How to Cook A Prime Rib?

[balmagowry]

Yeah, but if you only have one oven, how do you get your potatoes to come out looking like that if your oven is only at 65C?

Yes, well... that *is* the problem. I solve it by serving Yorkshire pud instead. In fact, I do that even when I have two ovens!

Seriously, though, I do miss the flavor of potatoes roasted with the beast. Hmmmmm... I wonder what would happen if... I think there's an experiment in my future.

[stovetop]

Wow where to start???

These post are all very informative, there is something for everyone and nice looking pictures.

The methodology that I pursue is Searing the meat first, for me this is very important no matter what the end goal for doneness, searing holds in the juices in the meat, shocking the meat, closing all the areas that juice or blood would exit the piece of meat, the second it gives texture (crispiness) and color.

I also like the mustard thing, this is also the way I do it, coarse mustard mix with coarse chopped garlic bay leafs (squish in you hand) and thyme, season meat and rub with the mustard mix, then I like to start with high temp 400f for a half hour then 300f for the rest of the time. Resting the meat is very important minimum of a half hour.

Lastly the potatoes and veg with the roast is most excellent, in home use this is easy to do but for restaurants this can be a little difficult but you can get around it, if you are cooking three prime ribs you could always use the pan and cook all your starch and veg in the pan then make your gravy, all this time can give the time to do the Yorkshires which some like to use the drippings from the roast to make the puddings.

Ps I really miss the Alberta beef living here on the coast, they get a lot of Aussy beef, or Alberta beef is very expensive.

I would die for a mr free range beats from Alberta, gravy roasted carrots, potatoes yams and turnips, double starch and little bit of mash with roasted garlic and fresh home made bread to soak up the excess gravy when all my mash is done and there is still some gravy running around my plate, trapping what’s left over with a piece of bread, into my mouth, yum!!!

stovetop

[ronnie_suburban]

searing holds in the juices in the meat

Is this true? I remember reading somewhere (can't remember where, of course ) that this was just a myth. Can anyone elaborate?

That asked, I like seared because it caramelizes the exterior of the meat and adds flavor. But I have a convection oven and can always create some crispiness to the roast's exterior without directly searing it.

=R=

[Squeat Mungry]

searing holds in the juices in the meat

Is this true?

Not according to Corriher, McKee, Brown et al. What you're after with searing is the flavor and crispiness from the Maillard reactions. As the roast rests (seared or not), you will see the juices come out and then (partially) go back in as the meat relaxes.

Cheers,

Squeat

[jackal10]

Yeah, but if you only have one oven, how do you get your potatoes to come out looking like that if your oven is only at 65C?

The Aga has four ovens permanently hot at different temperatures

.

If you only have one oven take the meat out an hour before and keep it warm - wrap it up in tinfoil and towels if need be. Turn the oven up to max. Par-boil the potatoes and parsnips, then turn them in hot fat. Pre-heat the yorkshire tin or moulds. Put in the spuds and nips, an the yorkshires. Put them in the hot oven for half an hour to 45 mins., until the desired browness. You can put the meat in to crisp the outside for the last ten minutes.

[stovetop]

It is all Semantics....; if it works for you and you like it, that is all that matters, is it not?

It is the cultural differsity and different experiences that enable us to have all such different points of view, there are more ways then days on how to cook a roast, they are all good, if you want it well done then have it well done, you win.

stovetop

[bourdain]

Rub roast well with freshly cracked black pepper and sea salt. ONLY. Nix on mustard, paprika, rosemary or any other adulterants. Put that shit on your gigot.

Sear on stovetop in oil and butter, making sure to brown all sides.

Throw roast (elevated from bottom of pan with a little mirepoix) into a 300-325 degree oven and cook until bleeding rare. Use a thermometer if you must--but don't be jabbing that thing every ten minutes. Remove from oven AND ALLOW TO REST for 20 minutes. This is the absolutely critical time. The only time in a decade ( that I can recall at this moment) that I have had to resort to physical violence in a kitchen was when our cretinous former butcher whacked an end cut off my just-emerged rib roast. It is alleged that I went out to the butcher shop (in our dining room) and threw a quiche at him. This was, to my mind, a reasonable penalty for an egregious food crime.

Some cooks put a little water in the bottom of the pan when roasting at low temps.

I have found that for prime rib, a convection oven always provides a better result.

And Yorkshire pudding is a MUST with prime rib--as all that good grease should NOT go to waste.

And I see no benefit (and some diminuition of quality) to having your butcher remove then reattach the fat, bones and deckel. When the roast is done and has rested, you can zip off the bones in one piece with one sweep of a knife. Easy.

Attention should be paid as well to proper slicing of the finished rib. Too many cooks prepare beautiful prime ribs, only to hack clumsily at them with dull, meat-axe-like knives. The slice of beef--as presented --should maintain the structural integrity of the roast, meaning a complete slab of unvaryingly consistent width, inner part surrounded by an uninterrupted circumference of seared surface, NOT whittled, diagonal slices like from a bone-in Christmas ham.

Alternately, a prime rib "croute de sel" can be a cool thing. Just mix beaten egg whites with large grained sea salt, competely pack the roast with the mixture and slow roast until rare. Rest, then crack into the beef.

Resist the urge to serve prime rib hot. A popular food crime in crap steakhouses is to reheat slices of prime rib by putting a romaine leaf over a pre-cut slice and flashing it under the salamandre--which pretty much ruins the whole thing.

[woodburner]

And there my friends, you have it.

Three pages of shit, and he speaks.

Well done, err.. not the beef but your words.

woodburner

[scott123]

searing holds in the juices in the meat

Is this true?

Not according to Corriher, McKee, Brown et al. What you're after with searing is the flavor and crispiness from the Maillard reactions. As the roast rests (seared or not), you will see the juices come out and then (partially) go back in as the meat relaxes.

Cheers,

Squeat

Harold McGee did a series of interesting experiments and found that not only did initially seared meat not hold in the juices, roasts done in this fashion lost more juices than those that were unseared and roasted at a consistent temperature.

Edited March 16, 2004 by scott123 (log)

[auntdot]

The well done problem is tough.

Have overcooked a rib roast and, unless it is very overcooked, still find the results edible, although we very much prefer almost raw meat.

Not so with overcooked steaks.

They generally come out tough and chewy.

Don't know how to handle the issue, except to say if you only have a few people to dinner, have the seven bone roast cut into a three bone roast (from the large end) that you can cook well done, and save the tender small end for the rare roast.

[bourdain]

The well done problem is tough.

Don't know how to handle the issue, except to say if you only have a few people to dinner, have the seven bone roast cut into a three bone roast (from the large end) that you can cook well done, and save the tender small end for the rare roast.

Solution:

Proceed as normal for the prime rib--cooking it properly. The lovely, medium rare leftovers will make delightful sandwiches. Or serve it cold the next day with horseradish sauce.

For your misguided well-done eating friends, simply throw a small, relatively flavorless supermarket roast of lean eye-round into the oven--and cook the living shit out of it. They won't know the difference.

Then revise your guest list for next time.

[Gifted Gourmet]

For your misguided well-done eating friends, simply throw a small, relatively flavorless supermarket roast of lean eye-round into the oven--and cook the living shit out of it. They won't know the difference.

Then revise your guest list for next time.

This is terrific! and I will take your well considered advice! Rare is my preference and this option will enable me to feed the others who laugh at my preference, to gnaw on something resembling nothing so much as dried rawhide dog chewy strips ....

Thanks, as always, for clarifying and reducing things to their most common sense base ....

[balmagowry]

The well done problem is tough.

Solution:

Proceed as normal for the prime rib--cooking it properly.

[snip]

For your misguided well-done eating friends, simply throw a small, relatively flavorless supermarket roast of lean eye-round into the oven--and cook the living shit out of it. They won't know the difference.

Thus avoiding both sacrifice and sacrilege.

Brilliant!

(I wonder how many of us, at this moment, are slapping our foreheads and howling "Why didn't I think of that?"....)

[Gifted Gourmet]

(I wonder how many of us, at this moment, are slapping our foreheads and howling "Why didn't I think of that?"....)

Or, at the very outside, saying "Duh" if under the age of thirty ....

[balmagowry]

(I wonder how many of us, at this moment, are slapping our foreheads and howling "Why didn't I think of that?"....)

Or, at the very outside, saying "Duh" if under the age of thirty ....

Why didn't I think of that?

There are no age restrictions on saying "Duh" - in fact, I think I'll say it now.

Duh.

[Gifted Gourmet]

There are no age restrictions on saying "Duh" -

That's true, I guess it was "gag me with a spoon" which is so "age oriented" ...

[balmagowry]

There are no age restrictions on saying "Duh" -

That's true, I guess it was "gag me with a spoon" which is so "age oriented" ...

Hmmmmm. Don't tempt me.

[stovetop]

bourdain said:

"Resist the urge to serve prime rib hot. A popular food crime in crap steakhouses is to reheat slices of prime rib by putting a romaine leaf over a pre-cut slice and flashing it under the salamandre--which pretty much ruins the whole thing. "

The year was 1983, I used that method, I am sorry, but I had a knife put to my throat by the chef, he made me use the lettuce, It was always a curiosity why he did this; I think it was a chinese thing, he was from Hong Kong; but they where for the well dones so I guess it does not matter.

stovetop

Edited March 17, 2004 by stovetop (log)