How do restaurants manage to have RB available for hours and give you a choice of rare, medium rare, medium etc?
Do they have several cooked to differing amounts? Are they done to rare and then microwaved to finish?
I’ve never seen the issue covered on any of the Food network shows I’ve seen and I’m curious.
Because a roast of beef is a huge hunk of meat, and the parts towards the ends are more well done (often totally well done) than the middle, which is generally rare. Once you slice off a piece from the middle for someone that wants it to be say, medium, I’ve seen restaurants just put hot au jus onto it to brown/cook it just a little to bring it more towards the requested temperature. Anything more well done than medium is generally going to be sliced off towards the ends.
ETA: and to answer your question, no, if they cook off more than one (which a busy restaurant that moves a lot of prime rib will do) they are all the same temperature. Sometimes you run out of rarer parts first, and the chef will inform the servers that there’s only endcuts left or vice versa. It takes awhile to even season and cook those things and they don’t want to cook off too many so they make a set amount for a given night, and when they run out, they run out.
I can tell you how the steakhouse I work at does it:
Roasts are placed in a slow-cooking, low-temp oven (I don’t recall the actual temp, but it’s low enough that when I was a cook, I could routinely grab the metal racks for a few seconds before I felt I had to let go before I got burned…I’m guessing 225?) They cook for several hours (by 4 PM they were ready, usually in the oven no latter than 11 AM.)
ARound 4 PM, they will be rare, though the ends will be medium well to medium. If someone wants it done higher, or doesn’t want an end cut for their medium or MW, we slice off thier portion, then put it in a pan, add some au jus (ok, I guess it’s just jus but it seems weird to type just that…) and put it on the low shelf of a “cheese metler” (it’s like a low-powered salamander/broiler.) It was then left up there for a few minutes to bring it up to temp.
Sometimes, if they overestimated how much roast they needed the night before and there is one or more whole roasts left, they are wrapped in plastic wrap and reheated along with the new ones, and then they can be used for the medium and above cuts.
Thanks,I always wondered how it was done. Seems to be pretty much the same everywhere.
So if I want it rare, show up at 5 PM, not 10 PM.
Not necessarily…its more like if you want it at all, show up at 5 PM instead of 10 PM!
That too!
Well, you say Roastbeef, and that can mean lots of things. A Steamboat Round is Well Done on the outside with crispy crust (much more area to caramelize, compared to a Rib or Loin Roast ) getting more rare as you carve towards the bone.
In all the restaurants I’m familiar with, roast beef means rib or standing rib roast. I’ve only seen, and had, steamboat round at a 50th wedding anniversary party where I was a hired photographer. Here in the St. Louis area it’s generally reserved for catered events it seems. It was as you said though. And tasty too as I recall.
Tell ya what… In most of the Restaurants that I’ve had experience with and in linguistic parlance, that is called “Prime Rib”, when people go out for Prime Rib, and when restaurants advertise it they don’t say oh, “Let’s go get some Roast Beef.” they say, “I’d like a nice piece of Prime Rib.” No, I’m afraid “Roast Beef” is usually a lesser cut, many incarnations, many roasting styles, but never a Prime Rib.