I am not an expert on meat. I bought the roasts ('round bottom roast,' I think) because it was on sale. Any cut of meat labeled 'roast' can be roasted. My cookbook gives slightly different times and temperatures for each; I'll give to be what looks like a rule of thumb.

For small to medium roasts (2-5 lbs each), estimate about 30 minutes per pound at 325 degrees.

To save time, cook two smaller roasts rather than one large one. The smaller chunks of meat cook more quickly - the oven doesn't know that there are two of them.

I started by preheating the oven 3 hours before the game, and everything came out exactly on time.

Ingredients

• About 5 lbs of beef roasts (I used a 2.3 and 2.8 lb roast)
• Salt, pepper, Worchester sauce to taste
• 3 medium onions
• 5 lbs. red potatoes
• 2 lbs. carrots (I used baby carrots, but see below)

Cooking
Put the roasts into a large roasting pan, fatty side up. (Not owning a roasting pan, I bought a foil one for $3 at the store. Be sure to support a foil pan with a large baking sheet). Sprinkle with salt, pepper, Worchester sauce, onion power - whatever - to taste. Stick a meat thermometer into the center of the larger of the roasts. Surround with onion wedges. I didn't baste my onions with anything, but they will brown more nicely if you brush them with melted butter.

If you have a rack for your roasting pan, put everything up on it. It keeps things out of the drippings, where they can get mushy. I cooked without one and everything turned out OK, so don't worry if you're missing this item.

Put pan in oven, uncovered, with no water added. You have an hour before you need to open the oven again.

Scrub the potatoes; there is no need to peel them. Scrub and peel carrots if you are not using baby carrots. Cut large carrots into 2-3" chunks. Put potatoes and carrots in large pot and cover with water. Put onto stove and bring to a boil. Boil about 20-30 minutes or until potatoes are tender.

Note: Baby carrots are very small, so if you are using them you might want to boil the potatoes for 15-20 minutes, add the carrots, and boil 10-15 minutes.

Drain vegetables in sink.

After an hour has passed, remove roasting pan from oven. Arrange potatoes and carrots around the roast. Baste with butter.

Note: I didn't have anything to baste with, so I didn't baste at all. The small baby carrots ended up a little wrinkly and dry where they were exposed to air, but they tasted great. The potatoes were fine.

Cook for another hour or until your meat thermometer says you're done. I ended up cooking for an hour and well past the 'medium rare' mark - we ended up with a medium to medium well roast. No biggie.

Remove the roasting pan from the oven and loosely cover with a tent of aluminum foil. Let sit 15-20 minutes. My cookbook says this is "setting up" the roast and will make it easier to carve.

Remove foil. Move roast to carving board, cut and serve. If you have a way of removing the drippings from the pan, you can also make gravy with it.

Time - From preheat to serving, 3 hours. 2 hours actual cooking time.

Serves 7 very well-fed gamers with leftovers for two lunches.

Gamer Food! Home | Flying Koala Games