Safeway was selling bottom round steaks and roasts for $1.99 a pound ... so I bought several of the roasts [looked like tri tip to me] and made my own rub, just using stuff on hand, starting with ... finely ground French Roast coffee. Added other stuff like garlic powder, salt, crumbled up bay leaf, paprika, and rubbed and rubbed.
Then I seared the roasts one by one [each must have been about two lbs] in a cast-iron skillet, put on a roasting rack, and left them in a 200-degree oven until internal temp reached 140-150 degrees.
Had two parties back-to-back this weekend, first one at my place, second one at waterfront home on Lake Washington in Kirkland.
Carved the meat on the spot, thin-thin-thin, then cross-cut a couple of times for easy mounding on bread. Perfect medium-rare. Accompanied with easy-to-make sauces: a horseradish sour cream [1 oz prepared horseradish, 1/2 cup light sour cream], and a yogurt-mustard blend [half non-fat yogurt, half dijon mustard]. Fresh-baked baguettes from Biofournil that use organic flour and imported sourdough starter from Nantes. Yum, I tell you, yum.
And it was my brother's description of the rubs right here on Cornichon two weeks ago that gave the me the idea.
Adding more prep info: rub night before, refrigerate in plastic bag, roast next day.
More specifics re oven: preheat to 300, insert meat, reduce to 200. Check roast w quick-read thermometer after maybe 3 hours. (Best is if oven is calibrated below 200: you can turn to 150 & leave indefinitely, since interior will not warm past that point.)
Cooking sage Shirley Corriher says you should roast to 110 degrees, then bump temp to 500 for 20 mins to get great crust, but I didn't do that part, figuring that the pan-searing already gives me the flavorful crust I want.
Oh, and the beef was wonderful! And you know I only eat it a couple times a year, so it must have been really good, as I actually ate seconds!