Rump Roast with Yorkshire Pudding
Rump or inside round roast is a cut of meat from the hind quarters (or hip) of a cow. The meat tends to be strong in flavour and juicy but it needs time to tenderize. Some key rules to dry roasting: Do not add water. Do not cover. Do not open the oven door to check on it. Do not baste or turn the roast.
1. Dust beef with sifted flour (it will toast and mix with the fat to form gravy). Place beef, fat side up, on a rack in a shallow roasting pan. Insert ovenproof meat thermometer so tip is centered in thickest part of the roast, not resting in fat or touching bone and visible to the oven door when you turn on the inner-light.
Roast at 325F until it is about 10F below desired degree of doneness (around 40 minutes per pound, as per Kate Aitken). Tent loosely with tin foil and allow roast to stand 15-20 minutes before serving. Temperature will continue to rise to reach desired doneness. In addition, the roast will be easier to carve after reabsorbing some of its juices.
I also filled the pan with onion, garlic cloves, whole red potatoes and carrots. It turned out to be so lean that I had very little pan drippings, so I deglazed with 2 cups of my homemade beef stock (but vegetable water will do if you were boiling veggies), siphoned off ¼ cup for the recipe below and then popped the roasting pan back in the oven to reduce while I baked yorkshire puddings. Kate also recommends adding 1 tsp of Worcester Sauce to the gravy for a richer flavour.
2. Before the roast is out, grease a 6-cup muffin tin with shortening or butter. Mix one egg (well beaten) with ½ cup of milk and mix until it’s light in colour. Gradually beat in ½ cup sifted flour and ¼ tsp of salt. Continue to beat until smooth. Once the roast is out, heat the oven to 450F, deglaze the pan with beef stock (as above) and reserve ¼ cup of pan drippings. Divide the drippings evenly between the muffins and then pour in the batter; let stand at room temperature about 15-20 minutes. You’ll know when it’s ready to go in the oven when the drippings start to form a skin. Bake at 450F for 25 minutes ± 5 minutes. They will be golden brown and puffed up.
