I have brought great shame to my ancestors
Posted by Chewy on Monday, May 21st, 2007
There’s no food move that I hate more than an overcooked piece of meat. Especially a quality piece of meat. And yesterday I ruined a roast and am still lamenting it. It’s never happened to me before. I used to be able to cook roast beef to perfection even without a thermometer.
Yesterday I had a little casual dinner party. I braved Fairway twice this weekend for supplies. Jamie Oliver’s Sunday Roast: Roast beef with rosemary potatoes and a red onion, red wine jus and huge-ass Yorkshire puddings. I’ve made this meal quite a few times before, but never in my new apartment.
I bought this beautiful 2 1/2 lb. organical eye of round (not round eye, which probably would taste dry and bland). The color was this amazing bright pink.
I had a digital thermometer and all. I took it out of the oven when it hit 135 F. After letting it rest and making my Yorkshire puddings and pan gravy, Matt cut into the roast to reveal, gulp, well-done! We figured it was a combination of me covering it with too much with tinfoil while resting on the granite countertop. But from medium rare to well done? That’s craziness. At least it was the best well-done roast beef I’ve ever had (I think due to the organicalness).
I’m still all 
(meaning floating frowny head with no body) especially since I was having company over and wanted to impress them. And it doesn’t help that I’m working in a fine restaurant and should be able to cook a god damn roast beef to somewhat near desired doneness.
So now I know not to let foods rest on granite. I should go buy a janky cooling rack. And I’m never letting meat rest under tinfoil again. Lesson learned.
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Okay. Just consulted The Restaurant. Apparently my oven was too hot and the size of my meat was too small (hehehe), thus resulted in crazy carry-over cooking time.
Comment written by Chewy on 10:42 pm on the 21st of May, 2007
There’s a line in Bill Buford’s Heat somewhere where Mario Batali tells Buford, at whose house he is a dinner guest, that “Only an idiot would wrap meat in tin foil.” Not that you wrapped it–and I don’t think tenting the meat is such a terrible thing–but anyway. I have very little faith in my roasting capabilities–I once did a leg of lamb that ended up rare, so I had to grill pieces of it after carving them off. I’m so afraid of overdoneness that I err on the other side.
When’s the Brooklyn meet-up? I think I’m going to Ferdinando’s sometime this week on Union at Hicks, where there are apparently great rice balls for super cheap.
Comment written by Blake on 3:53 pm on the 22nd of May, 2007
I dunno when the meet-up is going to be. I don’t think many food bloggers read my blog. I’m beginning to think only ten people read my blog. Maybe I need more Pokey photos.
Comment written by Chewy on 10:29 pm on the 22nd of May, 2007
Get Sitemeter. It tells you all these details, and where people are referred from. It’s free, too. Then just start posting the craziest crap you can think of and tell everyone.
Comment written by Blake on 4:27 pm on the 23rd of May, 2007
I use Google analytics. It tells me that I have a bunch of “lurkers”, but I prefer the term “blog stalkers”.
Comment written by Chewy on 10:01 pm on the 23rd of May, 2007