Whole Roast - Wagyu F1 x Angus

The Beef: This is 100% grass-fed F1 Wagyu, a first-cross of Full-blood Wagyu over Angus, raised for superior quality and grown with a deep respect for the land. The F1 cross is the sweet spot: it takes the Wagyu's fine intramuscular marbling and pairs it with the Angus frame and the deep, beefy flavour Australian cattle are known for. In a roast, that marbling melts slowly through the joint, keeping every slice juicy right to the edges.

The Cut: This is a boneless roasting joint, cut whole from a well-used muscle and tied to hold its shape in the oven. Cuts like this have more grain and more flavour than the prime steaks, and on a lean animal they can roast up dry. Wagyu changes that. The fine marbling running through the muscle means a roast that carves cleanly, stays tender and tastes deeply of beef. It's built for the Sunday table.

How to Cook It: Take the roast out of the fridge an hour before cooking and pat it dry. Rub it with a little oil and season generously with salt and pepper. Preheat your oven to 220°C.

Sear it hard on all sides in a heavy pan, or give it 15 minutes in the hot oven to colour. Then drop the temperature to 150°C and roast gently until it reaches 52–54°C internal for medium-rare. As a guide, that's roughly 35–45 minutes per kilo after the initial blast, but a probe thermometer is your best friend here.

Grass-fed F1 Wagyu fat renders at a lower temperature than grain-fed, so a lower, slower roast gets the best from it. A hot oven the whole way will cook the outside before the marbling in the centre has a chance to soften.

Rest it loosely covered for 15–20 minutes. It will climb another few degrees while it sits. Snip the string and carve thinly against the grain.

Tips

• Roast it on a bed of onions, carrots and garlic. They'll catch the drippings and make your gravy for you.
• Deglaze the tray with red wine or stock once the roast comes out, scrape up every bit, and reduce.
• Carve thin. The thinner the slice, the more tender it eats.
• Leftovers make the best roast beef sandwiches. Horseradish, mustard and a crisp lettuce leaf.

A Little History: The roast is the heart of the British table, so central that the French nicknamed the English "les rosbifs." For centuries it was turned on a spit before the open fire, and the Sunday roast became the one meal a working family could gather around each week, often cooked in the baker's oven while they were at church. It arrived in Australia with the First Fleet and never left, picking up crispy potatoes, pumpkin and a jug of gravy along the way. It's still the meal that means everyone's home.