The Perfect Spoon Roast

The Perfect Spoon Roast ~ this method works each and every time to give you the perfect roast!

While I am a huge fan of prime rib roasts which I made many of them in my small restaurant as a special Friday Night Dinner to go, I love the flavor of the lesser cut known as the Spoon Roast. The spoon roast is actually the marketing term for the beef which is from the sirloin section of the cattle and is thus because of the way in which it was cut. Be sure and read on to find out how to make The Perfect Spoon Roast.
If you want a lovely Christmas Eve dinner, I recommend doing a roast like this. It's both tender and flavorful. But, as with any cut you have to know how to cook it properly and since I've done this a number of times the same way I am passing that information along to you for The Perfect Spoon Roast.

When you go to purchase your beef:

• Figure 3-4 ounces of meat per person. (This roast was 4.81 pounds which translates to over 4 3/4 pounds and is enough to feed 10-12 people.)
• Look for a roast that has a nice fat cap. Fat = flavor! If there is a thin layer of fat cap ask the store meat department if they can tie on some extra fat for you. Our store is very accommodating.
• If the ends of the meat are visible and you see thin white lines of fat, that means this roast is perfect!
• Get your spoon roast on sale. The lowest we see them here in Connecticut is $3.99 per pound.

To make really GREAT gravy be sure to purchase:

• The mirepoix (celery, onion and carrots). You'll need 2 good sized stalks celery, 2 carrots and one large onion.
• Good beef broth (I recommend Campbell's Beef Broth as it's richer than the other brands. It is more expensive at $1.99 per soup can size, but I feel it's worth it.) You'll need 2 cans.

My roast came out exquisite and here are the steps I took to have a beautiful, tender and really delicious dinner.

1. The outside of the beef gets seasoned with kosher salt, ground black pepper and some granulated garlic. You do this to taste.
2. I layered in thick slices of onion under the rack along with 2 carrots and 2 stalks of celery which had been cut in large pieces.
3. Preheat the oven to 500°.
4. Place the vegetables under the rack and the seasoned roast on the top of the rack with the fat cap up. Set a timer for 15 minutes.
5. Pop the roasting pan in the oven and roast for 15 minutes.
6. After 15 minutes, turn the heat down to 350° and roast for another one hour and about 15-20 minutes. (About a half an hour into roasting, pour in one can of Campbells® Beef Broth.)
7. Remove the roast, and let it rest for 30 minutes, lightly tented with foil to stay warm.
8. Discard the vegetables in the roasting pan and place it over medium high heat adding a second can of beef broth. Continue to whisk while it comes to a boil scrapping the sides and bottom of the roasting pan. If you are using a non-stick roaster, be sure to use non-metal equipment to scrap up all those good bits. I used a plastic spatula and it worked fine.
9. Make a slurry with 1 cup water and 2-3 tablespoons of cornstarch and when the sauce is bubbling slowly pour in the slurry and keep whisking. Add more slurry to make the gravy as thick as you want. You end up with about 4 cups of delicious gravy.
10. While the roast is resting you can make your gravy and get your potatoes mashed and your vegetable finished up. Resting is important. Cut too soon and you loose too much of the natural juices.

 Just look at how beautiful the meat is. It's perfectly cooked, the end pieces are about medium well and then you get medium and then medium rare in the center. There's a doneness for everyone!

Beef is roasted for approximately 15 minutes per pound - keep that in mind for future roasts.

The gravy is amazing! What gives the gravy it's intense and great flavor is the roasted vegetables, the spices on the roast and of course a good beef broth. You can't go wrong doing a roast like this. Five pounds is quite a bit of meat so if you are planning a Christmas or New Year's Eve Dinner splurge on this roast. For us we thought it was scrumptious, tender and juicy and we did not miss doing a Prime Rib at all.

By the way - an on sale Rib Roast ($5.99 per pound if it gets that low), same size as this Spoon Roast would cost:  $28.81. This roast at $3.99 per pound cost us $19.19.

Please note: A spoon roast is a marketing term - they called it thus because it's so tender you could "eat it with a spoon". The roast itself is a sirloin roast. Just ask your butcher for a sirloin roast that's known as spoon roast for it's tenderness.