The 4th of July is coming up very soon. Memories of picnics, BBQ’s , fireworks and lazy hazy days. No matter what you decide to serve as a main entree potato salad goes with them all. Easy to make at home, there really isn’t a reason to buy the store bought stuff.
There are many different styles and flavors of potato salad. First up is a simple and tasty one.
Ingredients for Potato Salad:
Potatoes ( waxy work best-Yukon Gold or red skinned etc.)
mayonnaise
sour cream
finely diced white onion
finely diced clerey
celery salt
pepper
A good BBQ Sauce (I like Kraft Hickory)
parsley
The amounts of this recipe are totally dependent on how many people your making it for, and how many other side dishes your going to be serving.
A general rule of thumb is 4 to 8 ounces of a side dish per person , if you intend to offer a number of different salads at a BBQ ( macaroni, cole slaw, 3 beans , lettuce based) then you can figure on the smaller amounts. So a 5 pound bag of potato should be enough for 10 – 20 people.
The amounts that follow are for about three pounds of potatoes. The more you make you can increase the amount of sauce to fit your tastes.
For three pounds of potatoes I use
1 cup each of Mayonnaise and Sour Cream (if sauce seems too stiff add more sour cream).
1 medium onion finely diced
1 or 2 stalks of celery finely diced
1 – 2 Tbs of a good BBQ Sauce
½ tsp celery salt
1-2 tsp fresh ground pepper
Peel potatoes and cut into equally sized pieces ( this will insure all the potatoes are cooked evenly) and boil, smaller potatoes won’t need to be cut. For a rustic salad you can leave the skins on. Once they are cooked remove from the hot water and cool in a covered bowl in the refrigerator for a few hours. Once cool slice thinly or dice or cut to any shape you desire. Mix all the other ingredients together and gently combine with the cut potatoes. To serve place in bowl and sprinkle lightly with chopped parsley. Best made the day before so the flavors can all incorporate.
You can add additional ingredients to suit your tastes. Examples are hard boiled eggs ( see our deviled egg recipe for instructions on how to hard boil), chopped red or green bell pepper, scallions, add a bite with a little red wine vinegar mixed with the potatoes while they are still warm, pickles and capers, chives etc. The choices are endless start with the basic recipe and then add extras to make it your own.
For larger amounts of potatoes increase the sauce.
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Potatoes ( waxy- Yukon Gold, Red Skinned or Fingerlings work best)
1 cup mayonnaise
1 cup sour cream
1 finely diced medium onion
1 -2 finely diced celery stalks
1 tsp celery salt
pepper to taste
2 tbs BBQ Sauce (Kraft Hickory works well)
parsley chopped for decoration
Instructions
Boil the desired amount of potatoes until done. Drain and cool, best refrigerated for a few hours. This recipe amounts are for about 3 pounds of potatoes. Once potatoes are cooled slice in what ever shape you desire. Take all the other ingredients and combine, add the potatoes and gently mix. Place into serving bowl and sprinkle parsly over top.
Notes
Can be made a day ahead and refrigerated until ready to serve.
Rants Raves and Recipes https://www.rantsravesandrecipes.com/
The term Prime Rib originally meant that the roast served was graded “Prime”. Today with the high cost of beef you’d be lucky to find that even in a restaurant. Only very high end restaurants that charge exorbitant prices can afford to serve “Prime”. The term is now a generic term for a cut of meat and usually does not refer to the grade.
Most of the meat today is “Choice” which is the one grade lower than “prime”. All this means to the consumer is that the meat is a combination of slightly older,and having a little less fat and marbling. The actual determination for the grade of a carcass is made at the 12th rib in a complex formula that we won’t go into here. In fact only about 2% of produced beef qualifies as “prime”, and could retail anywhere from $20 – $40 per pound.
The more common term for this cut of meat is a standing rib roast. While still not cheap even in the choice grade it is the King of beef cuts. You certainly can ask your butcher to special order a Prime cut, but if you do please be sitting down when he tells you how much
There are two ends to a rib roast, the large end and the small end. The large end comes from the ribs closest to the head of the animal and the smaller end comes farther back on the ribs. Which piece you use is a matter of choice. The large end tends to have more fat and the small end a larger eye. As a matter of choice while many say the small end is better, I prefer the large end with more fat, if cooked properly all of the cut is edible and delicious. Fat equals flavor and the more fat in the front end in my opinion equals more flavor.
First step in buying a rib roast is to have a good rapport with your butcher. Unless your fairly confident of your abilities with a knife and know your way around a piece of meat it’s best to leave the prepping of the meat to your butcher. The secret is, less is more, you want to have the bones and the fat layer trimmed as little as possible. Have your butcher trim the bones (which is called “frenching”) and remove the backbone and then tie the ribs back onto the roast. This adds flavor and acts as a natural rack in the oven. I prefer to leave them attached and remove them after the rib is cooked. They make a great lunch treat or if you want to really spoil your four legged children one bone will keep them occupied for a long time.
The less is more theory goes to the cooking of the roast also. There are basically three methods, low and slow, high and fast and a combination of both. With low heat you will get less shrinkage but won’t get the crusty outer layer. High heat you get a delicious crusty layer but the meat tends to shrink more and in my opinion is not as tender. The combination of both seems to work the best.
Finally seasoning, again less is more is the rule.
Rib Roast
My Perfect Rib Roast Recipe
Take the meat out of the refrigerator at least 3 hours before your going to cook it. It is important to know the exact weight of the roast.
The approximate cooking times are:
Rare 15-18 minutes per pound
Medium 20-25 minutes per pound
Well 27-30 minutes per pound
You want to bring the meat up to room temperature, this is critical for the best results. Do the math, a 10# roast will take about 3 hours and 20 minutes to cook to medium rare and once done it needs to rest for 30 minutes so if your going to serve dinner at say 5 it should go into the oven around 1 o’clock. In this scenario I would take the roast out at 7 at let it sit till I put it in at 1. I like to pepper it heavily when it comes out of the refrigerator and just before cooking lightly sprinkle with garlic salt.. Don’t over do the seasonings as you want to let the taste of the beef shine through.
Place the roast into a roasting pan that’s slightly larger than the piece of meat. If you intend to utilize a jus or gravy take some sliced up carrot, celery , onion and one clove of garlic and lay them around the pan, not on the meat and let them stew in the juice as it renders from the meat. Preheat the oven to 500°. Place the roasting pan in the lower third of the oven and roast for 15 minutes. Then turn heat down to 325° and continue to cook until the center temperature is at the temperatures stated below. Remember the roast will continue to cook as it rests so you want the temperature slightly below your actual final temperature. About 45 minutes before the roast should be done start checking the temperature.
Cooking times are approximate, the true test is to take the temperature of the roast. A thermometer placed into the center of the eye of the roast should read 120° – 125° for rare, 125° -130° for medium rare , 130° – 140° for medium.
Final temperatures after the roast has rested should be close to:
130° – rare
140° – medium rare
150º – medium
160º – medium well
165°+ – well
In Cooking 4 to 7 ribs I like to run the rare center up to 130º, that way you get a wider variety of doneness choices in the roast after it rests, with the outer pieces medium or slightly better and a descending array of doneness towards the rare at the center. I try and gauge how many guests want cuts more toward medium and if there are more than one or two I cut from both ends working towards the center.
Once the roast is taken out of the oven it should be placed on a warm plate and covered with foil and left to rest for about 30 minutes. During this time you can finish your other food preparations and make the Au Jus.
Place the roasting pan on a burner of the stove top turn to high and when hot add about ¼ cup of good red wine or stock and deglaze the pan. If there does not appear to be enough sauce in the pan you can add more stock after you have deglazed. Let the wine reduce by about ½ and pour everything into a measuring cup straining out the vegetables, by putting into a measuring cup it makes it easier to strain off the fat, then place the Au Jus in a serving boat. Serve on the side.
However for us, a good Horseradish Sauce is a must for the beef. It’sfairly simple to make, take sour cream and add in a good prepared horseradish until you reach the flavor and heat you want, I make it fairly strong the day before and let it sit overnight in the refrigerator.
Make your slices between ½ and 1 inch thick. Follow these simple directions and you’ll have a great meal. This has become a Christmas must for one of our grandchildren who looks forward all year to a roast beast dinner at grandpa’s. Start your own tradition. Enjoy!
Horseradish Sauce
Horseradish sauce is a simple combination of sour cream and Prepared horseradish. Simply mix together and taste when you go from Mmmmm to Whoa! it’ll be about right. Make it as hot or not as your family likes. Roughly 1/2 a container of sour cream to 3/4 of a bottle of prepared horseradish.
The grand kids aren’t the only ones who look forward to this. I could have this every day of the year! In fact I think I’ll get dad to buy a lottery ticket so that if he wins , I can have it every day! An easy 5 paws for this one!
If you enjoy our site and are thinking of purchasing anything from Amazon, please use the link to Amazon from our site. It doesn’t cost you anything and we profit from the ads and purchases .
Please help us keep our blog going by letting your friends know we’re here and by checking out the links on our front page.
1. Standing rib roast, figure about 1/2 pound per person
2. garlic salt and pepper
Instructions
Take the meat out of the refrigerator at least 3 hours before your going to cook it. It is important to know the exact weight of the roast.
The approximate cooking times are
Rare 15-18 per pound
Medium 20-25 minutes per pound
Well 27-20 minutes per pound
You want to bring the meat up to room temperature, this is critical for the best results. Do the math, a 10# roast will take about 3 hours and 20 minutes to cook to medium rare and once done it needs to rest for 30 minutes so if your going to serve dinner at say 5 it should go into the oven around 1 o'clock. In this scenario I would take the roast out at 7 at let it sit till I put it in at 1. I like to pepper it heavily when it comes out of the refrigerator and just before cooking lightly sprinkle with garlic salt.. Don't over do the seasonings as you want to let the taste of the beef shine through.
Place the roast into a roasting pan that's slightly larger than the piece of meat. If you intend to utilize a jus or gravy take some sliced up carrot, celery , onion and one clove of garlic and lay them around the pan, not on the meat and let them stew in the juice as it renders from the meat. Preheat the oven to 500°. Place the roasting pan in the lower third of the oven and roast for 15 minutes. Then turn heat down to 325° and continue to cook until the center temperature is at the temperatures stated below. Remember the roast will continue to cook as it rests so you want the temperature slightly below your actual final temperature. About 45 minutes before the roast should be done start checking the temperature.
Cooking times are approximate, the true test is to take the temperature of the roast. A thermometer placed into the center of the eye of the roast should read 120° - 125° for rare, 125° -130° for medium rare , 130° - 140° for medium.
Final temperatures after the roast has rested should be close to
130° - rare
140° - medium rare
150º - medium
160º - medium well
165°+ - well
In Cooking 4 to 7 ribs I like to run the rare center up to 130º, that way you get a wider variety of doneness choices in the roast after it rests, with the outer pieces medium or slightly better and a descending array of doneness towards the rare at the center. I try and gauge how many guests want cuts more toward medium and if there are more than one or two I cut from both ends working towards the center.
Once the roast is taken out of the oven it should be placed on a warm plate and covered with foil and left to rest for about 30 minutes. During this time you can finish your other food preparations and make the Au Jus.
Place the roasting pan on a burner of the stove top turn to high and when hot add about ¼ cup of good red wine or stock and deglaze the pan. If there does not appear to be enough sauce in the pan you can add more stock after you have deglazed. Let the wine reduce by about ½ and pour everything into a measuring cup straining out the vegetables, by putting into a measuring cup it makes it easier to strain off the fat, then place the Au Jus in a serving boat. Serve on the side.
However for us, a good Horseradish Sauce is a must for the beef. It's fairly simple to make, take sour cream and add in a good prepared horseradish until you reach the flavor and heat you want, I make it fairly strong the day before and let it sit overnight in the refrigerator.
Make your slices between ½ and 1 inch thick. Follow these simple directions and you'll have a great meal.
Rants Raves and Recipes https://www.rantsravesandrecipes.com/
The etymology of the term deviled seems to have originated in England, meaning cooking with spicy or hot ingredients originally with mustard or pepper, perhaps as a an analogy for the “hotness of hell” . In the 1845 cook book “The Practical Cook” by Joseph Bregion a recipe for “Tomata Devil ” has the instructions to serve it over Welsh Rabbit “hot, hot hot”. Deviled eggs come in many varieties from the very hot to mild. They can be served hot or cold and are a fantastic appetizer or hors d’oeuvre that are easy to make.
My recipe is quite simple, and the recipe to follow is for about 6 – 12 eggs. The start of the recipe is to hard boil the eggs. This is a fairly misunderstood term, not meaning to boil for a long time in roiling water, but to be cooked to a hard state. For a fool proof method try this: place the eggs in a pot large enough to accommodate them in a single layer. Cover with water and bring the water up to a boil. Once the water is boiling turn off the heat cover the pot and let the eggs sit for 10 minutes. After 10 minutes drain the pot add cool water and ice cubes and let eggs get cold. This is the secret, the cold egg will peel much easier as the chill helps separate the membrane from the egg. Once cold peel.
Peeling eggs is another chore that at times can be frustrating. To make this chore easy, first you need to have fairly fresh eggs, while old eggs will be easier to peel they won’t taste as good. Once they have been boiled hard and chilled, lightly tap to crack the shell all over, then placing between your hands gently rotate with the pointed end of the egg facing up until the egg separates from the shell. This process helps to separate the membrane from the egg, once you have a piece of the shell separated from the egg with the membrane attached, you can remove all the shell fairly easily. You can easily see if the membrane is connected to the shell and if it is the egg will peel with no problems.
Ingredients for Deviled Eggs
6 – 12 Hard boiled eggs yolks removed and place in a small bowl
1- 2 tbs Dijon mustard
½ a small can of asparagus tips run through a food mill
3 – 6 tbs mayonnaise
1 shallot very finely diced (optional)
salt & pepper to taste
paprika
sliced pimento
Directions for Deviled Eggs
Cut the eggs in half ,length wise, and separate the yolks from the whites putting the yolks in a bowl. Take the asparagus and run it through a food mill into the bowl with the yolks.
run asparagus through food mill
Add the remaining ingredients to the bowl and use a fork or spoon mash all the ingredients together until you have a smooth paste. Taste at this point and adjust the seasoning,if too stiff add a little more mayo or a dash of Dijon. Place into a pastry bag with a star tip and pipe the yolk mixture into the hollow of the eggs. Very lightly dust the eggs with paprika and decorate with the pimento. They can be made ahead of time and chilled covered in the refrigerator.
mash all ingredients to a paste
pipe into hollow of eggs
decorate and serve
4th of July Deviled Eggs
Use quite a bit of blue food coloring for the yolk mixture and use the pimento as the stripes. you can also find cookie decoration small stars to sprinkle over the blue field.
If you enjoy our site and are thinking of purchasing anything from Amazon, please use the link to Amazon from our site. It doesn’t cost you anything and we profit from the ads and purchases .
Please help us keep our blog going by letting your friends know we’re here and by checking out the links on our front page.
6 -12 eggs boiled hard cut in half length wise yolks remove to s separate bowl
1 -2 tbs Dijon mustard
1/2 small can of asparagus tips, run through a food mill
3 -6 tbs mayonnaise
1 shallot finely diced (optional)
salt & pepper to taste
paprika
sliced pimento
Instructions
take the boiled hard eggs and cut in half lengthwise. Place yolks into a bowl. Add the mustard,sieved asparagus, mayonnaise,shallot and salt and pepper and mash into a fine paste. Place into a pastry bag and pipe into the yolk depression of the eggs. dust lightly with paprika and decorate with the pimento.
Notes
4th of July idea - add a lot of blue food coloring to the yolk mixture pipe into egg and use pimento as stripes.
Rants Raves and Recipes https://www.rantsravesandrecipes.com/
