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This recipe was featured in the New York Times Sunday magazine last January in an article by Sam Sifton. Mr. Sifton is National news editor at the Times. Not too long ago he was the Dining Editor of the paper. A few years later, he followed Frank Bruni as the newspaper’s Restaurant Critic. That job is, by all accounts, not all it’s cracked up to be. It involves multiple visits to restaurants while desperately trying not to be recognized. Supposedly, some restaurants post pictures of prominent reviewers. If they’re spotted in the house, the whole place goes into overdrive to guarantee the reviewer the best of everything. Ruth Reichl wrote an unforgettable review where she assumed the identity of a schlumpy Mid-Western tourist and compared her treatment to that of the New York Times Critic. It wasn’t pretty. Both Ms. Reichl and Gael Greene of New York Magazine used physical disguises to avoid this treatment. All in the name of assuring that the food and service given to the reviewer exactly what the rest of us can expect. Mr. Sifton was particularly adept at reviewing restaurants but he left the job in 2011. It’s good to see him return to the food beat and this Times article, entitled “Louisville Slugger”, was no exception.
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The article revolved around a very special sauce invented by the Headwaiter of The Pendennis Club in Louisville KY, a man named Henry Bain. The sauce is a mixture of chutney, steak sauce, chili sauce, Worcestershire sauce, and ketchup. Mr. Bain, who died in 1928, lives on at the Club which started marketing the stuff a few years ago. The sauce, recommended for steaks and game, is ‘interesting’ and I will share the recipe but the wonder of this dinner has to be the roast beef.
Since roast beef was a staple on my family’s Sunday dinner table, I do feel I know my way around a great piece of beef. These great big roasts would appear weekly, tied in string with a fat cap that melted into the crisp potatoes at the bottom of the roasting pan. I would eat as much of the salty, crunchy, peppery crust as I did of the beef itself. Somehow my arteries survived and I have loved roast beef ever since. Today’s take on how to make roast beef isn’t at all the way I saw it being roasted as a child. Mr. Sifton calls it ‘a faith-based roast’. It does fly in the face of what you might know about roasting. You take a relatively inexpensive piece of beef, rub it with a garlic-salt-and-pepper paste and put it into a very hot oven for 5 minutes a lb. After your five minutes a lb. is up, you turn the oven off and walk away. Never are you to open the oven until the two-hour mark. Then you pull out a perfect rare roast beef. Now that I’ve done this, I will confess to two hours of teeth-gnashing concern that I was ruining dinner. The 2.81 lb. roast I cooked stayed at 500 for two minutes too long. I fretted. But the two-hour timer rule was obeyed to religiously. I pulled the roast out and voila! I simply couldn’t believe how perfectly cooked the meat was. But the real surprise was how tender it was, how juicy, how easily it sliced as I slid it onto a plate with Duck Fat Potatoes and Watercress dressed with a very little olive oil and some salt and pepper. And believe it or not, there’s a second reward to be had with this roast. Sandwiches!
Mr. Sifton has his sandwich sources. He called on a man named Tyler Kord, whom he referred to as the ‘king of the No. 7 Sub restaurants’, which are located in Brooklyn and Manhattan. One is located in Greenpoint, Brooklyn at 931 Manhattan Avenue. The Manhattan locations are in the Ace Hotel, 1188 Broadway at 29th Street and the Plaza at 1 West 59th Street. Chef Kord suggested that in addition to great bread (ours came from Balthazar, the best baguette I’ve found in New York) and our roast beef, that we make something called “Pico de Lettuce”. The flavor of Pico de Lettuce might be compared to a salad that’s been dressed and sat out on the buffet for an entire dinner hour. In fact, Mr. Kord tried calling it “Dead Salad” on his menu to no applause whatsoever, hence “Pico de Lettuce”. With some grated horseradish on the sandwich, the Pico livens up the cold roast beef and seems a great pairing with Henry Bain sauce smeared over the bread. Here are the recipes:
In a small bowl, mix together salt, pepper, garlic, olive oil and red-pepper flakes to create a kind of paste. Rub this all over the roast. Place beef in a roasting pan or cast-iron skillet, fat-side up, and put in oven. Cook undisturbed for 5 minutes per pound.
After two hours, remove roast from oven. Slice and serve alongside, ideally, a watercress salad, some skillet-fried potatoes and a small tureen of Henry Bain sauce.
Recipe for Henry Bain Sauce from the Pendennis Club in Lexington KY.
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In a small pot set over medium heat, stir all the ingredients except the watercress. Heat until slightly thickened, then remove from heat. Allow to cool and refrigerate until ready to use.
Put the lettuce into a medium-size nonreactive bowl. Set aside.
Use on sandwich.
Hi Monte!
I can not WAIT to try this!! What an incredibly easy method. I have zero luck with roasts in the oven but know this will be just as delicious as you've shown and described.
Thanks for introducing such a great method to me. I've heard of this high heat cooking method but never tried it. Now's my chance.
You're the best!
Katie
Dear Katie. I think this will work beautifully for you. But you have to watch the clock like an hourly worker. It's an amazing outcome and I am so glad Mr. Sifton put it in the Times. All best to you.
This recipe has been extremely well-received. I just got a wonderful email from an old friend and here is what she wrote:
Monte, hope this note finds you well. I love your blog and I think of you often as I read your many entries and wonderful stories and fab writing. Wanted to also say hello to let you know that your ears should really be burning! Gary and I love meat and have not made a roast in a long time (usually make our favorite steaks or tenderloin when in the mood, and Gary has a knockout burger that he should open a restaurant and sell). Roast has somehow fallen off our radar, and we were recently talking about making one again. Gary saw your roast blog post and it ignited his interest. So, yesterday I was out most of the day hosting a shower and what a good husband… He suggested he go to the butcher to buy a roast and try your ingenious sounding ‘set-it-and-forget-it’ recipe. The technique worked great, the outer crust combined with the paste/seasoning was delicious, and the degree of doneness was perfect. I went to bed telling him I was already dreaming of another piece. First thing Gary asked me this morning was if I actually got up in the middle of the night for a snack. Held off — saving myself for leftovers. Sending you cheers and hugs from your fan club!
XOX,
Susan
Made this a few weeks ago and it came out perfect! Are any cooking time/temp modifications needed if you're cooking two 3lb roasts?
Thanks!
I was wondering about "Remove roast from refrigerator. Preheat oven to 500 degrees…" part. It seems that roast would be still rather fidge-cold as it goes in the oven, as the time it takes to heat up the oven and apply the rub would not be sufficient for meat to warm-up significantly. Just want to make sure, as I usually take my roasts from the fridge at least an hour ahead of time.
Thanks!
I may have the slowest oven in the world but I am guessing that mine takes an hour. I really do need to check this but the idea would be to start with room temperature beef, however long that takes.
Any modifications needed if cooking 2 roasts at once (as asked above)? Thinking about doing the same myself.
I found an article that may be relevant to your question. However, even after reading it, I am not sure what advice to give you. I have a weird question for you. Why not roast them sequentially following the original recipe? That way you would eliminate any doubt. But here's what I found…https://www.livestrong.com/article/475704-can-i-cook-two-things-in-the-oven-at-the-same-time/
Laziness I suppose? I'll check out link. Either way, great recipe and I love your site!
gonna try this tomorrow!! cannot wait!! thanks