Before I Forget

For the last post, a few momentary additional thoughts.

1. When it comes to cutting, after the rest, cut across the grain, as thinly as possible.  With most beef this is the case, but the tougher the cut tends to be, the more crucial both of these things are.  Beef gets roasted when it's monstrously hard to eat straight (unlike a good steak.)
2. You can buy pre-seasoned cast iron skillets at any decent department store, and pretty much the only company still making them is lodge kitchenware.
   
3. This is a link for the thermometer I have and use.  I can't speak the specific quality of that site, as I bought mine here. It's got a braided steel covering on the remote probe line, which is essential (the silicone wears out with any edge pressing on it, sooner or later it will fail and you'll throw the thing out.)  It also has an included timer (never a bad thing) and will keep you updated both on the oven temperature AND the internal temperature of the food at the same time.  It's the only gadget I've seen that does this, and having a good read on the actual operating range of your oven is incredibly helpful.  Most residential ovens swing through wide arcs of temperature, and many are far off of where they ought to be.  This will cover you in that regard.
4. In terms of pepper, where it's a particularly prominent flavor, get yourself some tellicherry from here.  If you are actually tasting any element of pepper, tellicherry is the top of the line, and Kalustyans' version was the highest rated in, you guessed it: Cook's Illustrated.  They may be operate with an incredibly exhausting level of detail, but that's just because they're also incredibly exhaustive, and here's where that's a bonus.  Tellicherry is barely more expensive than awful supermarket black pepper, so don't waste your time, unless you want to, it is after all your meal.
5. Don't use teflon pans in the oven.  Apparently they give off fumes that have been shown to grow extra heads on lab animals.  Avoid unless extra heads and or tumors are something you're personally looking to develop.
6. You may find making a roast easy, but personally I've never been close friends with things that happen outside of my control, and inside of an oven.  I'm not a fan of hoping that everything is done right, I'm a fan of fixing as I go along... hence this felt like a bit of a victory, always pleasant when money is being saved as well.
7. Comes right before 8.