Sunday Roast — Print Recipe — The Culinary Codex

Roast beef with Yorkshire pudding, roast potatoes, vegetables, and rich gravy. The cornerstone of English Sunday tradition.

Ingredients

1.5kg beef topside or rib roast, tied
1kg floury potatoes, peeled and quartered
4 large carrots, peeled and cut into chunks
2 large parsnips, peeled and quartered
8 Brussels sprouts, halved
4 tbsp beef dripping or vegetable oil
For Yorkshire puddings: 1 cup flour, 1 cup milk, 3 eggs, pinch salt, 2 tbsp oil
For gravy: 2 tbsp flour, 2 cups beef stock, pan drippings, 1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
2 sprigs fresh rosemary
4 cloves garlic, unpeeled
Salt and black pepper
English mustard and horseradish sauce for serving

Instructions

1 Remove the beef from the refrigerator one hour before cooking to bring it to room temperature. Preheat the oven to 220C. Season the beef generously all over with salt and pepper. Rub the rosemary sprigs and garlic cloves against the surface.
2 Heat two tablespoons of dripping in a large roasting tin in the oven. Once smoking hot, place the beef in the tin and roast at 220C for twenty minutes to create a deeply browned crust. Reduce the temperature to 170C and cook for fifteen minutes per 500g for medium-rare.
3 While the beef roasts, parboil the potatoes in salted water for ten minutes until the edges are fluffy. Drain and shake in the colander to roughen the surfaces. Heat two tablespoons of dripping in a separate roasting tin until smoking, then add the potatoes and turn to coat.
4 Roast the potatoes at 200C for forty-five minutes to one hour, turning once halfway through, until they are deeply golden and crispy on all edges with fluffy interiors. Add the carrots and parsnips for the last thirty minutes of roasting.
5 Make the Yorkshire pudding batter by whisking the flour, milk, eggs, and salt until completely smooth. Let rest for at least thirty minutes. Pour oil into a twelve-hole muffin tin and heat until smoking in the oven, then pour in the batter and bake for twenty minutes until puffed and golden.
6 Remove the beef from the oven when it reaches your desired internal temperature. Rest the beef on a board covered loosely with foil for at least twenty minutes. Pour off the pan juices to make gravy by whisking in flour over heat, then adding stock and Worcestershire sauce.
7 Steam the Brussels sprouts and any remaining green vegetables for five minutes until just tender but still bright green. Carve the rested beef into thin slices against the grain and arrange on a large warmed platter with all the roasted vegetables.
8 Serve each plate with sliced beef, crispy roast potatoes, roasted carrots and parsnips, steamed greens, a risen Yorkshire pudding, and a generous pour of the hot gravy. Pass the English mustard and horseradish sauce at the table.