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Small Standing Rib Roast


BadRabbit

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My inlaws are in town and my FIL loves prime rib and never gets to have it. There will only be three of us eating it (my MIL does not eat beef hence why my FIL never gets to have it).

I ended up buying a two bone roast though it's pretty large and weighs in at about 5 lbs. It's also roughly square though ever so slightly shorter longitudinally than it is tall(bones down).

Should I cook the roast at low temp (e.g. 200F) to get as much rare to med rare as possble?

Will my temp rise during rest be significantly smaller than with a larger roast? For that matter, will I have much temp rise if I do it at 200F?

Would I be better off browning with a torch rather than putting in a 500F oven?

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On December 21, Michael Ruhlman wrote about his grilling/roating technique for beef. Go to his web site for the recipe and helpful photos.

"A cloud o' dust! Could be most anything. Even a whirling dervish.

That, gentlemen, is the whirlingest dervish of them all." - The Professionals by Richard Brooks

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This works only if you oven gets to 500 degrees. Craig Claiborne, The NY Times cookbook. S&P, lightly flour fat side, cook fat side up. Place roast in a shallow roasting pan, oven heated to 500 degrees. Two ribs/4.5-5 pounds cook for 25-30 mins. leave in oven for about 2 hours or oven is lukewarm. Ends will be medium/med rare, going to rare on the center. I use coarse Hawaiian red salt and course ground pepper. Sounds questionable, works great. Save the fat for Yorkshire Pudding.

"I drink to make other people interesting".

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This works only if you oven gets to 500 degrees. Craig Claiborne, The NY Times cookbook. S&P, lightly flour fat side, cook fat side up. Place roast in a shallow roasting pan, oven heated to 500 degrees. Two ribs/4.5-5 pounds cook for 25-30 mins. leave in oven for about 2 hours or oven is lukewarm. Ends will be medium/med rare, going to rare on the center. I use coarse Hawaiian red salt and course ground pepper. Sounds questionable, works great. Save the fat for Yorkshire Pudding.

I've read about this technique but it seems a bit dodgy to me as there are just too many variables for such an inexact process. My oven might lose temp at twice the speed as another and two different roasts can have vastly different sets of thermal properties. In addition, I'm hesitant to use any method that doesn't use internal temperature as the guiding factor as to when the roast is done.

I really don't want to mess up the one meal of roast beef my FIL gets a year by overcooking a roast.

Edited by BadRabbit (log)
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just did a rib a bit larger and started 15 mins at 450degF, and then at 275F,untill the internal was 130F then let it sit for 20 minutes and carved,it was just right(for us,,)

Bud

How much rise in temp did you get during the rest?

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I roasted one precisely that size last weekend. Browned exterior in roasting pan (no fat added), took about 12-15 minutes. Then roasted at 200F until probe reached 135F, took about 150 minutes, then rested under foil for about half an hour with minimal temp rise. Came out perfect rosy red (medium rare) throughout. But since wife prefers hers medium, not a success from her point of view. Next time I'll roast at 350F so ends are done more but center remains medium rare. It was a two-rib, five-pound nearly square roast prepped and tied by my butcher from a piece of Choice grade chuck-end prime rib that was marbled nearly like a good piece of Prime grade. Loin end may be a tad more tender but to my taste lacks the beefy flavor of chuck end.

Bob Libkind aka "rlibkind"

Robert's Market Report

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I did a 2 1/2 bone rib roast ( roast was cut so some of the 3rd bone was there but it was a 2 bone for all intents and purposes ) last month. I let it sit at room temp. , salted and peppered for 30 minutes, preheated the oven to 500º, put it in bone side down on shallow baking rack with thermometer probe inserted and after 15 min. turned it down to 325º and cooked to target temp. which for me was 135º then removed, covered with foil for 30 minutes and sliced. It rose 5º out of the oven.

This is it. I consider it just a hair over medium rare and is the way we like it.

DSCF3844.jpg

Edited by Norm Matthews (log)
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I buy and cook the largest roast I can find, and usually from Costco. Year round they have Prime and Choice rib roasts. Usually I can find a fatty enough Choice piece that could have been tagged Prime.

I like bone-in and they only bring those in Holiday times. 2 weeks ago I bought two, 7 bone about 18 lb. each roasts and they are in the freezer.

I usually let the roast sit in the fridge (not frozen) for 10-14 days to age. As its been suggested on eG, two - three days might be enough. Am going to try next time.

When the meat comes to room temp, I rub it with olive oil, generously salt and pepper. Put it in a 450 degree oven for 30 minutes, lower to 350 and pull out when internal temp reaches

125. I would adjust initial searing time down for a smaller roast.

A big roast like mine will gain another 10-12 degrees sitting for 45min-1 hour. Probably a smaller will cool faster.

We vacuum pack and freeze most of it. This way we have delicious roast almost always, 25 minutes from freezer to plate, ready.

edited for grammar & spelling. I do it 95% of my posts so I'll state it here. :)

"I have never developed indigestion from eating my words."-- Winston Churchill

Talk doesn't cook rice. ~ Chinese Proverb

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I did a small one (4.5lb with bones) on Christmas Eve for four. I had some challenges with transport issues and dodgy thermometers, but it turned out okay.

One objective observation...We wound up with two 'butt' slices (as my wife and I like to call the end slices - be it beef or baguette) and two interior slices. Carving for three will leave just one interior slice, which is what I think of when I think Prime Rib. But arguably, the butt slices are better.

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just did a rib a bit larger and started 15 mins at 450degF, and then at 275F,untill the internal was 130F then let it sit for 20 minutes and carved,it was just right(for us,,)

Bud

How much rise in temp did you get during the rest?

I dont know, but it was just where we wanted it,

Bud

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I did a small one (4.5lb with bones) on Christmas Eve for four. I had some challenges with transport issues and dodgy thermometers, but it turned out okay.

One objective observation...We wound up with two 'butt' slices (as my wife and I like to call the end slices - be it beef or baguette) and two interior slices. Carving for three will leave just one interior slice, which is what I think of when I think Prime Rib. But arguably, the butt slices are better.

We like the end pieces best too. Sometimes I will take a roast and before cooking it, I will cut it between the bones and grill them as individual rib steaks. Faster prep method and all the pieces have a nice crust.

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We did a small rib roast (one bone) last week. Started out with a low oven (200f) and took it out at 118. The temp did rise too much to my liking when resting and then getting it back into a 500f to get brown. It came out with just a little pink, more on the med-well side.

If I do it again, I may take the roast out of the low oven at 110, so when it rested and get back in to brown, it'll probably be about med-rare.

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135

Thanks.135 was sounding kind of high since Norm Matthews said he like his a touch above and his picture does look more on the medium side....I think maybe I'd prefer it rare then.

Mine is just under 5 lbs. I'm going to venture to say it's not going to go up that much when I take it out.

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What temperature should we take it out of the oven if we wanta solid medium rare?

135

Thanks.135 was sounding kind of high since Norm Matthews said he like his a touch above and his picture does look more on the medium side....I think maybe I'd prefer it rare then.

Mine is just under 5 lbs. I'm going to venture to say it's not going to go up that much when I take it out.

Looking at Norm's picture, which is a fine looking roast, but if you want a more even solid throughout doneness, you may want to roast bottom up half the time and turn it around the other half time to crust the fat cap. Ovens tend to be much too hot near the top. I also think Norm didn't rest the meat long enough, judging from the juicy that is leaking out.

dcarch

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I did a small one (also 5lbs or so) for Christmas Eve dinner in my 10 inch cast iron skillet. I seared both ends, then took it out of the pan, covered it with a dry rub, stuck a thermometer in it (I have the long probe style with a braided metal cord that you can use in the oven) and back into the skillet and then into the oven. 350 for an hour and a half showed 160 on the thermometer, but when I took it out and sliced after resting, it was deliciously medium rare on the inside (I think I must have butted up the tip of the probe against a bone to get the erroneous temp reading). I plan on using this method again whenever I have a roast small enough to fit in my skillet.

"...which usually means underflavored, undersalted modern French cooking hidden under edible flowers and Mexican fruits."

- Jeffrey Steingarten, in reference to "California Cuisine".

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I took it out at 115 and it rested until it hit 125. It was rare. I'd have preferred it a bit more cooked, but my husband was in heaven. I was totally surprised by how evenly it cooked having started out at the maximum temperature my oven hits for about 20 minutes and then bringing it down to about 200 until it reached the desired temp.

Now. What to do with the leftovers. :wink:

Edited by ambra (log)
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I took it out at 115 and it rested until it hit 125. It was rare. I'd have preferred it a bit more cooked, but my husband was in heaven. I was totally surprised by how evenly it cooked having started out at the maximum temperature my oven hits for about 20 minutes and then bringing it down to about 200 until it reached the desired temp.

Now. What to do with the leftovers. :wink:

What we did

PC272542.jpg

Lots of black pepper and squeeze of lemon

PC272543.jpg

Crusty roll with lettuce and mayo

PC272545.jpg

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dcarch,Thank you for your comments. Just for the record though, the roast sat, covered with foil on that plate for 30+ minutes. You can see the foil in the background. The juice run-off you see on the plate is from the outside of the roast before it was cut. If it was from the inside, it would not be that dark.

Edited by Norm Matthews (log)
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No pictures but I ended up doing the following:

Roasted in 500F over for 12 minutes until brown.

Pulled roast turned oven to 170 (though I moved it up to 225 towards the end to speed it up) and opened over door until oven thermometer showed around 200.

Cooked to an internal of 125 then pulled and tented.

Roast rose to 133 during 30 minute rest.

Perfect rare to med-rare throughout.

Sliced and served with horseradish sauce. There were not enough drippings to make au jus so I also made a sauce of demi-glace, red wine and ultra-reduced beef stock.

I also needed fat for my Yorkshire puddings so I cut a little of the fat cap off as I removed the roast from the oven and rendered it in some beef broth. Turned out really delicious.

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