20 show-stopping Christmas roast recipes (2024)

FAQs

What is the best cut of beef roast for Christmas dinner? ›

Known as “the king of beef cuts,” prime rib roasts are abundantly marbled and full of flavor, making prime rib the go-to cut for Christmas and other holiday dinners. Be sure to plan accordingly, as preparing prime rib can take anywhere from 2-7 hours to roast to perfection.

Traditional Favorite: Impressive USDA Prime Beef Roasts

Beef roasts are the traditional centerpiece to a holiday meal.

Traditional Christmas dinner features turkey with stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, cranberry sauce, and vegetables. Other types of poultry, roast beef, or ham, are also used. Pumpkin or apple pie, raisin pudding, Christmas pudding, or fruitcake are staples for dessert.

A roast dinner is essentially a scaled-down version of a Christmas Dinner. Although some people do like to include a lot of the extras that can also be found on the Christmas dinner table including stuffing, sausage meat, pigs in blankets and cranberry sauce.

The bottom round roast, taken from the round primal, is one of the tougher cuts of roast that's known for being very lean. Like the rump roast, this beef cut is best prepared by braising or slow-cooking.

Tenderloin Roast

The most tender beef roast that is well known for being lean and succulent. Easy to carve with its fine texture.

For example, a 2.25-2.75kg piece of beef rib will feed up to eight people. Here are some of the most common types of cut and how to cook them: Roasting joints: These are large cuts of meat that are ideal for roasting in the oven. They include sirloin, ribeye, topside, silverside and brisket.

Tenderloin. The most tender roast of all—it's under the spine— with almost no fat or flavor. It's tapered in shape, the middle being the "center cut." The labor involved and waste produced in trimming and tying a tenderloin drives up the price.

Roasting joints: These are large cuts of meat that are ideal for roasting in the oven. They include sirloin, ribeye, topside, silverside and brisket. Roasting joints are usually cooked on a high heat for a short time to brown the outside, then on a lower heat for a longer time to cook the inside to your liking.

Turkey. Let's admit it, a whole turkey is the best and most traditional meat for Christmas dinners. Originally gracing our plates in the 16th century, popular history tells of King Henry VIII being the first English monarch to have turkey for Christmas.

What is a good cut of beef for a roast beef dinner? ›

The Chateaubriand beef tenderloin roast is considered to be the most tender cut of beef for a roast. This cut of beef comes from the loin area of the cow, which is right below the backbone, behind the rib section and in front of the sirloin section.