing.

Montreal steak seasoning (4), Cinnamon (1), Ancho-Powder (4), favorite coarsely ground coffee (3) and Brown sugar (5). I purchased my meat seasoning from Costco but you can make your own. Mix it all up and apply liberally to your meat. Note: adding Coffee to the rub adds complexity and bitterness that is just wonderful. So when I say apply liberally I mean cake it on!! You want to impart a lot of flavor into the meat. I set the roast in the refrigerator overnight to marry the flavors. But the ultimate time to rest should be about 3 days because of the size...Dry Brine.

Note: Since I just love this rub I always sprinkle a bit on my sandwiches. I process the rub into a fine powder using my spice mill.

How to cook. Place your roast on a rack in a roasting pan in a preheated oven and cook at 200-215 F degrees until a thermometer inserted in the thickest part reads 118 F degrees. The reason for the low and slow comes down to the fact that meat cooks from the outside in and if you were to it at a high temp the outer layers would be over cooked. While the roast is resting the residual heat will increase the the internal temp of the roast beef to about 124-126 F which is perfect for very rare meat. What makes Roast Beef different from the Rosy Roast Beef post is the Rub and roasting technique. Read the post and compare them. This Roast and Rub creates a perfect crust because of the brown sugar. With the Rosy Roast Beef I used a sugarless rub and to create a crust by cranking up the temp at the end.

My Review- It came out great!!! I won't change a thing but will try some alternative ways to improve flavor. I am considering the following. This rub is so good I am going to run it through my spice mill and grind it into a fine powder. This will rub will be mixed with water and injected into the roast than smoked.

SLICE IT UP AND EAT IT!!!!

Slaw, pickled Red onions and Havarti cheese!!! YUM!!

Panini sandwich , Melted Harvarti cheese, Horseradish and Roasted Red Bell Pepper.

SMOKED VERSION BELOW

Smoked for 3-4 hours than cooked at 205 f degrees until an internal temp of 125 F was achieved. Rested for 45 minutes before slicing and temp rose two degrees during the rest period.