Hi all,

No matter what I do, I cannot seem to cook a decent roast & I just cannot understand why. I have a double electric oven (60cm job) & use a large baking tin that has water & onion put into it, then covered with foil. The baking tin is then put onto the bottom shelf in the top section of the oven, so more near to the middle than the top at about 200. Every hour I remove the foil & turn the meat over & top up the water if need be. Today I attempted a beef roast, had it cooking for a few hours but the majority of it was red raw.

I have cooked whole chickens perfectly & a range of other meals that go on a high heat, but for some reason the roast joints are a disaster.

Is there any advice that can be given ?

Many thanks

Today I've cooked topside of beef. I rolled it in seasoned flour and browned it in a frying pan first. I browned onions and added garlic, celery and carrots, plus a good slosh of red wine and some marmite and added these to the meat in a large casserole with a lid. I then cooked it for four hours at 140degrees (fan oven). It was delicious and cooked to perfection.

Sounds like your steaming your joint and not roasting it, leave out the water or only put in a little. Also get the meat down to room temp before cooking, you can take it out the fridge in the morning.

That's a good tip, always cook your meat from room temperature. How you roast meat, especially beef does depend, of course, on what cut the meat is.

Dont you mean *up* to room temp?

I do, apologies.

What cut of meat?
What weight?
What temp is the oven? (use need to use an oven thermometer to get a proper reading)

There's your reason - the bit in bold. If you are going to put meat in liquid, and cover it with a lid or foil, then you are effectively steaming it. Taking the foil off every hour is wrong. Leave the foil on and let the oven do its work. I cook meat this way ( brisket ) having browned it quickly first all over. It goes into stock / wine with herbs and a chunk of onion and carrot, coming about halfway up the side of the beef, covered with a lid and put into a preheated oven, 160/ gas 3 for 2 ½ hrs. I go away and leave it, only taking the cover off after it's finished. I wrap it in fresh foil and leave it to rest somewhere while I increase the oven temp. and do the roasties. Comes out dark brown and meltingly tender and moist. I call this a pot roast, and it works every time.

Last week it was a shoulder of pork, got the crackling lovely but meat was pink in the middle. This week was Topside of Beef..

Weight for all joints is just over 1KG
Oven is set at about 180 for pork or 200/220 for beef.

Must be honest that I had never of though of getting a thermometer.


Wow thank you very much for that, strange thing is that my partner has always used foil to cover the tin & the roast has come out lovely, even when turning it over each hour. So thought I was jinxed.

I agree with the others that what you're doing sounds more like a pot roast than a traditional roast. Also, every time you open the oven you let the heat out. Everytime you remove the foil, you let the heat out.

I would recommend the thermometer. Firstly your oven could be running 20c lower than you think and you may be loosing a lot more when you open the door. It may be taking too much time to get back up to temp. You may need to up the dial to make sure that the temp you want remains constant.

I don't look at it. i don't use water.

Both the foil and the water in the pan make it more like you are *steaming* the meat.

The foil will trap steam underneath it, and you've got the whole joint sat in water. Steam will rise from the pan and, once again, you've got steam next to the meat's surface! Worse still, you keep topping the water up. People don't look very nice when they've just come out of a sauna, and neither will your meat!

The steam will actually *lower* the surface temperature of the meat during cooking.

Having said all that, you have a joint on for "hours" at 200C and most of it is still raw? (Your oven measures in C, not F?) Is your oven working properly?

Oven problems notwithstanding... chuck out the water, chuck out the foil. You only need the foil next to bits of e.g. poultry which seem to be burning or doing too fast. Don't use it as a general rule.

Turn the meat once during cooking (if at all), and otherwise leave the door shut.

Your scenario is producing, more or less, boiled or steamed beef. That is so horrible, comics would mock it ("Boiled beef and carrots again?"). You've got to get a degree of caramelisation going on to get a roast flavour.

I have to say that I have never used foil or water when roasting beef. As several people have mentioned it sounds like you are boiling the beef and also all liquid will lower the actual cooking temp of the beef.

Get a meat thermometer, they are only a tenner or so and it will accurately tell you the temp of the meat.

Start with the oven 250C then turn it down to around 210 once the meat has gone it.

After cooking is the temp to loosely cover the meat with foil, let it standard for 20 minutes or so to let the meat relax else all the juices will run out when carved.

I have no idea what oven measures in, all I know is it's electric & I just follow the instructions on whatever it is I buy. Everything else that I have cooked has been fine & when my partner cooks a joint it is fine, yet when I do it, it goes badly wrong.

If your oven works fine for your partner and for you for other cooking, then it's a puzzle ! I thought you'd been roasting meat at 200 degrees fahrenheit instead of at 400 fahrenheit by mistake but apparently not. Even steaming it for hours -as you said you have, wouldn't leave it raw.

180 degrees is gas mark 4. If it is a fan oven this may be the recommended temperature per pack, but I'd have a look at some roasting joint methods to get a feel of the correct temperature for your type of oven.

I start off a good joint of beef and pork on gas mark 9 for 15 mins* then turn down to 5. Total cooking time beef - 20 mins per 500gms + 20 mins, pork - 30 mins per 500 gms + 30 mins. If you don't like beef to be pink in the middle (it's a must for me) you can extend the cooking total cooking time by 15-30 mins for a 1kg joint. Once out of the oven, keep covered and rest for at least 15-20 mins before carving.

As others have noted, you are using a pot roast method which is fine for brisket or a leg of lamb joint, but meat cooked low and slow needs a good 2 hours plus for best results.

*This achieves the same result as searing in a pan on the hob before popping into the oven, it just takes less work and no watching over.

I've just thought, if I'm going to slow cook a joint I always turn the oven right up to start with, just to get it going. There's a danger if you put the cold meat into the oven at 140 it'll take ages to actually start cooking, so a hot blast at the beginning for probably 20 mins, will do the trick.

Long and slow in my oven is four hours, at least. If I have a peek, or turn the meat over, I turn the oven right up again to make sure the meat keeps cooking. Once I'm happy it's all underway again, then I turn it down again.

Certain cuts of beef, topside, silverside, brisket, always need the long slow braise.

Pork should definitely not be cooked in water. Bring to room temperature, bung it in a hot oven, uncovered, in a tin and roast at 180. Pork should NOT be served pink.

A good joint of beef should be treated the same. Cheaper joints such as topside or brisket can be cooked in water or stock but the water should not be topped up and the meat doesn't need to be turned.

Lamb can be cooked covered or uncovered but again, do not top up with liquid and don't turn.

Chicken should be seasoned with salt, black pepper and herbs and brushed with oil. Cook covered or uncovered and water is not necessary. Again do NOT serve undercooked or pink.

All meat should be left to stand for 10 minutes after cooking, before carving.

OP did your cooker come with a cookery book? All the ovens I've ever had came with a cookery book and I still use them for recipes.

The alternative is to invest in a meat thermomenter. Then put it in a low oven until the meat in the centre reahed about 45 degrees for rare and about 70 degrees for done to death and leather (or well done as it's called). Oven temp probable about 120 degrees or lower. Once it reached that temp, probably in about 3-4 hours, take it out, cover it to let it rest, bang the oven up to max for the yorkies and roast tatties, get the veg boiling etc. Then give it a final 5 mins at the high temp to crisp up the outside.

No money back if this doesn't work for you!

You can serve pork slightly pink, and it is perfectly safe to do so.

Was going to post the same.
Also, you can cover a joint/bird for 30+ minutes to rest and it should still be warm enough to eat, especially with hot gravy added.

Leave the water out and place the meat on a bed of roughly chopped onions, carrots and celery.

If it's topside or silverside, you're better with wine stock half way up the meat.

Have you got a slow cooker? It's what I normally use now to do roast meat. Just put it in in the morning and it's done for tea time, nicer than it even comes out of the oven.