beef on weck

You know what I love about cooking from Anna Olson's cookbooks? How much of what she creates applies to where we live. Besides the obvious seasonality of her recipes which apply so well to Niagara's produce and wine region, it's neat to open up a cookbook like Anna & Michael Olson Cook At Home and find a recipe for Beef on Weck. This is a Buffalo specialty which I only discovered several years ago but really love. And it's easy to make right at home!

Wecks are rolls with a salt and caraway topping that pairs so nicely with freshly sliced roast beef. You can find kummelweck rolls at a few bakeries here in Niagara, but Anna & Micheal's recipe in the book I just mentioned has instructions on making your own using store bought pizza dough.

I found an amazing technique for cooking the perfect roast beef and had a lot of success. Here's the link.

Preheat the oven to 500 degrees F (260 degrees C). Season the roast with salt and pepper and place in a roasting pan or baking dish. Do not cover or add water. 

Place the roast in the preheated oven. Reduce the temperature to 475 degrees F (245 degrees C). Roast for 21 minutes (seven minutes per pound) then turn off the oven and let the roast sit in the hot oven for 2 hours. Do not open the door at all during this time!  For Beef on Weck you want it quite rare so using a thermometer remove when roast reads 140 degrees.

Our roast rendered a wonderful au jus which I reduced on the stove top. After letting the roast beef rest we sliced as thin as possible. Dip the sliced side of the top of your roll in au jus. We ate ours with horseradish, but that's of course totally optional.