Roast beef
Roast beef is a dish of beef which is roasted in an oven. Essentially prepared as a main meal, the leftovers can be and are often served within sandwiches and sometimes are used to make hash. In the United Kingdom, United States, Canada, Ireland, and Australia, roast beef is one of the meats traditionally served at Sunday dinner, although it is also often served as a cold cut in delicatessen stores, usually in sandwiches. A traditional side dish to roast beef is Yorkshire pudding.
Roast beef is a signature national dish of England and holds cultural meaning for the English.
Cooking
Translucent appearance is nothing to be alarmed about. Some prefer roast beef to be served "rare" or "pink", meaning that the center of the joint is cooked so that it retains a reddish color. Others prefer roast beef to be cooked medium or well done.
Culinary arts
The beef on weck sandwich is a tradition in western New York. Roast beef is sometimes served with horseradish or horseradish sauce. In Denmark it is mostly used in open sandwiches, called smørrebrød.
Roast beef sandwich
The roast beef sandwich commonly comprises bread, cold roast beef (either the leftovers from a homemade dinner or deli meat), lettuce and mustard, although it would not be uncommon to find horseradish, fresh/powdered chili pepper and even in some cases red onion.[1]
Some trace the origins of the modern (U.S. based) roast beef sandwich as far back as 1877, with the then little known "beefsteak toast" recipe: cold beef, bread and gravy dish.[2] In 1900, the dish was described by The Washington Post as "unattractive" and as "a tired ark in a gravy flood". The dish gained popularity in the coming years and by 1931, some critics even went as far as to describe it as "a true taste of South Dakota".[3]
A regional variant of the roast beef sandwich exists for the New England region of the United States, popular in small town sub shops. The roast beef is sliced hot and prepared on a buttered and grilled bulkie roll or onion roll, specifically adorned with James River Smithfield Barbecue Sauce and, commonly, cheese, onions, mayonnaise, or horseradish. The core ingredients of the signature sauce, cheese, and mayo are known as a "3-way roast beef sandwich".