The Standing Rib Roast (aka Prime Rib)
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.
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’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. 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.
Here are a few items to help with this recipe:
Cuisinart 7117-16UR Chef’s Classic Stainless 16-Inch Rectangular Roaster with Rack
Zwilling J.A. Henckels Twin Four Star 10-Inch High-Carbon Stainless-Steel Granton Roast Beef Slicer
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!
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- 1. Standing rib roast, figure about 1/2 pound per person
- 2. garlic salt and pepper
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
