How to Roast Beef

Beef is timed by weight and by how you want it done. Rare, medium and well done are genuinely different cooking times for the same joint, so decide before it goes in rather than hoping.

Enter the weight and how you want it done: Beef Roasting Time Calculator

Topside and top rump are lean, affordable and slice neatly, the standard Sunday joint. They are best kept to medium at most, because there is little fat to keep them forgiving.

Sirloin and rib have more fat running through them, so they stay juicier and reward being served pink.

Brisket and silverside are not quick-roast joints at all. They want long, slow cooking, and treating them like topside is the usual reason roast beef comes out tough. There is a separate calculator for beef brisket.

For how much to buy, allow for bone and shrinkage rather than working from finished portions: Meat Per Person Calculator.

With a whole cut of beef, the surface is where bacteria sit, and roasting deals with the surface. That is why a joint can be served pink in the middle while a chicken cannot, and why mince and rolled joints follow the chicken rule instead, mincing and rolling move the outside to the inside. The safety guidance below is the official wording on both.

1. Take the joint out of the fridge 30 to 60 minutes beforehand. A fridge-cold centre means the outside overcooks while the middle catches up.

2. Dry the surface and season it well. Salt on a wet surface does nothing useful.

3. Sear it, either in a hot pan or by giving it 20 minutes in a very hot oven, then drop the oven to the roasting temperature. Count the hot period as part of the total time.

4. Roast fat-side up on a rack or on a trivet of onions and carrots, which also gives the gravy a base.

5. Take it out at the time the calculator gives you, and remember it keeps cooking as it rests. If you want it rare, err on the short side.

6. Rest it for 15 to 30 minutes depending on size, loosely covered. Carve across the grain in thin slices.

Using a slow-cooking joint for a fast roast. Brisket and silverside need hours, not a Sunday-lunch window.

Carving with the grain. Even a well-cooked joint eats tough if it is sliced the long way.

No resting time in the plan. Resting is not spare time. It is the window in which the Yorkshire puddings and roast potatoes get the hot oven they need.

Yorkshire puddings want a genuinely hot oven and no door-opening, which is easiest during the beef's rest. Work out quantities first: Yorkshire Pudding Calculator and Gravy Calculator.

To turn the joint, the potatoes, the veg and the puddings into one schedule: Meal Synchroniser

If your recipe gives a conventional temperature and you have a fan oven, convert it first: Fan Oven Converter.