Cycle 15 – Item 16
21 (Sun) January 2024
Roast Blade
3.5
by me
at home
-Changgok, Sujeong, Seongnam, Gyeonggi, Republic of Korea-
with the Family
My first attempt at roast beef.
As recently noted (see 15.005 Beef Bourguignon), blade is my favorite beef cut for most applications, especially slowly cooked braises or stews, which allows the fascia running down the middle to break down and provide a boost of “silky unctuousness” to the meat, as well as the sauce or broth. So, I gave it a shot in this inaugural attempt at roasting beef, though I wasn’t sure if the indirect heat of the oven would be enough to melt the fascia.
At J Mart, I purchased an entire blade. The butcher trimmed the silver skin and fat cap (in retrospect, I should’ve told him to leave it on), resulting in a net weight of 2.33 kg. At 3,000 won per 100 grams (the regular price is 6,980 won per 100 grams, though it’s always on sale at 3,480 won per 100 grams), rounded down, the total price came out to 69,000 won. Having never sold such a big piece of beef to a retail customer, the butcher was wildly curious what I was going to do with it – I promised that I’d shown him photos.
New toy: ThermoPro Twin TempSpike Wireless Meat Thermometer. The probes (one black, one white) send their signals to a booster that connects via Bluetooth to a smartphone app, which monitors progress, estimates finishing times, and alerts when target temperatures are reached.
For medium rare, the internal temperature ranges from 54-57 degrees centigrade, while medium ranges from 57-64 degrees.
Aiming for the lower end of medium, I started with a pan-sear then cooked the roast in the oven at 150 degrees for 1.5 hours until hitting an internal temperature of 55 degrees, and set it on the counter to rest, anticipating that carry-over cooking would push the temp up a few degrees to 58 or so; however, after 30 minutes, the internal temperature kept rising until peaking at 61 degrees, right in the middle of medium.
In any case, the roast turned out great. Super tender – the fascia wasn’t quite melted, but soft enough that it didn’t make a difference either way. Tasty – USDA Prime – even though I hadn’t really seasoned it before the cook (I was entirely focused on the roasting method) – no matter when smothered in pan gravy. Most of all, it was easy and fun to do. We finished most of the meat for dinner, and kept snacking on the leftovers into the night – all gone by 9pm.
And the whole thing cost less then 35,000 won.
I still have the remaining half, which I could make into another roast, or steaks, or chop up into beef stew, or beef curry, or bolognese.
(See also GLOBAL FOOD GLOSSARY)
(See also BOOZE)