Deli Style Roast Beef

There are many things that people eat on a daily basis that they buy for the convenience factor.  Sliced deli meat is one of these things.  After all, you just go to the counter and order how much you want and the deli worker plops it on the slicer and in a couple of minutes you have a package of sliced deli meat.  I'll admit, we do that at times also.  Some deli meats are just too time consuming to make or even I don't have the proper equipment to easily make it.


A week or so ago, we were at the local big box store and they were giving samples of two of their deli meats and two cheeses.  The good wife sampled the roast beef with provolone and I had the roast beef with swiss cheese.  That got the good wife in the mood for some roast beef to have for sandwiches or to the side with some cottage cheese for her lunches.  I agreed and we stepped over to the deli counter and started looking.


Besides the price, deli meats have extra stuff added to them that wouldn't be added at home to enhance the color, the shelf life, and the flavor.  Given those conditions I suggested we get a beef roast from the meat case and I'd make her the sandwich meat.  It's been a bit since I'd done that so she had forgotten about it.  At the meat case I found a nice 13.5 lb bottom outside beef roast, the biceps femoris for the food science geeks like me.  The other option was a eye of round roast which I've done with good results.


The next day, I pulled the roast out of the refrigerator and got ready to make the deli meat.  I washed and dried it then sliced away the fat from the roast and cleaned up a bit of membrane from the other side of the roast.  I cut a bit off the ends to make sure the size was fairly uniform from end to end.


After the roast was trimmed to my satisfaction, I placed it on a rack in a sheet tray.  Then I rub the roast all over with oil, use the oil of your choice, then sprinkled generously with kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper.


I prefer to let it rest for a bit to get closer to room temperature but I didn't do that this time.  This is not like cooking a steak so I don't think starting to cook while it was still cool affected the outcome.


Put the roast on the middle rack of a 500F oven for 20 minutes.  Then lower the temperature to 300F and cook for another 30 minutes.  Depending on the size of your roast this should have you pretty close for rare.  This time is dead on if you use the eye of round roast. 

Fresh From the Oven

Internal Temperatures for Doneness

Rare	125F
Medium Rare	135F
Medium	145F
Medium Well	155F
Well Done	165F

I used the thermometer I use for smoking to keep an eye on the temperature.  Once the roast is out of the oven cover it with a tent of aluminum foil for 30 minutes.  I pulled the roast out when it reached 118F knowing the temperature would keep rising, carry over, for a bit as it rested.  Carry over is usually between 5 - 10 degrees.  For a large roast like this I usually figure on 10 degrees.  I pulled the thermometer probe out so I don't know for sure but this roast probably ended up around 128F.

Nice Medium Rare Roast Beef

Once the roast was cooled a bit I cut it to check the flavor.  The half slice for the good wife ended up as a couple of slices.  Yes, I sampled just as much as she did.  I then wrapped it in aluminum foil and put it in the refrigerator to completely chill to be easier to slice.

The Good Wife Sneaking a Sample

 The next afternoon, I cut the roast in half for ease of handling and got busy with the slicer.  In no time at all I had a tray full of thinly sliced beef roast.  After trimming the roast and cutting off the ends to even up the size and then cooking we ended up with 7.65 lbs of deli sliced roast beef.  Between the sampling after the roast was done and what I sampled while slicing there is at least 8 oz. unaccounted for.  That is probably all accounted for in the fat I trimmed prior to seasoning.

For storage, I packaged the meat in 8.5 - 8.75 oz vacuum sealed packages.  That's enough for several sandwiches.


Making your own sandwich meat is the way to go for sure.  The main benefit is that there is nothing but natural ingredients.  You also get to tailor the flavor profile to suit your tastes rather than being stuck with what the deli carries.  You can do the same with turkey breast though I tend to do turkey on the smoker.


Give this a try and I'm sure you'll prefer this to store bought.  If you make it, let me know what you think.


Uncle T