Roast Beef - Dry Roasting Method

I've been making roasts for a LONG time. Dad used to make a traditional roast beef dinner EVERY sunday night when I was growing up. Beef, veg, potatoes, gravy. Delicious every time. A true benchmark of achievement in my family is being able to make gravy just as thick and rich as Dad's. I'm proud to say that, after practicing on my own for almost 10 years, I am able to produce gravy of the same calibre.

I usually roast in a roasting pan at a low temperature, but I've read a lot about the dry roasting method and wanted to give it a try. I also wanted to try my friend Hilary's method of roasting which I incorrectly thought was 20 min at 500 F and then leave the roast sitting in the oven for a couple hours without opening the door. Last Monday I finally got my chance.

I had to go get Paul from the airport that afternoon, so I knew I wasn't going to have a lot of time. I am not comfortable leaving my oven on when I'm not home. I rubbed my roast down with olive oil and seasonings, stuck it directly on the oven rack, put a drip tray underneath it and temped the oven to 500 F. My oven either temps too high or is extremely angry - I watched as black billowing smoked filled the oven as it heated up! I'm surprised the smoke detector didn't go off, even though I had the fan goes full blast in the kitchen AND in the bathroom and the front door wide open. Once the oven hit the desired temperature, I let the roast... well, roast...for 20 minutes and then turned the oven off and headed out the door to get Paul.

A couple hours later, after picking up Paul, I pulled the roast out of the oven. It looked nice and crisp on the outside and it was juicy and cooked to about medium on the inside. The roast was great, no complaints, but I don't think I'll be using this method again for a few reasons:

1. I can't make gravy with the drippings because the super high heat reduced them to sludge.

2. I would never roast potatoes in there at the same time because they'd probaby smell funny from all the smoke.

3. I'm scared my tempermental oven would set my house on fire if I did it again.

4. It takes just as long as slow roasting at a low temperature and tasted just as good.

So there you have it. Nuts to dry roasting - slow roasting is King!