Serving roast beef at a party. Transport/Slicing question

SaltySam

I’m smoking a couple eye of round roasts for a work function on Friday.  Then plan is to slow roast them and slice it thin, alongside some tiger sauce/horseradish sauce.

The function is at noon.  I plan to cook the 4.5lb roasts that morning.  I’m guessing it’ll take a couple hours. 

Once done cooking, should I treat it like a brisket?  FTC, then slice it at work? 

Or should I let it rest, slice it at home and then transport it?  

I’ll likely cook it to an internal temp of about 130.  I worry if that won’t be hot enough to stay FTC’d for very long. I don’t want to serve tough, warm roast beef.  

Any tips? 

GrateEggspectations

Personally, I would advocate for delaying the slicing as long as possible, with on-site being your best option. Purely anecdotal, but I’ve found moisture loss to be quite fast on proteins once sliced, hence the recommendation. I imagine this issue would be further compounded by thin slices (given the ratio of exposed surface to overall mass). I would opt to FTC for a limited period, transport, then slice there as late as you can.  

CTMike

Do you have a vacuum sealer and sous vide unit?

If so I’d cook it at home to desired temp, then seal in a vacuum bag with some of the jus you saved, or beef broth.

Then set up your sous vide at work Friday morning and heat it back to 130 for several hours.

Pull from the bag and slice just prior to serving. 

lkapigian

I do roast bit different, but for that, as @GrateEggspectations says , delay the slicing till there, it’s not that big …, my method is I would pre cook, quick chill, slice razor thin when cold, reheat right before transport ( add any jous ) into cameo or cooler, always a hit super moist and tender 

Botch

Right before you FTC, set your cooler in the bathtub and fill it up with hot water, let it overflow a bit.  Empty, dry, FTC, then run all the red lights until you get to work.
I agree that slicing lukewarm RB at the last minute beats serving hot, dried-out RB.  

Langner91

How far is it from home to work?
Can you transport your egg to work the day before?

Your co-workers will appreciate the extra effort if you smoke those bad boys right there in the vestibule!

SaltySam

You all are fantastic.   I’m about 10 min from work, but it’s a military base. As much as I’d like to ball out and bring the Egg to work, that’s not feasible. 

I do have a sous vide, but I don’t have a pot big enough to house 10 lbs of meat. I do appreciate that idea though.  I forget that’s an option.

I will FTC, then transport to work and slice when serving…classy, Golden Corral style.  

If I do pull the roast at 130, should I let it rest a bit before FTC’ing?  Or should it go immediately into the cooler? Will it continue to cook in the cooler?

About how long will I be able to keep it FTC’d? 

Thanks everyone!

fishlessman

To maintain medium rare, I would do with the sv.  Do you have a cooler. You don't need a pot....you only need to bring it back up to 120.

SaltySam

YES!  This will work perfectly.  Thank you

Thatgrimguy

@fishlessman has you on the right track, just be careful with how you rig the sous vide in the cooler. I've lost a circulator to it dropping into the cooler before.

fishlessman

float bubble wrap instead of the cover if you have some but i dont see a problem holding that low of a temp without any

GrateEggspectations

SaltySam said:

You all are fantastic.   I’m about 10 min from work, but it’s a military base. As much as I’d like to ball out and bring the Egg to work, that’s not feasible. 

I do have a sous vide, but I don’t have a pot big enough to house 10 lbs of meat. I do appreciate that idea though.  I forget that’s an option.

I will FTC, then transport to work and slice when serving…classy, Golden Corral style.  

If I do pull the roast at 130, should I let it rest a bit before FTC’ing?  Or should it go immediately into the cooler? Will it continue to cook in the cooler?

About how long will I be able to keep it FTC’d? 

Thanks everyone!

Just a quick note to say that years back, I hacked an old, cheap cooler to use for bigger sous vide cooks. There are videos on YouTube. Well worth the effort. Can cook big proteins for long periods efficiently and with no discernible water evaporation. Great for hosting big gatherings and reheating vac-sealed pulled pork. 

MasterC

Plastic storage bin $15 Lowe's 

GrateEggspectations

MasterC said:

Plastic storage bin $15 Lowe's 

That would work too, the only difference being that I suspect the cooler is much more efficient in retaining heat. I like the viewing window!

caliking

SaltySam said:

You all are fantastic.   I’m about 10 min from work, but it’s a military base. As much as I’d like to ball out and bring the Egg to work, that’s not feasible. 

I do have a sous vide, but I don’t have a pot big enough to house 10 lbs of meat. I do appreciate that idea though.  I forget that’s an option.

I will FTC, then transport to work and slice when serving…classy, Golden Corral style.  

If I do pull the roast at 130, should I let it rest a bit before FTC’ing?  Or should it go immediately into the cooler? Will it continue to cook in the cooler?

About how long will I be able to keep it FTC’d? 

Thanks everyone!

Let it rest 30 mins or so, before FTC. Should be good for a few hours. Fill the dead space in the cooler with warm towels, crumpled up newspaper, etc.

SaltySam

Just wrapped up the luncheon and keeping the roast warm in the sous vide bath was absolutely perfect.  I rolled in a cooler on wheels and parked it next to an outer in my office.  Finding a place to fill it with water was the biggest challenge.  The Anova doesn’t really have a lot of depth to it, so I had to nearly fill it the cooler. 

It took maybe 25 min to heat up to 120.  The roasts stayed wrapped in foil and then plastic bags.  They sat in the bath for about 90 min and when it came time to serve, it was easy peasy.  They stayed warm and juicy.  

What a genius solution.  Thanks everyone.  Ten pounds of roast beef smashed in about 20 min.  

lousubcap

Way to bring it home.  Congrats and a lot of happy employees.  Well played.  

Langner91

That's awesome!

Not as awesome as rolling up with your egg, but still pretty awesome!