Roast beef

Roast beef

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Roast beef with yorkshire puddings, green beans with bacon and gravy

Sunday roast consisting of roast beef, roast potatoes, vegetables and yorkshire pudding

Roast beef (also known as a roast) is a cut of beef which is roasted in an oven. Roast beef is often served within sandwiches and sometimes is used to make hash. In England and Australia roast beef is one of the meats traditionally served at Sunday Dinner. The typical side dish to roast beef is yorkshire pudding.

In Culture

In Europe, the British are particularly associated with beef-eating, which is why the French call them les rosbifs (the roast beefs). Another theory for the derivation of this name is a French mockery of the English, being relatively fair in comparison to the French. Therefore, they easily get sunburned, resulting in red skin – red is the typical colour of roast beef.

In fact, according to research carried out by the Museum of London amongst Roman rubbish dumps in London, it seems that Britons acquired their first taste of roast beef from the Roman military as the city expanded under their occupation. Despite this, it seems not to have become popular amongst the population in general until the Middle Ages or later, and only became a 'national caricature' in the 18th century. (Observer August 6, 2000) . William Shakespeare suggests a reputation of the English to gorge on beef, when in the play Henry V, act 3, scene 7, before the Battle of Agincourt he has the Constable of France say

"Give them great meals of beef and iron and steel, they will eat like wolves and fight like devils".

There is also a (much parodied) song called The Roast Beef of Old England.