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[katallison]

I decided, rather belatedly, that what I wanted to cook for Christmas Day dinner with P. was spiced beef. Belatedly, because this is really something you should start 10-14 days in advance, but oh well.

The technique is relatively simple; you get a good-sized beef roast. (I am not knowledgeable about cuts, so I just grab whatever looks good and beefy, but in general you're looking for lean, rather than well-marbled.) Five pounds is a good size. You take it out of its wrapper, rub it all over with brown sugar, put it in a container in the fridge, and leave it. Day 2, repeat the brown sugar rub. Then days 3 through cooking day (which should, ideally, be the day before you serve it), you rub it daily with a mixture of:
--crushed allspice
--crushed juniper berries
--crushed black peppercorns
--sea salt

You'll need about 1/3 cup of each. Ideally, you buy these all whole and grind them yourself. Since I don't have a spice mill, but I do have a wonderful heavy mortar and pestle, I just give them (as Jamie Oliver would say) a good bash-around, until they're sort of sand-textured. One can cheat and buy pre-ground spices, but they tend to be too fine (and I don't know that ground juniper is readily available anyway--god knows it can be a challenge to even find whole juniper berries).

The day before serving, put the roast in a low oven (300-ish) in a pan with a tight-fitting lid, into the bottom of which you've dribbled a half-cup of water. Roast 45 minutes to an hour per pound. When it's done, take it out, and (this can be tricky) weight it down in some manner. I put it in a big flat bowl, set a smaller plate on top, and set a can on top of the plate. Back into the refrigerator overnight. Take it out several hours before serving, and allow it to come to room temperature. Slice it very thin. You can serve it with a chutney of some kind, or plain. A good side dish would be roasted root vegetables. And of course you'll want an ample, muscular, robust red wine.

I first got this recipe from an article by Laurie Colwin (author of the entirely wonderful "Home Cooking," one of my favorite food books ever), who in turn got it from Elizabeth David, but it goes way back into antiquity (as I discovered, googling around). It's well worth the time involved; it turns an ordinary chunk of meat into something savoury and complex, and the daily ritual of the spice-rub becomes part of the anticipatory ramp-up to Christmas. Just don't do it if you're already feeling stressed and frayed by too many daily chores; it should, ideally, be a minor celebration, a sort of culinary Advent calendar.

I used to make this every Christmas, for years, and then I stopped; I'm not sure why. I used to bake bread, too, on a regular once- or twice-weekly schedule, and then I stopped that too. But today I'm spicing my beef roast, and I have a loaf rising in the oven. I've been extremely lacking in the holiday spirit overall so far this year, but maybe I'm finally getting back into the swing.

Comments

[laurashapiro.livejournal.com]

Juniper is meant to be very good with venison as well as beef, and I'm sure it would make a lovely alternative. You might try a pork roast, too.

Yay! Home Cooking! Best. Food Book. Ever.

[katallison.livejournal.com]

Seconding the suggestion of venison, and yeah, pork would be interesting to try. Ooh, and bison prepared this way would be fantastic, I think, if one had access to bison meat.

And a coffee grinder should work fine for the spices; I didn't use mine because cleaning out my little electric Braun grinder is a nuisance, but either an electric or a hand-crank one would do the job.