Cooking an Eye of Round Roast

If you do a search on how to cook eye of round, one of the most commonly suggested methods is to preheat the oven to 500, salt and pepper the roast, drop the temp to 475 and cook it for 7 minutes/pound, then turn the heat off and let it coast for 2 ¹⁄₂ hours without opening the oven door even once.

I had never tried this method, but I had a three pound eye of round I needed to use up last week, so I figured why not try it here.

But of course, I couldn’t just trust the recipe!

So I dug out two oven thermometers, my Maverick oven thermometer to measure the oven temperature and a Polder meat thermometer with a probe into the roast.

Kenji Lopez-Alt says not to bother letting a steak or roast come up to room temperature, because the center takes 3–5 hours to get to room temperature, which is far too long in the danger zone for the rest of the meat. When the roast went into the oven, the internal temperature was 44 degrees. (More on this later.)

The oven cooled off faster than I was expecting and the meat wasn’t getting warm very fast, either, so after about an hour and a half I turned the oven back on to a low setting, around 150. At around 2 ¹⁄₂ hours, I finally figured out that the meat probe wasn’t working, so I got out the other one and instead of 90 degrees I had an internal temperature of about 140. I wanted to take it to 145, so I was almost done. (And it’s anybody’s guess as to what the internal starting temperature really was, but 44 degrees seems reasonable.)

Even with all these issues, the eye of round came out very good. The outside edges weren’t burnt to a crisp as is so often the case with eye of round done at 350, and the slices were a pretty uniform medium-rare to medium, which is where we like it. It was probably the most tender eye of round I’ve ever roasted.

I will use this method again, probably keeping the oven set at 150 just so it doesn’t get TOO cool.

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Tagged: eye of round roast

This topic has 11 replies, 7 voices, and was last updated 7 years, 5 months ago by Mike Nolan.

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August 24, 2016 at 10:08 pm #4397
Mike Nolan
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If you do a search on how to cook eye of round, one of the most commonly suggested methods is to preheat the oven to 500, salt and pepper the roast, drop the temp to 475 and cook it for 7 minutes/poun
[See the full post at: Cooking an Eye of Round Roast]

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August 25, 2016 at 6:14 am #4401
rottiedogs
Participant
I use a similar method of cooking an eye of the round but on the grill. I have done it in the oven in the dead of winter when I can't (won't) grill.

http://bbqpitboys.com/recipes/seared-eye-round-roast-beef/

I didn't follow these instructions exactly. I don't sear the roast before putting it the pan. I also bank the coals on each side of the pan for more even heat. The roast is always tender and juicy. And it requires very little attention once it is on the grill.

When I put this in the oven I set the oven to the lowest temp too instead of turning it off. I was afraid of the oven cooling too quickly as well. The last thing I wanted was uncooked meat at the end of the cooking time!
August 25, 2016 at 9:38 am #4427
Mike Nolan
Keymaster
I've stopped searing beef, it really doesn't accomplish much except to make the edges more well done, as if they need that. (The myth about it 'sealing in the juices', which dates back to Von Leibig in 1850, has been thoroughly debunked, searing actually increases water loss.)

Something I haven't tried yet is to sous vide beef, Kenji Lopez-Alt suggests doing it in a beer cooler with water at 150 degrees. (For those who really must have grill marks, you can do that at the end.)

My older brother was in institutional food sales, he once showed me a catalog of par-cooked steaks that restaurants can order with this notation: grill marks optional.
August 25, 2016 at 12:26 pm #4429
BakerAunt
Participant
Lately, the only roasts I've done have been in the crock pot--usually to avoid heating up the house, or because I won't be home. . I wonder if I can stop searing it? It's been a while, but as soon as cold weather comes, I'm going to do a roast in the oven again.
August 25, 2016 at 1:58 pm #4430
Mike Nolan
Keymaster
There may be valid cooking reasons to sear the outside of meat, but 'sealing in the juices' definitely isn't one of them! I think most of the time it just makes the outside of the meat overdone.
September 22, 2016 at 2:59 pm #4824
skeptic7
Participant
I've seared roasts for a more colorful brown crust and for the flavor gotten by browning the outside. I remember doing this for rib roasts and then cooking on low 250 degrees. This was recommended years ago by Cooks Illustrated.
I've seared eye of round roasts, and then finished them in the slow cooker. A roast in a slow cooker won't get a beautiful color or the tasty brown crust.
How did you even write this article, for the last month I could only bake in the early morning because it was so hot and even then there were days it was too hot to turn on the oven at all! I ate strawberries with little ricotta pancakes because it was too hot to bake biscuits.
September 22, 2016 at 3:10 pm #4825
Mike Nolan
Keymaster
Although it's 91 here today, we've had several cool spells this summer and I made that eye of round during one of them. Last week we had a day where the high was in the 50's. It's supposed to be in the 70's next week. The crew putting a new roof on our house next week will appreciate that. Now it just needs to NOT rain!

I've got the ingredients for vegetable beef soup ready to go, just waiting for a cooler day.
September 26, 2016 at 9:59 am #4886
navlys
Participant
The hungry mouse blog has a great way to roast an eye of the round to make deli roast beef. I've used it several times and my meat slicer makes slicing it a breeze.
September 26, 2016 at 3:38 pm #4892
Mike Nolan
Keymaster
Several years ago one of the winners on the Food Network's 'Next Food Network Star' series posted his recipe for Chicago-style Italian beef, one of my favorite foods from the 10 years we lived in the Chicago area.

I've made it several times.

It uses bottom round though that's not the cut that most restaurants that make Italian beef use, and I had to slice it by hand because I don't have a deli slicer (and one recipe isn't quite enough to justify buying one), but it was pretty close to the Real Thing.

I did, of course, leave the garlic out.
- This reply was modified 7 years, 6 months ago by Mike Nolan.
September 26, 2016 at 7:15 pm #4896
Italiancook
Participant
Mike, I make my Italian Beef from a recipe in the CHICAGO TRIBUNE while we lived there. It uses rump roast, but I don't know if rump is also round.

I don't own a slicer. Every meat market that has sold me the rump roast always agreed to slice it free of charge. I cook the roast, refrigerate it overnight wrapped in foil, then take it back to the meat market. They slice it paper thin. After they wrap up the slices, I bring it home and marinate it overnight. Of course, I make sure they agree to slice it when I order the meat. I've never had a butcher refuse in any city.

Admittedly, taking it back to the meat market adds a step, but I don't think I could slice it as paper thin as they do in Chicago by hand.
- This reply was modified 7 years, 6 months ago by Italiancook.
- This reply was modified 7 years, 6 months ago by Italiancook.
October 28, 2016 at 10:10 pm #5295
RiversideLen
Participant
I've done the eye of round @ 500 degrees, it's a good way. But I think the America's Test Kitchen method is a little better. With the 500 degree method, you end up with a gray band of meat on outer edge. The AMT's method eliminates that, you end up with the same doneness throughout from edge to edge. The method is to sear the meat in a skillet first for a few minutes on each side, this is to give it some color. Then you roast it in a 225 degree oven until the internal temp reaches 115. Turn off the oven, do not open it, and wait for the internal temp to reach 125.

You really need a remote temperature probe to do it.

I find the final temp of 125 to be just a little too rare for me, so I leave the oven on until it reaches 125, then turn off the oven and wait for it to reach 135. But that's my tastes.

Try it once and see if you agree.
October 28, 2016 at 11:35 pm #5296
Mike Nolan
Keymaster
I'm a medium to medium-well done person, as long as there's still a little pink in the middle it is fine with me.

My wife used to eat beef blood rare, like her father, until one day her older sister looked at a steak and said, "Ewwww, sanguinary!". After my wife looked it up a dictionary, she couldn't eat beef unless it was well done. I've slowly gotten her back to the point where medium is acceptable again, and now she complains if her steak doesn't have some pink in the middle.

Interestingly enough, Kenji Lopez-Alt has done blindfolded taste tests where people couldn't see how done their steak was, and they overwhelmingly preferred medium-rare, even the blood-rare crowd.

One of my favorite episodes of Master Chef had the contestants cooking 3 steaks, one rare, one medium and one well-done. As Gordon Ramsay noted, it is possible to cook beef to well done without totally killing both the flavor and the texture, but it takes a deft hand. Sadly, few chefs take the time to even try it and many restaurants have disclaimers in their menus saying that they will not take responsibility for meat ordered 'well done' Cowards!

Hamburger is a different matter, it need to be well-done for food safety reasons.
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