Hey Nobby! (or any other cook-types who want to chime in)Follow

I have a bit of a problem. Every few weeks, I like to make a nice roast beef, but except on rare occasions, I can't splurge for the REALLY good cuts. I've found the best compromise between something that's really tender and tasty and fiscal responsibility is a bottom round roast I get from a butcher shop near me. Cooked rare to medium rare it's really tender and tasty, but there is one problem with it:

It never provides me with enough drippings to make yummy stuff like au jus and Yorkshire puddings.

So...hit me with your best recipes and recommendations for how to simulate beef drippings. I've been told to deglaze the bottom of the pan with stock and then let it cook down, which seems like it would do all right for gravy or even au jus, but it seems to me that wouldn't provide enough fat/oil for making something like Yorkshire pudding, right?

You are blowing my goddamned mind here. What's a roast?

Hm, maybe I'll make a pot roast this weekend.

Some claim that if you put your roast into an oven pre-heated to a higher temp to start and then reduce the temp for the reminder, will serve to sear the meat some and hold in juices - sounds skeptical to me.

As others have mentioned you can add fat easy enough, juice things up with wine, or substitute beef stock where needed (my hubby uses Wolfgang Pucks beef stock all the time). Or...., for roast beef there are other yummy sauces that are pretty easy to make - Bearnaise, remoulade, horseradish etc.

How do you cook your roast? Do you use a roast pan with a rack? If your roast is sitting on the pan bottom, it will soak up some of the drippings and you'll end up with less. A rack serves to elevate the roast above the pan bottom allowing more drippings to settle there.

Well the french do call us Brits "Les Rosbifs so here goes.

1. Oven very hot for 1st 20 mins then turn down to regular roasting temp. (This renders the fat out of the meat but doesn't burn it)

2. DON'T use a rack. Place carrots, potatoes, onions and celery (Don't peel them or chop them, just cut in half in the bottom of the roasting tin/dish.). Stand the meat on top of the veg (it's an edible trivet!), and add a bayleaf and cracked peppercorns. AWESOME gravy if you mush then reduce with wine at the end.

3. If there isn't enough fat in/on the meat:
a) Cover in fatty bacon just before you turn the temperature down, or
b) What Gwyn said - ask your butcher for the fat-trimmings from topside cuts, or
c) Put Goose Fat in the bottom of the pan just before you turn the heat down. (Goose fat cooks at a much higher heat than beef fat. Google it and a local deli should have some.)
d) Here in britainland we can buy beef dripping - it's good, but goose fat is betterer.

4. Baste the meat in the fat every 15-20 mins.

For the piece de resistance, cut potatoes into 2" chunks, boil for 15 mins in salted water, shake in a colander (so the edges get all fluffy), drizzle with Olive Oil and let 'em cool and soak up the oil. Chuck 'em in the fat for the last 30 mins for ultimate roast potatoes. Carrots too if you like.

If I can be ****** I'll post the recipe for Nobby's Traditional Sunday Roast (with Yorkshire pudding and gravy that angels try to steal).

It is now.

Along with the genius by-product that is "Bubble & Squeak"

This.

Throw in some garlic cloves (peeled but not cut) when you put them in the oven for an added zing.

Heaven is a plate of roast parsnips

Thank you for the recipes and tips, Nobby, Xsarus and everyone else who chimed in. My Christmas dinner was a bit disappointing and I want to perfect my roast beef technique (which I can then apply to my Christmas prime rib) before December rolls around, so this is helpful!