Standing Rib Roast
For dry rub: |
For roast: |
Crush garlic and salt together with a mortar and pestle or mix them
well in a small bowl. Mix in pepper and optional herbs. Rub all over
roast especially in any spaces between the meat and bones. Let the roast
sit at room temperature for up to 2 hours, loosely covered, before cooking.
Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Lay roast, bone side down, in a large, shallow roasting pan and roast for 15 minutes. Turn oven down to 350 degrees (don't open the door). After about 45 minutes, check internal temperature of the roast with an instant-read meat thermometer. If it is not 115 degrees, continue roasting, checking every 15 minutes or so, until it's 115 degrees. This temperature will give you a mostly rare roast except for the end cuts, which will be medium-rare to medium; you can roast it a little longer to 120 to 125 degrees if you like it a little more done, but be careful not to overcook it.
Remove roast from oven and cover it loosely with foil. Let it rest for at least 15 minutes and up to 30 minutes. During this time the retained heat will continue to cook the roast and the juices within the roast will stabilize.
After 15 minutes, if you removed the roast at 115 degrees, the internal temperature will have risen to about 125 degrees. After 30 minutes, the internal temperature may even read 130 degrees, which is still rare to medium-rare.
Carve the roast by tilting it onto its side so that the rib bones are lying flat on the cutting board. Stab meat with a large fork and run your knife down parallel to the ribs, separating the large chunk of meat (the rib-eye) from the rib bones. You will end up with a rack of ribs and a boneless roast that can now be tilted back onto its ribs side and cut into slices of whatever thickness you desire. The individual ribs can be separated by cutting down between the bones and offered to the bone gnawers among your guests.
Per serving: 908 calories, 53g protein, 75g fat (30g saturated), 1g
carbohydrate, 930mg sodium, 201mg cholesterol, trace dietary fiber.
``The Complete Meat Cookbook'' by Bruce Aidells and Denis Kelly
Easy rib roast sure to impress holiday guests
By Carolyn Jung,
Mercury News, Dec. 2005
How good is this prime rib recipe?
It's so scrumptious that a colleague made it for a party -- and he and his wife and another couple ended up devouring almost half of it before the other guests arrived.
It's so delectable that said colleague raved about it to another colleague, who in turn made it for her father, who went crazy for it.
It's so darn delicious that even a non-red meat aficionado like yours truly couldn't get enough of it. And believe me, that's saying a lot.
This dish is perfect for holiday entertaining, when you want to make something simple that delivers a gigantic ``wow.''
A rib roast always makes guests stand up and take notice. This one will provoke that, as well as a round of applause, high-fives and whistles.
What else would you expect when the recipe comes from Bay Area meat authority Bruce Aidells? It appears in ``The Complete Meat Cookbook,'' which Aidells wrote four years ago with Denis Kelly.
Round out this easy dinner with more contemporary takes on English holiday fare: Yorkshire pudding, creamed spinach, baked onions and an unusual trifle made with panettone, apricots and heavy cream whipped with tangy Greek yogurt.
For the roast, just make a simple rub of crushed garlic, chopped fresh thyme or rosemary, and salt and pepper. Rub it all over the roast. Then cook on high heat at 450 degrees for 15 minutes to sear and caramelize the outside; turn down the heat to 350 degrees and continue cooking until medium rare. It's that simple.
BUYING RIB ROAST
ROAST TERMINOLOGY: A standing rib roast is also commonly known as prime rib, although Prime more accurately refers to a grade of meat, not a cut. Indeed, Prime is the top grade issued by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. It is also the most expensive, because it has the most marbling and is so limited in quantity. Only about 2 percent of today's beef is Prime grade, according to Bruce Aidells, a Bay Area cookbook author and noted authority on meat. For this recipe, you don't necessarily need a Prime grade prime rib. Choice and Select are fine.
DON'T GO BONELESS: A standing rib roast comes from the upper rib section of the back. When purchasing a bone-in rib roast, be sure to ask the butcher to trim off the feather, or chine, bone to make carving easier. Although you can buy boneless roasts, why would you want to? The bones not only give the roast a more dramatic look, they add flavor and convey heat better into the roast.
HOW MUCH TO BUY: The ideal standing rib roast, Aidells says, should contain three to five ribs (a three-rib roast will weigh about 7 pounds; a five-rib roast about 12 pounds). Unless you're cooking for just two people, you should get at least a three-rib roast, he says. Plan on feeding one to two people per pound, which will leave you a little for leftovers, for a quick and tasty sandwich the day after.