Help: A rib roast (did someone starve my steer?)

[billyhill]

I am the recipient of a standing rib roast. The problem is this roast has less fat than along the outer edges than any roast of this type I have ever seen. I am thinking of barding it with bacon over a layer over some shallot-herb butter. Normally I cook by the seat of my pants but in this case I would really like to reward my guests generosity and not leave them with one of my failed experiments If I do it in the oven , how is the bacon going to effect my pan juices?

I might be able to round up some beef fat at the piggly wiggly (real civilization isn't near) otherwise, butter and bacon are the only tools that come to mind. I'm open to suggestions. I could grill, smoke, roast????

Menu so far is:

Grilled romain salad

oven roasted red potatoes

asparagus

roast?

any and all subject to change.

Thanks

BH

[winesonoma]

I'd try for the beef fat, bacon will add that smokey taste and I for one would not like that at all on a rib roast.

[Hawthorne]

I am the recipient of a standing rib roast. The problem is this roast has less fat than along the outer edges than any roast of this type I have ever seen. I am thinking of barding it with bacon over a layer over some shallot-herb butter. Normally I cook by the seat of my pants but in this case I would really like to reward my guests generosity and not leave them with one of my failed experiments If I do it in the oven , how is the bacon going to effect my pan juices?

I might be able to round up some beef fat at the piggly wiggly (real civilization isn't near) otherwise, butter and bacon are the only tools that come to mind. I'm open to suggestions. I could grill, smoke, roast????

Menu so far is:

Grilled romain salad

oven roasted red potatoes

asparagus

roast?

any and all subject to change.

Thanks

BH

←

I think this is a bump -

It's too late for your roast - what did you do in the end? How was it?

But this is one of my major bugbears - meat that is so fanatically trimmed that there is no fat on it. Not only is the flavour compromised, but how can you roast potatoes with a roast that has no fat on it? How can you make yorkshire pudding? And sometimes precious little marbling, though that is a different gripe. Most standing ribs do have some marbling, at least.

I hunted for years for a standing rib (or any other roast, beef OR pork), with enough fat on it to roast decently with no success.

I tried all kinds of fixes. Lard. Bacon. I went to my local small packer and bought beef fat (I can't recall what he told me to ask for), and pinned it to the roast, but it really wasn't all that successful.

I despaired. I basically quit dry roasting meat.

One year I got mad, and went to the same small packer, rather at the last minute, and told him I wanted a standing rib with the FAT LEFT ON. He agreed, and I picked it up Christmas Eve. Christmas Day I unwrapped it and found it netted; he'd replaced the trimmed fat and netted it. I was mortally disappointed, but it was too late to do anything about it, so I went with it, and it really came out very well.

Seemed like the critical thing was that the fat make *very* close contact with the meat. A workable compromise, at least. And enough fat for potatoes and yorkshire pudding.

The next year I went early to order, and he said 'take the whole rack, and I'll age it for you, and split it and hold the other end in my freezer until you want it' ... I told him to pick me a fat beast, and I'd go for it. That one came with the fat still on, both of them ... and they were wonderful, the one at Christmas, and the other for some later occasion I have since forgot.

The price has gotten a little unwieldy, and I'm not sure I'll be able to afford to do it this year, but as I have been using the fat all year to fry potatoes and am nearly out, I will probably have to find some way to weasel the price out of the budget somewhere.

It may be hard to find someone who is still cutting the meat as he goes, and you may have to mortgage something, but I am convinced this is the way to go. There is no substitute for the fat that belongs on the meat, on the meat.

But I'm curious as to what you did and how it came out - and what others are doing to cope with this problem.

After all, Christmas is coming java script:emoticon(':smile:')

smilie Maybe this year it'll have to be cornish hens or something more cost effective here, but maybe the Roast Beast Fairy will smile on me, and I'll be putting my order in again for my politically incorrect roast! java script:emoticon(':laugh:')

smilie