How To Truss A Roast & Tie A Butcher's Knot

Today we are going to learn how to Truss and Tie a Butcher’s Knot for the Perfect Roast. Creating the perfect roast starts with the trussing of the roast. Today I’ll show you how to tie the roast so it holds its shape while cooking.

When cooking a roast we all are looking for moist meat and even cooking. When you choose to “not truss” the roast is just like letting go of control of the presentation. Sometimes presentation really matters. This is where learning to tie a butcher’s knot is a kitchen skill for life. You can use it for many things in life.

Taking a piece of meat that’s out of shape and making it look great

Instructional Video On Trussing and How To Tie A Butcher’s Knot

Trussing lends its hand to many cooking styles from roasting to braising. First and foremost tieing a large piece of meat into “shape” allows for even cooking. Secondly, the presentation. Have you ever taken a cut of beef and braised it all day to perfection? Then comes dinner time and you go to plated the meat for the table and the meat just falls apart. Sounds like you cooked it perfectly, just didn’t finish the job by trussing the roast. There is something special to a large perfectly cooked piece of meat at the dinner table for everyone to ooh-and-aww over.

At the bottom of this post, there are two videos covering trussing and tying butcher’s knots.

First one is Chef Steven doing a simple trussing of a bottom round roast that will be “Braised”.

The second video is Certified Master Chef Edward Leonard demonstrating how to tie a Beef Tenderloin for “Roasting” with perfect presentation.

Here’s what Chef Steven’s cut of meat looks like before. A nice looking cut of meat, but will only look more un-shapely after the cook.

What’s a butcher’s knot?

It is a simple knot that holds without “needing” an extra knot to hold. We still tie an extra knot because of best practice, when in actuality, it’s not needed.