Roast Beef Dinner

Our favorite celebration meal for Christmas or whenever we find an excuse. The recipe is mainly credited to Louise or Haya Babcock. I think they both claimed it.

Ingredients

  • Bone-in Rib Roast with 2, 3 or 4 ribs. Two ribs are plenty enough for 3-4 people; basically figure two people per rib, more or less 1-1.5 lb. per rib. They don’t usually sell single-rib roasts but I eventually discovered that you can cut a larger roast down to a single rib and do this meal for two people if you want. You can freeze an uncooked rib roast for a couple of months if needed, though it’s best to use it fresh. You could also grill the single rib as a bone-in ribeye steak if you’re ambitious.
  • Salt (preferably Seasoned Salt) and Pepper
  • Jar of Beef Gravy makes things easier than doing gravy from scratch

Directions

The preparations for this meal are about as easy as can be, but timing is the trick. I generally work backwards from whatever time you want to eat…you need to start about 3 hours before that.

  1. About an hour before cooking time, take roast out of fridge to approach room temperature.
  2. Position beef in a large roasting pan with a wire rack to lift roast off the bottom of the pan. Dry off beef with a paper towel if it’s wet from its packaging.
  3. Preheat oven on Roast setting to 450-500 degrees, usually takes 20-30 minutes to preheat. You want the oven as hot as it can get. Make sure oven rack is low enough to fit the beef in the roasting pan.
  4. Season roast all over with salt and pepper. You can be generous with both as the seasonings tend to cook off and end up in the pan drippings for gravy.
  5. Put beef in oven and leave with high heat on for 8-10 minutes per rib for medium rare. I usually go 8-9 minutes/rib. I don’t know what the timing would be for medium or medium well…it pains me to think about it. Let them microwave it later if they want it ruined.
    After a few minutes the kitchen will get smoky so turn kitchen exhaust fan to high and maybe open some windows so you don’t set off a fire alarm (a lesson I need to remind myself nearly every year). The smokiness peaks when you turn off the heat, but dissipates a few minutes after that.
  6. After the 8-10 minutes per rib, turn off the oven and let the roast sit in the cooling oven for one hour. Do not crack the oven or let out any heat. Just trust the gods.
  7. After an hour in the cooling oven, remove the roast, tent it loosely with foil and let the roast rest for 15-20 minutes, can rest 30 minutes if you want to do popovers in the oven.
  8. In a separate saucepan, begin heating gravy. Spoon 4-8 tbs. of pan drippings into gravy for that extra bit of tasty juices.
  9. After roast has rested, slice. I usually cut the full roast off the bone first, then slice the meat to whatever thickness you wish. Serve with gravy, horseradish, mashed potatoes and whatever vegetable you decide on for the meal. We most often do green bean casserole or roasted asparagus.

Leftover beef is great for another day or two. Slice cold (or room temp) beef and serve with hot gravy and potatoes or in sandwiches. We never really figured out a way to reheat beef and still keep it medium rare, but it’s tasty cold. Can freeze leftover beef for a few weeks and use in Strogonoff, Stew or Chili.

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