Which joint of beef should I roast?

Supermarkets sell several joints under a general 'roasting joint' label that behave completely differently in the oven. The map shows where each comes from, and the position on the animal is what tells you whether it wants ninety minutes or six hours.

Step by step

1. Fore rib: the best roast on the animal.From the back over the ribs, well marbled, sold bone-in or boned and rolled. Self-basting, forgiving, and the bones conduct heat gently. Roast hot to brown then moderate, to a rare or medium-rare centre. This is the classic roast beef.
2. Sirloin: leaner, still fast-roasting, easy to carve.Behind the rib, with a fat cap on top. Slightly leaner than rib and slightly less forgiving, but very tender and it slices cleanly. A good choice where carving neatly matters.
3. Top rump or thick flank: the value fast-roast.From the hindquarter, lean but tender enough to roast to medium rare if it is not overcooked and is carved thinly. Considerably cheaper than rib. Do not take it beyond medium.
4. Topside: usable, but the least forgiving.A large lean muscle from the inside of the hind leg, usually sold with a thin fat layer tied on because it has almost none of its own. It roasts acceptably to medium rare and dries out fast beyond that. Many people would be happier pot-roasting it.
5. Silverside: pot-roast or braise, do not oven-roast pink.The outside of the hind leg, and a harder-working muscle than topside. Roasted fast it is dry and stringy. Pot-roasted with liquid, or salt-beef cured, it is excellent. If a joint is labelled only 'roasting joint' and is very lean and cylindrical, this is often what it is.
6. Brisket: hours, not degrees.The chest, packed with collagen. It needs several hours at low temperature to convert that collagen to gelatine, and it is superb when it gets it. There is no version of brisket that works as a ninety-minute roast.
7. Decide bone-in or rolled, and understand the safety difference.Bone-in cooks more gently and tastes better; rolled is easier to carve and portion. A boned and rolled joint has had its outer surface rolled into the middle, so it must be cooked through rather than served rare. That is a genuine food safety point and it applies to any rolled joint.

Tips

• A joint under about a kilo has too little mass to roast well — the outside is overdone before the middle is warm. For two people, buy a thick steak or pot-roast a small joint instead.
• Ask the butcher to leave the fat cap on and score it. Fat on top bastes the joint as it renders and there is no substitute for it.
• Bones from a bone-in rib are worth keeping for stock, which makes the price per kilo look rather different.

Common mistakes

• Buying silverside or brisket for a fast roast because it says 'roasting joint' — Both are working muscles that need moisture and time. Roasted quickly they are dry and tough, and the usual conclusion is that the cook did something wrong.
• Serving a rolled joint rare — Rolling puts what was the outside surface into the centre. It needs cooking through, exactly like mince.

Questions people ask