British · Main · Medium
Sunday Roast
Crackling roast beef, crisp roast potatoes, towering Yorkshire puddings, and gravy made from the pan drippings. The most beloved meal in Britain.
The whole recipe in 60 seconds
Sunday Roast, in 5 ideas
- Resting the beef keeps the juices inside instead of on the board
- Roughened potato edges are what catch the fat and turn shatteringly crisp
- Smoking-hot dripping is the difference between roasted and steamed potatoes
- Gravy built on the tin scrapings carries all the roast flavor
- Roasting the joint on vegetables lifts it so the heat circulates evenly
What you need
Ingredients
- 1.5kg beef roasting joint (topside or sirloin)
- 1.5kg Maris Piper potatoes, peeled and quartered
- 100g beef dripping or vegetable oil
- 4 carrots, peeled and cut into chunks
- 2 onions, quartered
- 4 garlic cloves, crushed
- 2 tbsp plain flour
- 600ml hot beef stock
- 2 sprigs fresh rosemary
- Salt and freshly ground black pepper
How to make it
Directions
- Take the beef out of the fridge 1 hour before cooking. Heat the oven to 220C (200C fan).
- Rub the joint all over with salt, pepper, and the crushed garlic. Place on the onions and carrots in a roasting tin, tuck in the rosemary, and roast 20 minutes.
- Reduce the oven to 170C (150C fan) and roast a further 50 to 60 minutes for medium rare. Rest the beef on a warm platter, loosely covered, for at least 20 minutes.
- Meanwhile, boil the potatoes 8 minutes until the edges soften. Drain, shake the pan to roughen the surfaces, and let steam dry 5 minutes.
- Heat the dripping in a roasting tray in the hot oven until smoking. Add the potatoes carefully, turning to coat, and roast 45 to 50 minutes, turning once, until deeply golden and crisp.
- Pour off all but 2 tablespoons of fat from the beef tin. Set the tin over medium heat, stir in the flour, and cook 2 minutes.
- Whisk in the hot stock gradually, scraping up the browned bits, and simmer 5 minutes until thickened and glossy. Strain into a jug.
- Carve the beef against the grain and serve with the roast potatoes, vegetables, and plenty of gravy.
Topside costs far less than sirloin and roasts beautifully if you do not overcook it. Spend the savings on good stock or proper dripping, which matter more to the final plate.