Meat Dishes
Roast Beef with Gravy
A British Sunday roast done properly: a well-seasoned beef joint browned hard, roasted gently on a bed of vegetables until pink all the way through, then rested while you turn the roasting-tin juices into a rich red-wine gravy.
- Serves 6
- Sunday roast
- Roasts about 1¼–1½ hours
- Rests 30 min
- British
Method
The day before if you can, rub the beef (1.75 kg) all over with the salt (2 tsp) and leave it uncovered on a rack in the fridge. Salting ahead seasons the meat right through and dries the surface so it browns better. If you are short of time, salt it an hour before cooking. Take it out of the fridge an hour before roasting.
Heat the oven to 170°C (150°C fan). Mix the mustard powder (1 tsp), flour (1 tsp) and pepper (1 tsp) and rub it over the fat and sides of the joint.
Heat the oil (1 tbsp) in a large frying pan until very hot and brown the beef well on all sides, including the ends, for about 8–10 minutes in total.
Put the onions (2 onions), carrots (2 carrots), celery, garlic, thyme and bay leaves (2 bay leaves) in a roasting tin to make a trivet, sit the beef on top and add a splash of water so the juices do not burn.
Roast until a probe thermometer in the thickest part reads 50°C for medium-rare (55°C for medium, 60°C for medium-well). A 1.75 kg joint usually takes 1¼–1½ hours at this temperature, but start checking after 50 minutes, because shape matters more than weight.
Lift the beef on to a warm board, cover loosely with foil and leave to rest for 30 minutes. It will rise another 3–5°C as it rests and the juices will settle.
For the gravy, spoon off all but about 1 tablespoon of fat from the tin. Set the tin over a medium heat on the hob, squash the vegetables with a potato masher and stir in the flour (2 tbsp). Cook, scraping up the sticky bits, for 2–3 minutes until the flour turns a deep golden brown.
Pour in the wine (150 ml) and bubble until reduced by half. Gradually stir in the hot stock (600 ml), then simmer for 10 minutes until it coats the back of a spoon.
Strain the gravy into a pan, pressing the vegetables to get every drop. Add any juices from the resting beef, plus the redcurrant jelly (1 tsp) and Worcestershire sauce (1 tsp) if using. Season, and keep hot.
Carve the beef thinly across the grain and serve with the gravy, Yorkshire puddings, roast potatoes and seasonal vegetables.
Tip: tap a step to tick it off as you cook.
Chef’s notes
- A digital probe thermometer is the single best tool for roast beef. Take the joint out at 45–48°C for rare, 50°C for medium-rare, 55°C for medium and 60–65°C for well done.
- Sirloin and top rump are the most tender; topside is leaner and cheaper and is best served pink and carved very thinly.
- Use the resting time to cook Yorkshire puddings in a hot oven. See Yorkshire Pudding in the Dough Products section of the Cookery Book.
- The cost estimate uses a topside joint, the usual supermarket roasting joint. Sirloin costs about half as much again.
- Leftover beef keeps for 3 days in the fridge and makes excellent sandwiches with horseradish.
The Roast Beef of Old England
Roast beef has been a symbol of England since at least the 18th century. Henry Fielding’s song “The Roast Beef of Old England” (1731) treated it as a mark of national character, and Hogarth painted it. The French have called the English “les rosbifs” ever since.
Originally beef was roasted on a spit in front of an open fire, with the dripping caught in a pan beneath. That is where Yorkshire pudding came from: batter cooked in the hot fat under the meat. As closed ovens replaced the open fire in the 19th century, oven roasting took over, but the name stuck.
The Sunday roast became a working-family institution in Victorian Britain, often put in the oven before church and ready on the family’s return, and it remains Britain’s best-loved weekend meal.
How this recipe was developed
We compared roast beef and gravy from Heston Blumenthal, Christopher Kimball (Cook’s Illustrated), Gordon Ramsay, Jamie Oliver, Rick Stein and Anne Willan with BBC Good Food’s top-rated easy roast beef.
- Cook to a core temperature, gently. Heston Blumenthal roasts at a very low temperature until the centre reaches 50°C, and Cook’s Illustrated also uses a low oven and exact pull temperatures. We kept the principle at a moderate 170°C (150°C fan) that fits a family Sunday and an oven shared with potatoes.
- Salt the day before. Cook’s Illustrated salts the beef 18–24 hours ahead for seasoning and a better crust.
- Sear first, then roast. Gordon Ramsay and Jamie Oliver brown the joint before it goes in; Rick Stein and BBC Good Food start with a very hot oven instead. Searing in a pan gives the same crust with a gentler roast.
- Mustard and flour rub. BBC Good Food (James Martin) rubs the joint with mustard powder and flour.
- Vegetable trivet mashed into the gravy. Jamie Oliver roasts on onion, carrot, celery, garlic and herbs and mashes them into the gravy; Ramsay builds his gravy on onions.
- Brown the flour well, then red wine and stock. Anne Willan cooks the flour in the fat until deep golden; Ramsay and Jamie Oliver reduce red wine before the stock; Rick Stein keeps it simple with flour and stock.
- A long rest. BBC Good Food rests the beef for 30 minutes and Ramsay for 20–40, which also frees the oven for Yorkshire puddings.
Sources we compared (ratings as shown on each site on 31 October 2026):
- Heston Blumenthal: Heston's roast beef (low-temperature rib), The Times
- Heston Blumenthal: Slow-roasted rib of beef with bone-marrow sauce, The Guardian
- Christopher Kimball (America's Test Kitchen / Cook's Illustrated): Slow-Roasted Beef
- Gordon Ramsay: Roast Beef with Caramelised Onion Gravy
- Jamie Oliver: Perfect roast beef
- Rick Stein: Roast topside of beef with Yorkshire pudding (The Happy Foodie)
- Anne Willan: Standing Rib Roast (gravy method), Food.com reproduction
- BBC Good Food (James Martin): Easy roast beef (4.6/5, 115 ratings)
This is an original Cookeryonline recipe written in our own words. Ingredient choices and techniques are credited above; no source text has been copied.