How many ways do you have to cook a roast beef dinner? How many recipes do you have – in the cookbook or in your head – for meatloaf?

There are dozens of ways to cook most meats, and we all have our favorites. They may change from time to time: We see a new recipe, or someone tells us how they cooked something, and that may become a favorite for a while. Then the new wears off and we get tired of the dish, maybe move it to the “keeper” file.

Roast beef and roast pork have been on my keeper list since I was first learning to cook. They were something I could count on, tried and true. In the years when I was learning to cook, roast beef was always what I made for company: Nothing could ever go wrong with the recipe I used.