There’s a reason why restaurants slow cook their beef – it doesn’t shrink leaving them more to sell.
Everyone who loves rare or medium-rare beef should be using this method. It’s absolutely never fail.
This is a great rare roast beef recipe if you’re having guests for dinner and you want to be sure it’s going to be perfectly cooked. I’ve never had a fail with this one. It’s my go-to recipe for roast beef.
Best Rare Roast Beef Recipe
Prep time
Cook time
Total time
Rare roast beef that's pink from edge to edge and melts in your mouth when you eat it.
Author: Inspired by Maggie Beer
Recipe type: Main
Serves: 4 to 6
Ingredients
- 1 beef fillet - works with other cuts of beef too (2 to 2½ lbs)
- black pepper, crushed
- ¼ cup balsamic vinegar
- 3 cloves garlic thinly sliced
- Extra virgin olive oil (evoo)
- 1 bay leaf
- 2 tsp fresh rosemary, roughly chopped
- 2 teaspoon fresh thyme, roughly chopped
Instructions
- Get your butcher to trim the sinew from the beef fillet and tuck the tail end under the fillet, and tie it with butchers twine.
- Tie the rest of the fillet at 1½" intervals & place in a roasting pan. I use plastic bag for this and just roll the bag occasionally.
- Mix the black pepper, rosemary & thyme and rub all over, top with sliced garlic, and bay leaves.
- Pour the balsamic vinegar over, cover and leave to marinate for a couple of hours or overnight, turning occasionally. If you’re using a cheaper cut of beef, marinate longer.
- Pre-heat the oven to 160 F, and bring the fillet up to room temperature, remove from the marinade and pat it dry, place in a clean roasting dish and cook it in the oven for 4 hours. Yes, it will cook really well at that temperature.
- Once the 4 hours are up, remove the roast from the oven and sprinkle some sea salt all over the fillet and seal on all sides in a large (hot) frying pan.
- Remove from the pan and allow to rest for 20 to 30 minutes.
Notes
The roast beef will be beautifully pink (medium rare) all the way through. If you can’t be sure that the meat is done to your doneness likeing, use a meat thermometer.
If you want more or less rare, the inside temperature should be:
110 to 120F = Blue – very, very rare
125 to 130F = Rare – cold, red soft center
130 to 140F = Medium rare – warm, red firmish center
140 to 150F = Medium = pink and firm
150 to 155F = Medium well – small amount of pink in the center
160 to 170F = Well done – grayish brown throughout and very firm
I can’t imagine anyone wanting beef more than medium but to each his own taste!
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I cooked the rump roast at 160 for 4 hrs and it was mot med rare edge to edge what happened
ouch ! what did it look like?
I just made this for dinner last weekend with friends from N.Y visiting.
I must have done something terribly wrong. The meat was tough and chewy even with it being med rare. Oh well maybe another time?
What? That’s terrible. It must have been an awful piece of meat because I’ve never been disappointed when cooking it this way. I’m really sorry. I make this quite often and we love it.
Tried this recipe tonight for a family gathering, and it worked like a charm! Thanks so much for the recipe, its awesome 🙂
My local butcher gave me a great cut of beef, I cooked it as per your above recipe and I came out AMAZING! I ‘ll be recommending this recipe to all my family and friends! Cheers Mark
Glad you liked it.
Did the “unamazing” roasts perhaps were not brought to room tem;perature
I stuffed mine with garlic, use a meat thermometer and loosely cover with foil. I forgot to marinate it but it came out beautifully pink and melt in your mouth tender.
Thank you!!
I was debating between your slow cooked recipe and one that called for much shorter times at higher temperatures (15 minutes per pound at 400 degrees).
Tried your recipe with a beautiful 3 lb sirloin tip roast. Since your recipe calls for a 2 to 2-1/2 lb roast, I decided to check it after th 4 hours (at 160 degrees), thinking I would probably have to cook it a little longer for the larger size. When I cut into it, it was beyond well done and totally dried out. Horrible! The only thing it’s good for now is beef stew.
What a waste of a good piece of meat!
Next time, I’m going to try the other recipe (15 minutes/pound at 400 degrees). No way I’m doing this recipe again.
Will this work with a Blade roast ??
Not sure. It might be tough.
I cooked it as per your above recipe and I came out AMAZING! I‘ll be recommending this recipe to all my family and friends! Thanks for sharing.
It’s a yummy recipe. It’s expensive but totally worth it!
I’ve never been disappointed when cooking it this way. I’m really sorry. I make this quite often and we love it.
This method is PERFECT. I used a 4.5 pound eye round roast and it was absolutely beautiful, pink from edge to edge and melt-in-your-mouth tender. My oven wouldn’t set below 175, but the 4-hour time frame still held true. The only thing I didn’t care for was the balsamic, but who cares, because the method itself was flawless. I’ve tried reverse-searing, searing then roasting, high temp and drop to low temp – all of them resulted in a gray “rind” with a little pink in the center. Can’t say enough about this method. THANK YOU!