making deli style roast beef

[street guy]

Dose any one have a recipe on how to make deli style roast beef ?

[mulepackin]

Dose any one have a recipe on how to make deli style roast beef ?

What a coincidince, I have been searching for this myself the past few weeks. Found many on google, but all are just basically cook at low heat til rare to medium rare, and use an eye of round roast. Maybe it's that simple, but I can't believe there isn't a little more to it. Anxious to see what pops up on here from our esteemed group.

[Richtee]

My bet...would be cure it. ALL lunchmeat is cured... well, maybe not in caps there...but it's a safe bet. Will consult Kutas- but I got $5 on curing.

[smokeguy]

It's not "real" I guess, but I've had real good success, and actually sold it to a restaurant at one time, smoking a brisket, trimming off ALL fat afterward, and then slicing it just over "shaved" thickness. I layered it out on bakery tissue (three sheets on average to a pound of meat), slid it into a vac bag and then froze it. The freezing was a key part- made it more tender and "wetter", I suppose from the water molecules in the meat rupturing.

You get quite a bit of meat. A less fatty meat would certainly be easier and would give you a better yield (about 40% this way), but around here getting the brisket by the packer when they were on sale still made it cheaper.

[JustSmoke2]

Recently a number of books have become fashionable regarding preserving meat. Your best guess is to search through a well-stocked bookstore for books dealing with something known as charcuterie, which is the art of preserving, smoking, curing, and preparing various types of meats. There might some recipes there, but be certain before you buy anything. Another possibility is a book dealing with home sausage-making. You might also try searching the Internet for charcuterie or home sausage making. In some rare cases, you might want to try searching for specific recipes, such as pastrami. These have shown up in various cookbooks and on the web in recent years in increasing numbers.

A final possibility is to simply barbecue, roast, or smoke traditional cuts of meat and thinly slice them. The meats won't be exactly like deli meats, but that simply means getting rid of excess salt and preservatives. This might be especially good for turkey and chicken breast.

One thing though; due to the fact that you are making deli style meats at home, you should be prepared for the fact that the results might be substantially different from deli meats prepared in a factory.

Good luck.

[Gunslinger]

I always figured "deli" type meats were processed loaves so to speak. Look at the inconsistency of how the grain runs. I think it's made from chunks of beef, glued (if you will) with gelatin and placed in a compression type mold form and baked or roasted, smoke added, etc, etc. The gelatin is there for sure.
In fact here is one that uses the pan I'm talking about. Not roast beef, and no gelatin in this one, but I don't think you'd need it because of the natural gelling properties that pork fat has.

[smokeguy]

If you look on the bottom shelf of my smoker pics above, there are 2 turkey breasts. Yes, that's what they are and they're about 10 lbs each. You can get them at Sam's and while they are "real"meat, there can't be anything real about making a big round ball of it. When it's warm, it's so "gelatin-ee" that you can hardly move it around. Processed with all sorts of stuff. And that same restaurant preferred it to real meat turkey breast. So did other folks I tested it with.

It's basically lunch meat turkey but if you rub it with oil and then poultry seasoning (can't inject it) it actually tastes pretty good. And tons cheaper than the real meat.

Maybe check with Sam's and see if they have beef this way that they sell to delis. The turkey got a case price discount when you bought the case of 2.

[Richtee]

You can get them at Sam's and while they are "real"meat, there can't be anything real about making a big round ball of it. When it's warm, it's so "gelatin-ee" that you can hardly move it around.

I did 2 breasts as described in one of Gunny's posts earlier. used bone in breasts and deboned. Came out pretty good. Gelatin was the "adhesive". Also I did an unsmoked ham... cured pork roast? that would be classified as a "deli type" meat if sliced that way I suppose. Deboned it as well, and gelatin to hold the sliced side together and netted it as I did the turkeys.

I guess I'm not sure on the beef- seems to me you could get like a top round and do a pretty credible job without "gluing" it together? I might just season and cure one and check it out. Gotta be better than Arby's LOL!

[Gunslinger]

I did 2 breasts as described in one of Gunny's posts earlier. used bone in breasts and deboned. Came out pretty good. Gelatin was the "adhesive". Also I did an unsmoked ham... cured pork roast? that would be classified as a "deli type" meat if sliced that way I suppose. Deboned it as well, and gelatin to hold the sliced side together and netted it as I did the turkeys.

I guess I'm not sure on the beef- seems to me you could get like a top round and do a pretty credible job without "gluing" it together? I might just season and cure one and check it out. Gotta be better than Arby's LOL!

That would probably work RT. Eye of round, slow roasted no more than medium rare, sliced deli thin. That would make a good premium style deli meat. But if you are looking for a luncheon type roast beef (thinking Oscar Mayer here), it's gotta be chunks of roast beef pressed into a mold or casing and probably for sure cured.

[street guy]

My bet...would be cure it. ALL lunchmeat is cured... well, maybe not in caps there...but it's a safe bet. Will consult Kutas- but I got $5 on curing.

Richtee That was my first though some kinda cure. How long dose a pice of meat have to cure before its cured?

[Richtee]

Richtee That was my first though some kinda cure. How long dose a pice of meat have to cure before its cured?

That question cannot be answered, technically. It depends on the weight and form of the meat. I did some country cured hams a while back... took a bit over a month to cure. Jerky? 24 hours is usually sufficient, 36 for sure on thicker than .25" cuts. Ground meats, 24 hours does the trick.

On top of that...what TYPE of cure? For some hams and salamis- nitrates instead of nitrites are used, and you could be talking years in extreme cases.

Can ya be a bit more specific?