in thinking sainsburys did not explain properly re xmas beef?

[kitchensrus]

I spent over £20 on a 30 days matured taste the difference beef joint for xmas day from sainsburys. My guests in their 80s had not eaten outside their home since pre covid so i wanted it to be nice and they preferred this to turkey.

There was no mention of any cooking instructions on the outer packaging. When i opened it on xmas day i found it had to be cooked in liquid and was not the roast I expected. Googling silverside i can see that all silverside is recommended to be cooked this way otherwise it is tough but i had no idea. All the silverside joints were mixed in the cabinet with rump joints as each was individually priced. I never even considered there would be a difference and as it was such an expensive joint I just presumed it was a a traditional roast. It was labelled "British beef silverside joint".

AIBU to think Sainsburys should have explained this on the packaging as surely I am not the only person who doesnt know this. I wouldnt normally have beef except for the visitors.

I am not saying £20 is expensive for whole xmas dinner but it was an extra on top of turkey for elderly couple. I could have got any of the other joints for same price if this had said for braising. When opened it clearly said only for braising with 900ml of stock.

I think you just left it in too long, OP.

If you read the instructions and then did something totally different- what instructions were you following/expecting to follow?

I’m sorry but this is clear user error.

What did you expect for a £20 beef joint. Silverside is delicious. I tend to cook it in one of two ways:

1. Brown the joint and add to a large casserole dish. Add one large onion, two/three Carrots, some turnip or swede, add some good quality beef stock and perhaps a slosh of red wine. Salt, pepper, bunch of herbs. Cook slowly for about 3.5 hours. Carve, arrange with braised veg, thicken the stock and serve with yorkies, roasties and veg.

1. Brown the joint, add 1 large onion, head of garlic halved, marinate in a bottle of wine overnight. Add tin of tomatoes and a tbs puree, herbs, salt and pepper. Just before it's ready add a jar of black olives. Serve with roasties and green veg.

A traditional roast beef roast imo is a double rib (expect to pay £50). Roasted in the oven until it's pink in the middle. Serve with all the trimmings, drift off to heaven.

I've always just roasted silverside. Never noticed any difference - maybe my cooking is worse than I thought

£20 is extremely cheap for a decent cut of beef… we had roast beef for Christmas dinner from our local butchers and it was £80!
It’s on you really do decide what cut of beef you want and the appropriate cooking methods. The beef was labelled, you just didn’t know the best way of cooking it 🤷🏻‍♀️

If there weren't instructions on the outside, then surely you would have consulted the inside label (or Google) to work out timings?! For what reason were you not able to follow the instructions, even if it said braising?!

There’s literally hundreds of recipes on Google for roasting silverside…

Firstly... eh? cooked in liquid, nothing I've googled says that at all. You can if you want, but all the results i found were for roasting.

Secondly... you did put some fat on it or baste it? Because yes if you lob a lean joint in the oven and ignore it for hours it will come out like a tough lump of leather.

Silverside is often sold with a slab of fat on the top, but sometimes sold as is, and you are expected to rub it in fat and then baste it as it cooks. This is a normal element of roasting meat, that fat needs to be added at the start or even during cooking.

I don't think it is Sainsbury's that is at fault here...

You can roast silverside: for example

It is very lean so it is best when barded with an extra layer of fat to baste it when cooking, which you remove before serving. It needs to be served no more than medium, however. Well done will be tough.

When opened it clearly said only for braising with 900ml of stock.

Surely you just think to yourself, “huh, fancy that” and then braise it with 900ml of stock?

@NoSquirrels

You bought a clearly labelled silverside joint of beef. There was rump available but you bought the silverside.

Googling instructions on how to cook it, you discovered it’s best to cook in liquid.

What’s your AIBU?

Her AIBU is that it should say that it needs cooking in liquid on the outside of the packaging, because until she got it out to roast it, she didn’t know this. But I get the feeling you know this and want to demonstrate that you think cooking silver side in liquid is common knowledge.

@DeepaBeesKit

£20 isnt expensive for a beef roasting joint, it's cheap

That would depend on how much money you have, surely?

For future reference, I wouldnt get a beef roasting joint from sainsburys at all.

The reality is good beef roasting joints come at a price point the supermarkets don't target. Waitrose will sometimes have a beef rib, I've almost never seen it in sainsburys. Rib is what you want. Silverside etc lack the fat and supermarkets don't add enough on in preparing the joint for sale because fat isnt fashionable.

If it was inedible after roasting, the chances are you overcooked it.

We've always roasted Silverside and it's always been lovely.

So how was the beef op? Did it taste ok?

I dont think I cooked it too long as it was beautifully pink inside and looked lovely just very difficult to cut and chew. I would have happily paid more. I didnt see any better options in sainsburys but maybe they had all sold out.

Obviously everyone else knows far more about meat than me. Just so strange that everything else in Sainsburys is always so well labelled even chickens that dont vary so you come to expect that they believe customers to be really stupid. I didnt expect to be more stupid than they would anticipate!!

We had silverside on Xmas day, it went in the oven and was beautiful.

And dh used to be a chef! So if he's cooking it wrong he's been doing it for years and does pretty well at it 😂

I wouldn't have a clue either. And wouldn't even know HOW to cook it in liquid!

@NatashaBedwouldbenice

When opened it clearly said only for braising with 900ml of stock.

Surely you just think to yourself, “huh, fancy that” and then braise it with 900ml of stock?

I don't even know what braising is

Please stop trying to blame others for your failings here, you didn't read through label correctly, you fucked up, not sainsbury's! Next time, check.

You've literally been stewing (excuse the pun) on this for 4 days??

You’re not stupid at all, OP. Next time you have a special occasion coming up then Google first. The Waitrose website and BBC Good Food both have good guides to cooking different cuts of meat, along with timings etc.

Daily Mail sad face job this.

Given that there’s serving suggestion on some crisp packet YES they should state it’s particular cooking requirements!

I never knew silverside needed to be done this way either so you’re not the only one.

I don't even know what braising is

Get your copy of Delia down and look it up in the index