roast beef with gravy and yorkshire pudding

[csirkési]

I have tried to make English roast beef several times, but I have never got enough gravy, because the meat juices and fat from the roast were very little. (only 3-4 tablespoon, but I use this to grease the tin for the Yorkshire pudding). I have followed the traditional recipes.

I have roasted the meat with a little butter or lard in very hot oven for 15 minutes, than reduced the heat to moderate hot.

[Jock]

It's not something I make very often but I think the amount of pan drippings will depend on the cut of meat you are roasting and how much fat and/or marbling it has.

However, the jus is the result of cooking the meat rare (or at most medium rare) and collecting the juices that run off the meat as it rests and when you carve it.

You could make a pan gravy from the defatted pan drippings with a little shallot, beef stock and pehaps some red wine, maybe some mushrooms.

You are right on the mark using the fat from the meat in the Yorkshire puddings though.

Jock

[MarkV]

When I make roast beef, I deglaze the pan with some red wine and then add homemade beef stock to the wine and the drippings and reduce it. This way you can be sure to have enough jus, not only for the initial serving of the roast but for leftover French Dip sandwiches as well.

Mark

[CapeCodder]

In the heyday of Yorkshire pudding - 1900 - 1950s - roasts were sold with a lot more covering fat than they are now. One could easily get a cup or more of liquid fat from the baking pan. Today's more closely trimming makes that impossible.

The solution is to buy suet and roast it alongside the meat and then use that for the yorkshire pudding.

Some supermarket butchers have NO idea of suet versus plain old meat fat.
Suet is much firmer, almost an aged cheddar cheese consistency and not at all flabby. One just has to be persevere to get what you want.

[redace1960]

you're exactly right. i learned to do yorkshire by putting the suet on the top of the roast, it up on a rack over a deep pan holding the yorkshire pudding batter. the fat and juice drip down onto the batter all through the cooking and it gets all crispy and wonderful! works best when you are cooking in a slow oven or instead of nice yorkshire pudding, you end up with a flaming brick of char.