I'm a believer! I tried the low temperature method on a 4 lb cross rib roast that I had marinaded for 36 hours and the results were great. I used the marinade I came up with for tri-tip roast (gleaned from all sorts of internet and other sources). But before putting it in the baggie with the marinade I proceeded to commit aggravated mayhem on the roast, piercing it repeatedly with a meat fork on the sides, the top, the bottom. (I only do that with the tougher cuts of meat.) Of course if I had a nice prime rib, salt, pepper and maybe a little bit of garlic would be all it needed. Yes, I try to see what I can do with the less expensive cuts- especially when they are on sale. I eat like a bird- cheap! cheap! cheap! <g>

4 oz red wine vinegar
2 oz white vinegar
2 oz red wine
2 oz soy sauce
2 oz orange juice
2 oz frozen pineapple juice
1 oz Worcestershire sauce
1 oz basalmic vinegar
1 oz olive oil
1 oz molasses (estimated)
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 tsp crushed garlic
2 tsp garlic powder
2 tsp salt (or salt substitute)
1 tsp cracked peppercorns- black and mixed
1 tsp black pepper
1 tsp spices (rosemary, basil, parsley, sage, thyme)
1 tsp onion powder

After marinading the roast I set it out for 3 hours to warm up to room temperature
I preheated the oven to 500 degrees and put the roast in for 20 minutes, turning once.
I then turned the oven down to 250 degrees and figured that it would take 20 or 30 minutes per pound (like 80 minutes to 2 hours).

It took 3 hours and 45 minutes before the oven thermostat finally reached 130 degrees (and I did turn it up to 275 for about 15 minutes and then to 300 for 15 minutes at the very end). I think I need to check the calibration of my oven thermostat at the low settings! <g>

I let it stand for a full 30 minutes (I'm sure that 20 minutes would be fine) and then proceeded to slice it with my food slicer.

Wow! This came out extremely tender with a great taste enhanced by the marinade. For some reason I had this idea that cooking it for a long time at a low temperature would dry it out (maybe because that is how they dry lumber? I dunno.)

As some people have mentioned here there was hardly any juice coming out of the roast. However I personally think it is best to let it stand for 20+ minutes- I think that having it cool off a bit allows everything to mellow out a bit. (I base that on my observation that if I slice the roast after standing for 20 minutes it does not taste quite as good as it does when I slice some more maybe 10 minutes later.)

Thanks for starting a great thread here! I learned a lot by reading all of the replies.

Steve A.