HESTONS BEEF

New years' day with the family and Heston Blumenthals slow roast beef was on the menu. I read somewhere that he recommends beef be cooked for twenty hours at 55°C.  I've cooked beef for six hours before now but never for almost a day!  Still, my brother was as keen as I and so with a rather large rib from the local butcher, we all drove down to Worcester with it in the boot. 

Whilst the oven was hotting up (or gently warming should I say), we flamed the whole of the outside of the meat with a gas torch to seal and colour. 

Unsure of how accurate the oven was we checked inside the oven with a thermometer.  Good job too as it was out by 10°C.  Anyway once we adjusted the controls and were happy with the core temperature, the beef went in and we waited......

Twenty LONG hours later, out it came.  We all admired it for a good 5 minutes before wrapping it up in tin foil and leaving it to rest for a further 45.

Because it's cooked at such a low heat, the meat doesn't shrink and barely loses any of it's juices.  It was absolutely beautiful, I can't tell you how tender and succulent it was...you'll just have to try it for yourselves!