Beef Eye of Round Roast

James_1954

It was my night to cook, and what I had on hand was a 2.6-pound eye of round roast. So I did what I usually do -- went to the internet to find out how to cook it. I found that I might have made a mistake in buying that kind of roast, which was described in several places as being potentially the toughest meat on the planet, being as how it has essentially no fat. However, I found a recipe here:

http://thedomesticman.com/2012/01/10/perfect-eye-of-round-roast/

which promised an edible result, and I tried it. Apart from once again being reminded that I suck at "finely chopping" fresh garlic, it actually worked out quite well. Hitting the high spots:

You’ll Need:
Eye of Round Roast (2-8 lbs. preferred, we used a 3 lb. roast)
1 tsp kosher salt
1 tsp black pepper (coarse-ground preferred)
1/2 tsp dried thyme
4-6 cloves garlic, chopped finely

Mix together your seasonings and set them aside.

Take out your roast, rinse it and pat dry with paper towels. Rub the seasonings all over the roast, and let it sit out on the kitchen counter for 30 minutes. This allows the roast to reach room temperature, plus it lets the seasonings settle onto the roast. Preheat your oven to 500 degrees.

Place the roast in a roasting pan or dutch oven and put it in the oven, fatty side up. Roast at 500 degrees, uncovered, for 7 minutes per pound. Our roast was a little over three pounds, so I cooked it for 25 minutes.

Now comes the part that goes against everything I’ve ever done in the kitchen – turn off the oven completely and leave the roast in there for 2 1/2 hours. Don’t open the oven door at all during this time! Go watch a movie or something.

After 2 1/2 hours, take the roast out and check its internal temp with an instant read thermometer. The temperature should be between 130-150 degrees. Put the finished roast on a plate and cover it with tin foil, and allow it to rest for 10 minutes.

Carve it into 1/2″ slices and enjoy!

As a quick reference, here are the standard temperature/doneness levels for roasts:

120°F to 125°F, (49°C to 52°C) = Rare
130°F to 140°F (55°C to 60°C) = Medium Rare
145°F to 150°F (63°C to 66°C) = Medium

Update: based on the huge amount of great feedback in the comments below, here are some tips:

- Gas ovens sometimes don’t retain heat well, so to be safe, during the 2.5-hour “off” period, maybe keep your heat at the oven’s lowest setting (probably 170) and check it after 2 hours for doneness. Because you have the heat going, I give you permission to open your oven door!
- If this is your first time making this dish, consider doing the 170-degree method just to be safe, and check it after 2 hours.
- You can use a roasting thermometer (the kind that stay in the roast while cooking), but bear in mind that because it’s metal, it will conduct heat possibly overcook the roast. Trust the process!

To go with this, I made some fresh green beans and those little red new potatoes. And even though my oven's electric, I used the 170° variation to simply turning the oven off, which was just as well -- my wife enjoyed the garlic smell so much, she kept opening the door to look. Anyway, it was good. Give it a try.

tootoop224

Prety amazing. I cook it the same way and it works great! Whodathunk lt?

StinkyWinkies

I actually stopped buying that cut of meat because I found it tough and dull...thanks for posting this.