Standing Rib Roast (Prime Rib)

Well, it is the holiday season. We and a few others enjoyed Christmas Eve dinner with a friend--who just happens to be a chef. That was a traditional turkey dinner with stuffing and potatoes, cranberries, brussels sprouts, and a choice of three desserts. On Christmas night we had pan roasted chicken at home with a really nice pinot noir. We just had Turbot en Matelote á la Normande. So tonight, a standing rib roast--prime rib of beef.

First thing, get enough people around you to make it worthwhile purchasing and cooking this piece of beef. It's pricey but with even a small roast, you have a cut big enough to feed at least four. Six or eight is no problem with a larger roast. You can plan to feed two-to-three people per pound for a bone-in rack, three-to-four people per pound for boneless. You want the bone-in. It's just better.

Here's what you need:

--The beef.
--Broccoli.
--Potatoes.
--Butter.
--Salt and pepper.
--Horseradish (as garnish).
--Wine.

You can add salad and bread, replace the broccoli with haricots vert or whatever, but the star is the standing roast. Also, spend a buck on a nice bottle of wine. A big red is what's called for. Tell your wine guy you're cooking a prime rib for eight and you need a nice bottle. Buy a case, stash a few bottles, but leave enough out to cover the meal.

To start. Take the roast out of the fridge two hours before you plan to cook it. Let it come to room-ish temp. Pre-heat the oven to 500 or 550 (some ovens only have a range up to 500). Place the roast on a roasting rack in a pan, fat side up.

You need time to cook this. Plan for about 18-20 minutes per pound (bone in) for medium rare. If you want to cook this more than medium rare or medium, you're disrespecting the meat and should go somewhere else for a recipe.

Still here? Good.

For reference, our roast weighs 4.39 pounds. Season with a little ground black pepper and (just before it goes in) kosher salt.

Immediately after you put the roast in, reduce the temperature in the oven to 350F. 

Now go away for whatever works out to be about 15 minutes per pound. For our roast, that means about an hour and five minutes (I'll round down to an hour.) At some point during this time, your guests will be arriving, so you'll have plenty to do. Open the wine.

You can also start on things like the potatoes. I'm using little white potatoes that I'll boil for a few minutes and then, before they're fully cooked, pull off the fire and drain. 

.....And the broccoli. 

OK, we're back to the roast. Here's what the roast looked like after an hour. The temperature in the center was about 110F, well below even rare. This gave me a pretty good idea of how much longer it would need to be in the oven. I added the potatoes, just dropped them around the bottom of the pan, and put it back in for about 20 minutes.  

Once you're reached 135F-140F throughout most of the roast, let it stand for about ten minutes or so. Then slice it and serve. Here's what ours looked like after about 1 hour and 20 minutes plus the ten minutes of standing. 

This 4.39 pound, bone in roast is easily enough meat for six people. I carved it into chunks rather than slicing it. This made it easier for those who really wanted their meat more well done to have it and those of us who prefer ours on the rarer side of medium rare to be happy, too. We served it with a California zinfandel.