Bought a small beef joint (http://www.sainsburys.co.uk/shop/gb/...ing-joint-601g)

what's the best way to cook it, and what goes well with it for dinner?

should I keep the netting when I roast it in the oven?

I think you should Oven Cook from chilled. Before Cooking: Remove joint from packaging and allow to breathe at room temperature for up to 30mins. Preheat oven to 200c / fan 180c / Gas Mark 6. Season the meat with a pinch of salt & pepper and brush with 5ml vegetable oil. Seal the joint all over in a hot pan. Place into a roasting dish on a layer of root vegetables with 1/2 pint of water. During Cooking: Place the roasting dish into a pre-heated oven at 200c / fan 180c / Gas Mark 6 for 25 minutes per 500g plus 25 minutes. After Cooking: Leave joint to rest for 10-20 minutes. Check food is piping hot. All cooking appliances vary. This is a guide only. Roundel to read oven cook from chilled 200/fan 180/Gas 6 25 mins per 500g + 25 mins
Serve with roast potatoes Yorkshire pudding and green vegetable. I suppose you want to know how to make yorkshire pudding too.

How about reading the instructions?

cheers for that einstein

I wanted to know people's different ideas of cooking a joint and what the best way is, hence why i came to a forum about the sharing of said cooking ideas

It depends on your cooking skills and the effort you want to make. If you've never made a roast before, it's probably best to start simple and grow from there, otherwise the full effort of making a roast from scratch can feel overwhelming.

Carrots, parsnips, peas (marrowfat or chic are my favourites), cauliflower, green beans, roast potatoes and Yorkshire pudding all go very well with roast beef and gravy.

You can buy a bag of mixed chopped vegetables from most supermarkets, along with a packet of green beans and then boil/steam them yourself. Plus a tin of marrowfat peas (non-mushy) that just needs heating up in a small pan. You can also buy ready-made Yorkshire puddings that just need a few minutes in an oven to crisp them up. And gravy granules make for easy gravy.

Over time, you can start buying proper veg and prepare it yourself, including dried peas that need soaking overnight and cooking carefully. I like marrowfat peas but they can be difficult to cook without going soft or mushy. Chic peas are much more robust so even if you overcook them a bit they'll still have a bite to them.

Yorkshire puddings need to be made from whisking a batter and then pouring it very quickly into a heavy heated container and put back into the oven as quickly as you can. This means they can be a bit tricky to make rise properly if you've never made them before. They're horrible if they don't rise.

You can also put the different vegetables into the pan at different times so that they all cook to perfection. Carrots take longer to cook than broccoli or green beans.

Roast potatoes are also a bit of an effort to make well. You need to part boil them, drain the pan and let them dry out whilst retaining their heat, then roll them around in the pan to abrase the outsides before quickly putting them into a heated roaster, get the fat all over them and then roast.

But once you've made a few roasts and gone from buying bags of prepared vegetables or ready-to-roast potatoes to making it all yourself, you'll never realise why you ever thought it was any effort!

My preferred way to cook a joint is to remove it from the fridge at least an hour before cooking and then cover it in herbs and seasoning. Let them soak right into the fibres of the meat in a cool but not refrigerated place. Then I sear it in a frying pan for a few minutes to seal the outside before putting in the oven to cook properly. The temperature you use depends on how soft the meat is. Cheap meat can be tough, so it cooks better slowly. Post meat is softer so you can blast it on a high temperature without it coming out like a lump of leather.

And yes, keep the loops of elastic string on the joint when you roast it.

I also noticed the joint you gave the link to is not 100% meat! It seems to be enhanced with extracts and vegetable oils.


If I buy the same type of joint from three different supermarkets, I usually see three different sets of cooking instructions on the packaging.

The netting keeps it in shape.

I take no notice whatsoever of Sainsbury's cooking instructions. This is based on experience, particularly when cooking meat and fish. I once bought two sword fish steaks that were on the thin side. The instructions told me to grill the fish for 20 minutes each side

As regards beef, many cuts benefit from slow roasting. It depends which cut you've bought. It's helpful if Sainsburys actually tell you.

However, most roasting joints from Sainsburys seem to benefit the slow cook method, which is foolproof.

I stick the joint in a tin in a very hot oven, 250C, until it's sizzling. I then turn the oven down to 130c and add onions to brown, then add garlic and a tablespoon of tomato puree.

Stock, usually made with beef oxo is then poured around the meat to about half way up the joint and I cover it all. For two hours I leave it alone and then I check the amount of stock, adding more if necessary and then I turn the joint over.

I leave it for another two hours. I then remove it from the oven and allow it to cool. I've found it carves much better if you can leave it wrapped in tinfoil, once it's cooled.

It's delicious as roast meat, served with roasties, Yorkshire Pud, veg and gravy or cold in sandwiches with pickle.

I once had a pizza that the cooking instructions said to cook for 10-30 minutes! That's a big window, especially for a pizza. I imagine it would have been burnt to a crisp if I'd left it in for 30 minutes. So always take instructions with a pinch of salt.

Best thing to do is buy a meat thermometer so you can check when it is at the temperature that you want (rare, medium, well done, you can find the various temps online).

Also don't forgot to take the meat out of the fridge 30 minutes before going in the oven and always rest it after!

We put a beef joint in the slow cooker with whatever veggies we fancy at the time.

Served with either roasties (my favourite, I'm happy to faff about peeling, par boiling, etc for a good roastie)

Or mashed spuds, with plenty of butter and some garlic puree stirred in.

We use the slow cooker, because whatever the instructions say, or whatever method we find online, it always seems to come out dry.

Maybe our oven hates beef

I agree that a meat thermometer is very useful but only certain cuts of meat are good rare, medium or well done. Much of what they sell in the supermarkets is only good for a long time at a low temperature with plenty of stock. The up side of this is these cuts usually taste great.

If it's a decent cut, cook it slowly from room temperature at about 110C until it reaches 50C in the middle for rare, using a thermometer you can leave in. 55C for medium, 60 for well done, any higher for tough rubber.. Season well before putting in, and it's fine to put other stuff like dried herbs or garlic on top if you like that. Cover in foil and let it rest for at least 10 minutes while you do other things. Pour the juices into the gravy.

Tatties and any veg you fancy. Yorkshire puddings are difficult unless the oven is really hot 220C ish,but frozen work great. Bisto makes the best gravy