The Only Way To Reheat Roast Beef Without Sacrificing Its Tender Texture

A good roast beef is a beautiful thing: a large cut of perfectly-cooked meat — browned on the outside and juicy on the inside. Plus it usually provides multiple helpings. To get such a perfect roast, you must have taken care to prepare it correctly especially if it came from the round, which is already prone to overcooking. So when you go back to utilize those extra helpings, the last thing you want is to dry it out during the reheating process. While there are many viable strategies to do this, what they all have in common is the goal of effectively reheating the roast without cooking it further and rendering it tough.

Depending on the size of your roast (and the number of hungry diners), you might choose to cut it into slices before storing it in the refrigerator. If so, these slices can be easily reheated by searing them for a couple of minutes on each side in a hot skillet, popping them in the microwave at half power for 30-second intervals until reheated, simmering them in gravy until they are heated through, or by putting them in a plastic bag and simmering them in a water bath, also known as sous-vide. For a whole roast, you'll want to utilize a different approach: reheating your meat in a pre-heated oven that has been turned off.

If you've kept your roast whole, it's certainly possible to reheat it in the oven. The risk, of course, is that while trying to heat your roast all the way through, it will begin to roast again and, as a result, dry out. Luckily, there's a foolproof method that accomplishes the former while avoiding the latter: Wrap your roast in foil and place it in an oven that has been preheated and then turned off. The residual heat will be sufficient to reheat your roast while still maintaining its desired internal temperature. 

For medium-rare roasts, preheat the oven to 250 degrees Fahrenheit, turn it off, and leave the foil-wrapped roast in there for about 20 minutes. For medium or well-done roasts you'll want to use a slightly hotter oven: 350 degrees and 390 degrees Fahrenheit, respectively. At these higher temperatures, you'll likely only need to reheat your roast beef for less than 10 minutes, but use a meat thermometer to be sure. Your roast is ready when the thermometer reads an internal temperature of 120 degrees Fahrenheit when it is placed at the center of the roast. Once it does, your roast is ready and you can thank this method for making your leftover roast beef as delectable as the day you made it.