the ultimate roast beef sandwich: home roasted deli meat

THE ULTIMATE ROAST BEEF SANDWICH: HOME ROASTED DELI MEAT

Tuesday, September 20, 2011

The ultimate sandwich begins with the best ingredients. Do you realize that you don’t have to stand in line at the deli counter to get good sandwich meat? It should be obvious, but most of us are so used to getting our meat pre-cooked and sliced that we don’t think about home-roasting. We should. Meat roasted at home and then sliced deli-thin makes a superior sandwich. Unlike its store-bought counterpart, home-roasted meat hasn’t been sitting around for days. It tastes better because it’s fresh and made without preservatives. It’s also much cheaper.

Fresh ingredients layered on great bread makes the ultimate sandwich. In this recipe I slow-roasted an inexpensive eye-of-round roast and sliced it as thin as possible. I built my ultimate roast beef sandwich with whole wheat sourdough bread, mixed lettuces, halved grape tomatoes, grainy mustard and extra virgin olive oil. Your tastes should dictate your ultimate sandwich. Go down-home with white bread, fresh sliced tomatoes and mayonnaise; uptown with a challah bread and horseradish cream sauce; European with a baguette, arugula, and aioli; or just make up your own.

Note: Good meat needs great bread. Don’t buy mass-produced-preservative-filled sliced bread off the shelf. Go to a good bakery and buy artisanal loaves. Adding fresh vegetables and great condiments, elevates your good sandwich to the ultimate sandwich.

1 (3-4 lb) eye of round beef roast

kosher salt

freshly ground black pepper

2 Tbsp olive oil

1. SALT AND REFRIGERATE ROAST OVERNIGHT: Sprinkle your roast all over with salt. Wrap in foil; place roast in a gallon-size baggie and refrigerate overnight.

2. SEASON AND SEAR: Preheat the oven to 300. Unwrap the roast and pat dry. Sprinkle with pepper and then rub the roast all over with the olive oil. Heat a large oven-proof skillet over HIGH heat. When skillet is hot, add the roast. Sear the roast on all sides. You want a nice brown crust all over. You are not trying to cook the inside, just brown the outside.

3. SLOW ROAST: Place the roast on a rack in the oven proof skillet and slow roast in the oven until a thermometer reaches 120 degrees, about 1 1/4 hours. Remove roast from the oven and cover with foil. Let it rest for 30 minutes or so. The roast will cook a bit more as it rests and be perfectly pink on the inside when sliced.

4. SLICE AND BUILD YOUR ULTIMATE SANDWICH: Place the roast on a cutting board. Slice the meat as thin as possible. For the best results, use an electric knife. Layer a few slices of beef on a slice of good artiseanal bread. Here, I have used sourdough whole wheat. Spread wholegrain mustard onto the bread. Layer with arugula or mixed greens. Add some sliced ripe tomato and a drizzle of good extra virgin olive oil. Enjoy.