Simple Prime Rib for a Holiday Feast!
Hello WTD readers! Ya know it’s a little bit funny (to me at least) because while I was trying to figure out what would be easiest and best for a holiday recipe, I received a text message from my best friend and former room mate asking me for help with Christmas dinner because he just bought a house and wants to host his immediate family, about 10 including himself, for the holiday.
He is a novice cook despite my attempts to teach him how while we were roomies.; however, I am pretty sure he has mastered how to turn on his oven so that got me thinking…something fool proof. Now keep in mind that nothing is 100% fool proof but I think he can handle this super easy Christmas dinner center piece, so I will share what I told him with you.
For me it’s the absolute best piece of meat. All you have to do is pop it in the oven and wait for it to be done. It doesn’t require much attention basically for 3 hours.
He said “Yeah, I think so. What do I need to do?”
I explained well you need to go to a butcher shop and order it a little bit in advance because it is a specialty cut so it might not be something you can run out and pick up on Christmas Eve. It will probably run you anywhere between $150-200 so the butcher might ask for a deposit and to come back and pick it up in a day or two.
**Note: If you are going to go to a butcher shop make sure to ask them to tie the beef for roasting for you. You don’t need to bother yourself with doing that if someone will do it for you and tying the beef will help for an even cooking temperature.
Before you are ready to actually cook the beef let the meat come up to room temperature a bit, I recommend 90 minutes. This will actually help in the cooking process because if the meat is not very cold it will shorten the cooking time substantially and you will get a more consistent temperature throughout the meat i.e. you will not have a dead red center and brown/grey ends.
Preheat your oven to 400 degrees. Place the beef on a baking tray with a rack. You do not want the beef to sit in its juices and fat. Make sure the tray has a deep enough well to catch the fat and juices because this might be more than what you might think it would be and you don’t want to deal with the smell and smoke in your kitchen, believe me.
Right before you put the meat in the oven you must season the beef very generously with sea salt and black pepper. Do not season the meat too early because the sea salt will actually start to draw out the moisture from the meat.
Roast the beef at 400 for 45 minutes and then drop the oven temperature down to 275 for 2 hours and 15 minutes. You want an internal temperature of 135 degrees for medium rare or 145 for medium. When taking the temperature make sure to place the stem of the thermometer into the center most part of the beef. This will give you a reading of the coldest part of the beef and therefore the most accurate temperature.
General tips and wisdom:
1) Be very careful when removing the tray from the oven. The hot fat and juices probably will be more than what you would expect and you do want to retain the juices for when you make your sauce. That’s the flavor you want. The fat isn’t though, so you will need to skim off as much of the fat as possible.
2) Buy a meat thermometer that has an alarm. Saves you the trouble of having to open the oven door to get a reading. You just set your desired temperature on the thermometer and wait for it to go off.
3) Some people like to wrap the ends of the bones with aluminum foil so they don’t look burnt, but I don’t mind it. It’s up to you.
4) While you are at Sur la Table or Williams Sonoma invest in a good slicing knife and roast fork. This will make the meat carving a little bit easier.
5) Let the meat rest for at least 30 minutes before you take a knife to it. If you can leave it for 45 minutes that’s even better. Try not to carve hot meat right out of the oven.
For the Perfect Gravy:
In a sauce pan melt 1 stick of unsalted butter then add 1/2 all purpose flour and let the flour cook until it turns brown, stirring it constantly with a heat resistant spatula to create the “roux.” Then pour 5 ounces of red wine, 2 cups of chicken broth and the juices left from the roasted beef. Season with salt and black pepper and allow to simmer for 10 minutes.
Tip is to moderate your heat while preparing the roux. You don’t want the flour to turn too dark and taste bitter. Medium heat works well for this process. If the sauce is too thick you can adjust the consistency with chicken broth to get the desired consistency.
