Standing rib roast ideas

[Oredigger77]

So I found a 4 rib rib roast on sale last night for $4.80 a pound and decided it will be a great meal this weekend. I’ve got it sitting in my refrigerator right now and I’m thinking that since I’ve got some time before I’ll have the time to cook it I should do something with it. The two options that I can think of it doing a dry aging or marinading it until Saturday.

I’m up for anything so hit me with your best ideas for what to do with this huge hunk of cow.

[Athena]

I’d dry-age it and roast it. Doesn’t make sense to cover up high-quality meat with a marinade, IMO.

[Gary_T]

Cook it on a charcoal grill. Indirect heat, with the meat in the center and a ring of coals around the perimeter. Mesquite charcoal, or maybe some aromatic wood chips, for a little flavor enhancement.

[D_Odds]

I’ve cooked three in the past few months, using slightly different methods. First, dry age it in your refrigerator if you have room. Unwrap it, and let it sit uncovered in the back on the bottom shelf for 1 to 3 days. After aging, dry brine it. If you love garlic as much as I do, make a paste of roasted garlic, pepper and salt and apply to the meat. If you don’t, just use salt and pepper. Use more salt than you think you should, rub it all over the meat, cover it with plastic, and let it sit another 24 hours in the fridge.

The best results I had I did the following:

1. Set oven to 250° if convection or 275° if not.*
2. Take out of fridge, unwrap, tie the meat with kitchen twine if not already tied, dry the exterior thoroughly, and sear in a good metal or cast iron skillet on all sides.
3. Place roast in a pan so that it is elevated. You can use either a rack, or large chunks of celery, carrot, onion, or other root vegetables. I prefer the latter as they will add flavor to the jus.
4. Roast until a thermometer reads 126° (rare) to 132° (med rare) in the center, occasionally adding water to the bottom of the pan to prevent the fat from burning.**
5. Remove roast from pan. Let it sit for at least 15 minutes, elevated from its juices and covered loosely with aluminum foil.
6. While it rests, make jus and/or Yorkshire pudding.

• Some recipes will say to let meat come to room temperature and then sear before placing in oven. I don’t know what those recipe writers are smoking - searing will raise the internal temperature, which helps prevent the ‘rings of doneness’, where the outside ring of the meat is medium well, then a ring of medium, then a ring of medium rare. The goal is to get as much of the interior at the level of doneness that you want without overcooking the outside.
  ** If making Yorkshire pudding, I would start with a dry pan and, using a bulb baster, remove the rendered fat from the bottom of the pan after ~40 minutes.

Smoking on a gas or charcoal grill is also fantastic if that is an option. Stay away from “sweet” woods, like apple or maple. I found some whiskey barrel wood chips that I love to use. Mesquite works well with beef too. I would still set up a tray to catch the drippings. Also, be sure to turn the roast during cooking, so that each side gets to face the heat as it cooks.

[Athena]

@D_Odds

• Some recipes will say to let meat come to room temperature and then sear before placing in oven. I don’t know what those recipe writers are smoking - searing will raise the internal temperature, which helps prevent the ‘rings of doneness’, where the outside ring of the meat is medium well, then a ring of medium, then a ring of medium rare. The goal is to get as much of the interior at the level of doneness that you want without overcooking the outside.

Searing isn’t going to do anything at all to the internal temperature of a cut of meat as large as a rib roast. The recipe writers aren’t smoking anything - it’s much easier to get an evenly cooked piece of meat if you start with it at room temperature.

[D_Odds]

@Athena

Searing isn’t going to do anything at all to the internal temperature of a cut of meat as large as a rib roast. The recipe writers aren’t smoking anything - it’s much easier to get an evenly cooked piece of meat if you start with it at room temperature.

A rib roast will sear on 4-5 sides, at ~3-4 min/side. 12-20 minutes in a blazing hot cast iron will pick up the internal temperature above what a 1 hour room temperature rest would.

From Cook’s Illustrated (subscription req’d):

But does a one- or two-hour rest at room temperature actually increase the internal temperature of a steak enough to make a difference? (Resting the meat longer is not advisable, since it puts it in the food safety “danger zone” as defined by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.) The short answer: No. For 1-inch-thick rib-eye steaks, the temperature increased from 41 degrees to only 52 degrees after an hour and rose to 62 degrees after two hours. When we pan-seared these samples and compared them with steaks cooked directly from the refrigerator, the gray banding was identical and there was no noticeable difference in their taste or texture.

That’s for a small steak. For a larger roast, the effect would be even less. You would have to leave it on the counter overnight to get it to room temperature.

PPS: For a smaller steak, they suggest warming a cold steak in a 275 oven until 95 degrees and then finishing by searing. Different from a large roast.

[Oredigger77]

I got the roast on a rack now and it’ll dry age for the next couple of days. I’m thinking of a garlic Wasabi rub for the final 12 hours or so. I don’t have access to a BBQ right now so I’ll be roasting it in the oven. I’m still up for any other ideas I usually only cook one of these once or twice a year so pretty much every idea is new to me.

[TriPolar]

Well the way I heard it, the standard cooking times list for meat, like 20 minutes per pound for rare, were based on meats being warmer than the 40 degrees or less for meat kept in a refrigerator. Now I don’t know if that, or any of the other stories about room temperature meat are true, but I think it makes a difference for roasts and steaks to keep the outer part of the meat from getting overdone before the center is ready. This is more important if you like it rare, and you don’t want the meat cooked most of the way through before the center gets warmer than raw.

Now to cooking that roast. 2 or 3 days in the fridge isn’t really aging, but it does dry the meat which will improve the flavor and texture. After that, don’t marinade it, or put anything but salt and pepper on it.

For oven cooking: Put the roast on a rack in a hot oven to sear the meat, then lower the temp to 350 to let it roast. Don’t add any liquid to the pan, dry heat is best. Test with a thermometer, and when the temperature reaches 100deg its going to start cooking faster now. You can lower the temp to stretch the cooking time, leave it 350 until it’s done, or crank the heat up to 425 and pour your Yorkshire Pudding batter into the roasting pan. After about 15-20 minutes the pudding will be set and you can remove the roast if it’s done and let the pudding finish. Whenever you remove it, you want the temperature at least 10 degrees below the point where you want it done when you take it out of the oven. More so for a large roast. After it’s out of the oven, the temperature in the center will increase for a little while it sits. If you want it really rare, check the temperature with a thermometer after about 5 minutes, and put it back in the oven for a few minutes if the temperature isn’t at least 120.

For smoking: Smoked rib roast is unbelievably good. You definitely want to let it cook slowly, so let the meat get to room temperature before you start or it may never get done. Don’t sear the roast at all, just rub some salt and pepper on it, then warm smoke at around 200 degrees. For a large roast it may take 40 minutes per pound. Hickory, oak, and a little mesquite make good smoking flavors. If you don’t have a smoker, on a regular charcoal grill you can make a small fire on one side, and use a foil shield to keep the direct heat off the roast. You don’t need billowing smoke either, there’s plenty of cooking time for the aromatic flavors to soak into the meat.

[Athena]

@D_Odds

A rib roast will sear on 4-5 sides, at ~3-4 min/side. 12-20 minutes in a blazing hot cast iron will pick up the internal temperature above what a 1 hour room temperature rest would.

From Cook’s Illustrated (subscription req’d):
That’s for a small steak. For a larger roast, the effect would be even less. You would have to leave it on the counter overnight to get it to room temperature.

PPS: For a smaller steak, they suggest warming a cold steak in a 275 oven until 95 degrees and then finishing by searing. Different from a large roast.

I completely agree with you on the one hour rest thing. But that’s not what I said - I said it makes a difference when you do it from room temperature, and yes, that takes longer than 1 hour. If you’re queasy about leaving meat out that long, then yeah, do what you say. I personally don’t worry about it, as long as the outside is seared, but I do all sorts of stuff that the USDA says will kill me