Roast beef - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Roast beef is a dish of beef

Beef

Beef is the culinary name for meat from bovines, especially domestic cattle. Beef can be harvested from cows, bulls, heifers or steers. It is one of the principal meats used in the cuisine of the Middle East , Australia, Argentina, Brazil, Europe and the United States, and is also important in...

which is roasted

Roasting

Roasting is a cooking method that uses dry heat, whether an open flame, oven, or other heat source. Roasting usually causes caramelization or Maillard browning of the surface of the food, which is considered by some as a flavor enhancement. Roasting uses more indirect, diffused heat , and is...

in an oven

Oven

An oven is a thermally insulated chamber used for the heating, baking or drying of a substance. It is most commonly used for cooking. Kilns, and furnaces are special-purpose ovens...

. Essentially prepared as a main meal, the leftovers can be and are often served within sandwiches and sometimes is used to make hash

Hash (food)

Hash is a dish consisting of meat, potatoes, and spices, that are mashed together into a smooth, creamy consistency, and then cooked either alone or with other ingredients such as onions....

. In the United Kingdom

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

, Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

, Ireland

Ireland

Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...

, and Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

, roast beef is one of the meats traditionally served at Sunday dinner, although it is also often served as a cold cut

Cold cut

Cold cuts are cheeses or precooked or cured meat, often sausages or meat loaves, that are sliced and usually served cold on sandwiches or on party trays. They can be bought pre-sliced in vacuum packs at a supermarket or grocery store, or they can be purchased at a delicatessen or deli counter,...

in delicatessen

Delicatessen

Delicatessen is a term meaning "delicacies" or "fine foods". The word entered English via German,with the old German spelling , plural of Delikatesse "delicacy", ultimately from Latin delicatus....

stores, usually in sandwiches. A traditional side dish to roast beef is Yorkshire pudding

Yorkshire pudding

Yorkshire Pudding is a dish that originated in Yorkshire, England. It is made from batter and usually served with roast meat and gravy.-History:...

.

In the UK, roast beef is the signature national dish which holds cultural and nationalistic meaning for the English.

The French use "rosbif", meaning roast beef, as an insult to the English because of their association with the dish.

Cooking

Some prefer roast beef to be served "rare" or "pink", meaning that the center of the joint is cooked so that it retains a reddish color. Others prefer roast beef to be cooked medium or well done.

Culinary arts

The beef on weck sandwich is a tradition in western New York

Western New York

Western New York is the westernmost region of the state of New York. It includes the cities of Buffalo, Rochester, Niagara Falls, the surrounding suburbs, as well as the outlying rural areas of the Great Lakes lowlands, the Genesee Valley, and the Southern Tier. Some historians, scholars and others...

. Roast beef is sometimes served with horseradish

Horseradish

Horseradish is a perennial plant of the Brassicaceae family, which also includes mustard, wasabi, broccoli, and cabbages. The plant is probably native to south eastern Europe and the Arab World , but is popular around the world today...

or horseradish sauce. In Denmark it is mostly used in open sandwiches, called smørrebrød

Smørrebrød

Smørrebrød usually consists of a piece of buttered rye bread , a dense, dark brown bread. Pålæg , the topping, then among others can refer to commercial or homemade cold cuts, pieces of meat or fish, cheese or spreads...

Roast beef sandwich

The roast beef sandwich commonly comprises bread, cold roast beef (either the leftovers from a homemade dinner or deli

Delicatessen

Delicatessen is a term meaning "delicacies" or "fine foods". The word entered English via German,with the old German spelling , plural of Delikatesse "delicacy", ultimately from Latin delicatus....

meat), lettuce

Lettuce

Lettuce is a temperate annual or biennial plant of the daisy family Asteraceae. It is most often grown as a leaf vegetable. It is eaten either raw, notably in salads, sandwiches, hamburgers, tacos, and many other dishes, or cooked, as in Chinese cuisine in which the stem becomes just as important...

and mustard

Mustard (condiment)

Mustard is a condiment made from the seeds of a mustard plant...

, although it would not be uncommon to find horseradish

Horseradish

, fresh/powdered chili pepper

Chili pepper

Chili pepper is the fruit of plants from the genus Capsicum, members of the nightshade family, Solanaceae. The term in British English and in Australia, New Zealand, India, Malaysia and other Asian countries is just chilli without pepper.Chili peppers originated in the Americas...

and even in some cases red onion

Red onion

Red onions, sometimes called purple onions, are cultivars of the onion with purplish red skin and white flesh tinged with red.These onions tend to be medium to large in size and have a mild to sweet flavor. They are often consumed raw, grilled or lightly cooked with other foods, or added as color...

.

Some trace the origins of the modern (US based) roast beef sandwich as far back as 1877, with the then little known "beefsteak toast" recipe: cold beef, bread

Bread

Bread is a staple food prepared by cooking a dough of flour and water and often additional ingredients. Doughs are usually baked, but in some cuisines breads are steamed , fried , or baked on an unoiled frying pan . It may be leavened or unleavened...

and gravy

Gravy

Gravy is a sauce made often from the juices that run naturally from meat or vegetables during cooking. In North America the term can refer to a wider variety of sauces and gravy is often thicker than in Britain...

dish.
In 1900, the dish was described by The Washington Post
The Washington Post
The Washington Post is Washington, D.C.'s largest newspaper and its oldest still-existing paper, founded in 1877. Located in the capital of the United States, The Post has a particular emphasis on national politics. D.C., Maryland, and Virginia editions are printed for daily circulation...

as "unattractive" and as "a tired ark in a gravy flood".
The dish gained popularity in the coming years and by 1931, some critics even went as far as to describe it as "a true taste of South Dakota

South Dakota

South Dakota is a state located in the Midwestern region of the United States. It is named after the Lakota and Dakota Sioux American Indian tribes. Once a part of Dakota Territory, South Dakota became a state on November 2, 1889. The state has an area of and an estimated population of just over...

Cooking

Culinary arts

Roast beef sandwich

See also