Standing Rib Roast

This is an excellent meal, but it's one I usually cook on the weekends. No crock pot for this roast. It deserves my full attention. Many people are intimidated by such a nice cut of meat, and I can understand that. Why pay so much for this roast if you might mess it up? I felt that way too when I first cooked one. I've never over-cooked it, but I have under-cooked it a number of times, and my trial-and-error experiences have told me that this cut of meat is so tasty that it's really hard to ruin it--as long as I keep my eye on it.

Around Thanksgiving and Christmas, Publix puts standing rib roast on sale. When they do, I run over there and buy four or five at a time; then I put them in my freezer and cook them here and there over the year. Usually I buy 5 lb. or so roasts, but they come much bigger if you're feeding a crowd.

All the information I've read about cooking standing rib roast emphasizes one important tool: the meat thermometer. Now, I've cooked this roast without a thermometer, and it's turned out well, but with the thermometer, I know I can't go wrong. Stephen has a Weber remote meat thermometer that works perfectly. The skewer goes in the meat while it's cooking, but I can take the gauge with me throughout the house to monitor how the meat's cooking.


So here's how I cook standing rib roast:

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees. While the oven heats, cut the excess fat off the roast. Then sprinkle with salt, pepper and garlic powder (Many cook books advise against salting the meat because it can draw out moisture. I've never experienced that problem). Sear the meat in the oven for 15 minutes at 450. Then turn the temperature down to 325. Insert the thermometer. Roast the meat until it reaches 120-125 degrees. While it's roasting, baste it in its juices every now and then. When the thermometer reads 120-125, remove the roast from the oven and let it sit for thirty minutes. The roast continues to cook after it's been removed from the oven.

Many cookbooks will advise you to cook the meat until it's 135 degrees. I find that to be too hot because when I take the meat out of the oven, it continues to cook for another thirty minutes or so, and it ends up more done than I like it.

To cut the roast, I use an electric knife. I remove the bones from the meat by running the knife along the length of the bones. That leaves me with a nice, round piece of meat. Then I slice the roast vertically so that the slices look like nice pieces of prime rib.

I served the roast last night with roasted new potatoes and broccoli. The meat turned out wonderfully. Unfortunately, I paid so much attention to the meat that I overcooked the broccoli. Oh well. Worse things have happened.