I’m going to order a prime rib roast for Christmas Eve dinner and have never cooked one before. I could use some advice. From researching the internet it looks like I should plan on 1 pound (raw) per person or a little more. I’ll also be asking at the butcher shop what they recommend.
As far as cooking it, I’ve seen recommended temps of 300 to 350, times of 15 min per pound to 45 min per pound, to an internal temp of 130 for rare to 140 for rare. My family tends to like their meat on the rare side of medium-rare. I realize the ends will end up more well-done. I’ll ultimately be relying on the meat thermometer but need to know approximately how long it’s going to take.
Also, should I bake it on rack or directly in the pan? Is there anything else I should be thinking about?
I recommend one rib per person. Ask the butcher not to trim too much of the fat off of it - roasting it with the fat on will make the meat more flavorful, and individual diners can remove the fat from the edge of their portions. Season the outside of the roast with salt, pepper, and thyme. Roast it rib side down (fat side up) on a rack in a roasting pan, at 325 or 350 F until your temperature probe in the very center of the large muscle of the roast reaches about 130 for true rare (when you take the roast out of the oven to let the juices set, the internal temperature will rise somewhat.)
To estimate the cooking time, figure about 15 - 20 minutes per pound for rare. This is not at all exact - it will give you an idea of how long the meat will take so you can get your side dishes done, but you’re right - use a thermometer.
If your guests are like mine, there will usually be a couple people who like their beef more well done than others. The outside ribs will be done more than rare, so you can match doneness to guests easily.
My husband, the butcher and cook, says to cook at 500 deg for the first 1/2 hour, then turn it down to about 325, for about 20 minutes a pound for a medium/well inside.
Oh, and on a rack in a roasting pan with about 1/2 inch of water in the bottom.
Make sure to start off with the roast at room temperature first, leaving it out for about an hour before cooking.
I’ll tell ya, he’s the best at meat cooking I’ve ever encountered.
I agree with both of the posters above. Do roast it in a 500º oven for half an hour; and do remember that it will continue cooking for a while after you remove it from the oven, so don’t let it cook too long. I haven’t tried the half-inch of water thing. Reserve some drippings for Yorkshire pudding.
I make gravy by adding flour to the drippings and toasting it in the pan. (It helps that I use my cast-iron skillet as the roasting pan.) Once you have a nice roux add water and stir continuously until smooth. Add salt and pepper to taste. (Remember that the drippings will be seasoned already.) Be sure to scrape any crusty bits from the pan and incorporate it into the gravy.
I like my horseradish mixed with some sour cream.
FWIW, I like my prime rib with fresh brussels sprouts and boiled red potatoes and a bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon.
Ask your butcher if he has any extra beef fat - this should be free. You can roast the extra fat in a separate pan and when it has rendered itself into lovely crisp brown-ness, you can use it for your Yorkshires and you can also use it to roll your partly cooked whole, peeled potatoes in, and let them finish cooking in that beef fat. Divine. terrible confession I have, more times than a person should confess, eaten the crisp bits of the extra fat. has not yet died of hardened arteries
I am not a fan of the extreme high heat at the beginning of roasting - any dripping from those first 30 minutes tends to smoke and burn. And - please? - don’t put any water in the pan.
Johnny L. A.'s directions for gravy are excellent. You may first deglaze the pan with a dash - no more than a dash - of wine, cook it off, then make your roux. The wine gets every bit of dripping and fond up off the pan bottom and also dissolves it into the fat. You don’t want to use much wine, though. A tablespoon or two, no more. I use white wine, although red is traditional.
Vision: I’ll try deglazing the pan this time. It sounds like it will make a richer gravy. I never had any problems with the roasting at high heat. I like crispy fat. Maybe I’ll try it your way just to be different. (One advantage to being alone for the holidays is that you can experiment in the kitchen. )
It does make a richer gravy. You can use apple juice with a dash of lemon juice in it, if you like. But I never use red wine, or if I do, only a smidgen, because I am not fond of the winey taste in my gravy. No beef burgundy for me.
Or beer. I once ruined a perfectly good pot roast by trying a friend’s recommendation to use a bottle of beer instead of water/stock. Ghastly. Simply ghastly.
Instead of starting hot and finishing cooler…well, less hot, I guess, do the opposite. Do most of the cooking at 300-350, and then finish it at 450-500 degrees for the last 15-30 minutes. Starting hot and lowering the heat might result in more juice loss than the other way 'round. Despite popular lore, you cannot “sear in” juices. Searing results in more juice loss, especially when done first.
the object is to create a sort of wave of heat that will move to the center quicker than just cooking at the 325ish range will for the whole time, if your goal is to have rare or med rare meat then this is the way to go as the longer you leave the meat in the oven the higher the temp will be.
I could be wrong about this btw.
Alton Brown’s recipe for this worked great for me. He dry-aged his in the fridge for three days, but I didn’t do this. Then you let it come up to room temperature. Rub it with a little canola oil and salt and pepper. Then you put a probe thermometer in the meat and cook at 200 until the center reaches 118. Then, jack the heat to 500 and cook for 15 minutes. Rest for another 15 or so. To die for.
That can be a bit hard to control, so keep an eye on it. Once the meat has risen above 110 degrees or so, it’s got some thermal momentum - getting to 110 may take two hours, but you might go from 110 to 120 in 15 minutes. Starting the meat at room temp is also important - otherwise, you’ll have a rim of dead, overdone meat around a quarter-sized spot of medium-rare.
If you don’t have one, go splurge and spend the $15 or so for a remote-read digital thermometer so you don’t have to keep opening the oven to check the temperature.
Generally, when we cook a standing rib roast, we aim for 120, and leave the oven alone at 325. Cooking to 130 or <gasp!> 140 will end in heartbreak as the meat will keep cooking once it’s out of the oven. I once saw a “Mr. Know-It-All” ruin five full roasts by cooking them all to 140. Once they’d rested and been carved, they were all gray throughout. Leave the pan dry - you want to roast, not steam. Now is not the time to get creative with rubs and seasonings - let the meat speak for itself with just some salt and pepper.
We did that once with a beautiful, expensive roast. Not from “Know-It-All” syndrome but from cooking to time instead of temp (actually checked the temp too late) and not realizing we had to adjust because the butcher had trimmed the fat. Live and learn and cry.
But every cloud has it silver lining. We used the meat to make some of the best tacos we’ve ever had. Had to add some broth and slow cook until we could shred the meat.
But as it turns out it’s not going to be just me. I’m driving down to Coos Bay to visit my friend (ex-fiancée) after work on Christmas Eve, and I’ll cook there Christmas Day. So I will deglaze the pan for the gravy; but I’m not going to do the low heat experiment because I’ll be cooking for someone else and I’m comfortable with the high-to-low method.
Well, I don’t actually buy prime, can’t afford the $$.
I do however cook a mean rib roast on my Weber kettle grill, with the coals in the indirect method. I keep the cooking temps between 275 and 300. Remove when internal temp reaches 120.
Only prep I do is rub heavily with a salt and black pepper mixture.
I did the dry aging thing in my refrigerator for five days once. The meat lost some weight and the dried out bits had to be trimmed but it was the best beef I ever had.
I hear a rotessirie oven is the best for Prime Rib. I think the max for my George Foreman Rotisserie is a 6lb. roast. I’d just crust it with coarse salt, rosemary, Olive Oil, fresh crushed garlic and cracked pepper.
Keep it simple.
Ithink it’s 30 minutes to the pound with this method.
(Any size standing rib roast)
Remove from refrigerator 2 hours before roasting. Preheat oven to 375[sup]o[/sup], put roast on raised rack in pan, fat side up (or meat side up.) Coat with garlic, season with salt and pepper. Roast for 1 hour. Turn oven off, leaving roast in oven, and DO NOT OPEN THE DOOR! Let meat “rest” in oven for an hour or longer, and then continue.
Bake at 300[sup]o[/sup]. For rare, bake for 45 minutes. For medium rare, 50 minutes. For medium, 55 minutes.
Remove from oven and let “rest” for 15 minutes before carving.
Salt crust! We did a salt crust standing rib roast a few Christmases ago, and it was heaven. Make a paste out of one part water, three to four parts kosher salt. Spread thickly over entire roast. Cook as normal. When it’s done, peel the salt off (it will come off in big plates) before carving. The outsides are a tetch salty (much less than you’d expect), but the whole roast is juicy, because they couldn’t penetrate the salt barrier to drip out.
Don’t use brussels sprouts cooking water in the gravy!!! Nor broccoli!!! Nor cauliflower!!! Nor any member of the cole family. Please. All you will taste is that cabbagey taste and it will spoil your gravy.
Potato cooking water, ok. Even corn cooking water. But not from any strong-tasting vegetable.
Every cook has a different idea. Some “experts” now claim that a slow, 275 degree F oven over a longer time will give you a nicer roast. But I’ve been cooking roast beef since I was 8 years old, and that’s 56 years ago and I do as my Ma did, put a room temperature roast in a 325 degree F oven and cook to the internal temperature you like, allowing for standing time.
Mme. Benoit, the doyenne of Canadian cooking, used to coat the roast with a mixture of flour, dry mustard powder, and butter (or dripping from a previous roast) . I’ve done it many times, and it is superb, you still get wonderful dripping for gravy, but the beef has a lovely crust as well.
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