Deli-Style Roast Beef - Bare Bones Butcher (2024)

YIELD: Serves 4-6

TIME: 1 1/2 -2 hours, plus overnight seasoning

1. Season beef with Bone Rub, pressing the seasoning into the exterior of the meat to help it stick. Be sure to season all sides. Let sit overnight, uncovered and refrigerated.

2. Remove seasoned beef from fridge and, using a paper towel, gently pat dry to remove excess moisture, being careful not to remove seasoning in doing so. Here’s how we suggest you do it: Fold a large piece of paper towel in half to make it “two-ply.” Gently wrap the meat in the paper towel, pressing or patting it into the surface of the meat to absorb moisture. Let the paper towel-wrapped meat sit for 10 minutes.

3. Preheat oven to its highest possible temperature (ours was 500o F) and stick a cast iron skillet on the middle rack to heat up alongside the oven.

4. Gently remove paper towel from the beef and discard. Drizzle oil over the surface of the beef and carefully press it into the meat. Be mindful here – you don’t want to smear it, as that will inevitably wipe off the seasoning; you want to keep as much seasoning on the meat as possible. Think about caressing the oil into the entire surface of the meat!

5. Once the oven and cast iron skillet have preheated, use a pot holder or kitchen towel to remove skillet from oven; it should be smoking hot. Transfer seasoned, oiled meat to the hot pan, and press down firmly to bring more surface area into contact with the skillet. The goal here is to get a nice crust on the outside of the meat. (Hot tip! If you want more of a crust, pour additional oil into the skillet; this will essentially “fry” the exterior of the beef, creating a crispy crust. Just remember, you’ll have to find a means of discarding the excess oil.) Transfer skillet with beef to oven.

6. Roast beef on high for 20 – 30 minutes, turning and temping periodically, about every 5 – 10 minutes, to ensure a hard sear on all sides and to avoid overcooking. At this phase, you are simply aiming for color and crust on the exterior of the beef; you should not be aiming to cook the entire thing through quite yet. Once the exterior looks sufficiently crusty, remove beef from oven and immediately transfer to a wife rack set atop a sheet tray to cool down and halt the cooking process.

7. Turn oven down to 225o F. Once oven has reached temp, transfer sheet tray and wire rack with beef to oven and finish cooking for another 15 – 25 minutes, temping after 15. When the internal temperature of the beef has reached your desired level of doneness (we prefer medium rare at 125o F), remove from oven and cool completely.

8. Using your sharpest knife, slice beef as thinly as possible, just like they do at the deli counter. Note, if you can’t slice it paper thin, you may want to chop it smaller, so it’s edible in a sandwich form.

   See Also

   Perfect Hands-Off Medium-Rare Roast Beef Recipe

9. Use roast beef for your favorite cold-cut sandwich — we like ours with Duke’s mayo, yellow mustard, American cheese and butter lettuce — or come up with your favorite Philly Cheesesteak-style grinder sandwich — ours came together with melty fontina, Duke’s mayo, grainy mustard, and BBB giardiniera.