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Roast Beef & Yorkshire Pudding
The dish that built an empire: rose-pink sirloin with crackling-hot Yorkshires, roasties cooked in dripping, and gravy made in the roasting tin. England’s national dish and the most searched Sunday dinner in Britain.
- Prep
- 25 min
- Cook
- 105 min
- Total
- 130 min
- Yield
- Serves 6
- Difficulty
- Involved
- Era
- Georgian
Ingredients
- 1.8kg beef sirloin or rib joint, on the bone if possible
- 2 tbsp beef dripping
- 1 tbsp English mustard powder
- For the Yorkshires: 140g plain flour, 4 eggs, 200ml milk, pinch of salt
- 1.5kg Maris Piper potatoes, peeled and chunked
- 2 onions, halved; 1 carrot; 1 tbsp flour and 500ml beef stock for the gravy
- Horseradish sauce and seasonal greens, to serve
Method
Oven220°C425°FFan 200°CGas 7
- Take the beef out of the fridge 1 hour before cooking. Heat the oven to 220°C / 425°F (fan 200°C, gas 7).
- Rub the joint with dripping, mustard powder, salt and pepper. Sit it on the onion and carrot in a roasting tin.
- Roast 20 minutes at 220°C / 425°F, then turn down to 180°C / 350°F (fan 160°C, gas 4) and roast 15 minutes per 450g for rare, 20 for medium.
- Meanwhile whisk the Yorkshire batter — flour, eggs, milk, salt — until smooth and rest it at room temperature.
- Parboil the potatoes 8 minutes, drain and rough them up in the colander. Roast in hot dripping on a tray for 50–60 minutes, turning once.
- Rest the beef under foil for at least 30 minutes — this is non-negotiable.
- Heat a thin film of dripping in each Yorkshire tin hole until smoking. Pour in the batter and bake at 220°C / 425°F for 18–20 minutes. Do not open the door.
- Make the gravy in the roasting tin: stir the flour into the pan juices, cook 1 minute, then whisk in the stock and simmer until glossy.
- Carve the beef thickly, serve with puffed Yorkshires, roasties, greens and horseradish.
Oven temperatures are given in Celsius, Fahrenheit, fan and gas mark throughout. Quantities are metric, as cooked and written in the UK.