Standing Rib Roast

Meant to write this last Christmas (2005) but I guess I forgot. Just as well, because since then I found a much easier way to do this. Unfortunately there are no pictures this time so I'll have to be more descriptive.
Update 26-Dec-2011:
Tried a smaller 2.88 lb cut and the results were poor. Too thin, so it ended up well-done. Not good. I think there has to be a minimun of 4 lb or preferably more for this recipe to work.

This is a really fabulous cut of meat. Prime Rib. Recognize it? Not cheap but worth every cent, and you can get it on sale near the holidays. This one was a 4 pounder at $6.99 per pound (do the math, about $28. Normally about $10-$11 a pound). I think it's important to do a good sized roast to get it to cook right, since it has to "Stand" (get it?) on its rib edge. This one was about 4½ inches thick and consisted of two ribs. Big cow I guess. I'm grateful for the sacrifice.

Ingredients:
(See here for a Horseradish Crust Mix)
4 lb. (or so) Standing Rib Roast
½ Cup Olive Oil
3 Carrots cut in 3 inch pieces
3 Stalks of Celery cut the same
Parsley (dried is OK for this)
Sage
Rosemary
Thyme
(the above 4 are available at Scarborough Fair)
Salt & Pepper

Start your oven preheating up to 500°. Yup that's right. 500°. Pour about ½ of the Olive Oil in the botton of a shallow roasting pan. Cut up the celery & carrots and place them around the edge of the pan. Pour the rest of the Olive Oil on the beef and lightly score the fatty side with a knife. Rub the beef with the spices until you're happy with it. Stand (there's that word again) the beef in the pan so the fat side is up and be sure there are plenty of spices on that fat side. This is a good time to put an oven safe meat thermometer in so you'll be able to see it when it's in the oven. Loosely tent the beef with aluminum foil (leaving the thermometer exposed). When the oven gets to 500°, put the pan in and let it go for 10-11 minutes per pound. That's all the electricity you're going to use. A four pound roast is about 40-44 minutes of high temperature cooking. When that's over, turn off the oven and let it all just sit there for an hour or so. The meat thermometer should be reading about 135°-140° or so at this point; a reading that would indicate a really rare piece of meat. Remove the pan from the oven at this point and let it sit for 10 minutes or so. The temperature will increase about 5 more degrees after it leaves the oven. So depending on your preferences and your oven, you may want to cook it for maybe 12-13 minutes per pound and let it sit for an hour and 20 minutes. Whatever. The smell of this thing is worth the effort. I'll take pictures next time.

OK, now (25-Dec-2006) I have some pictures:
Here it is prepped and ready to go. It's 3.88 pounds and was $5.99 per pound this year. For the numerically impaired, that would be $23.24. A pretty good deal! Note that this year there are Parsnips thrown in the pan also. Those are the small yellow leaves from the center of a celery bunch on top.
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Here it's shown after cutting the ribs off. One cut does it (They're at the upper right) There are also 2 slices removed. Seems a little rare for my tastes, but George likes it this way, and I get the end slices. The actual times and temps were: 500°F for 46 minutes, 1 hour oven off, then finally 10 more minutes at 350°F with no foil tent for a little added color.
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It turns out that oven variations may be quite large for this particular recipe. Who knows for sure if you're really at 500° ? And how does your oven hold heat as compared to some other oven? This was the second time I cooked a Standing Rib Roast with this recipe, and now (a little belatedly) I have a good oven (as opposed to meat) thermometer to see what is actually what. Another problem with this particular method is the fact that your oven is tied up at who knows what temperature for the last hour before you're ready to eat. That dawned on me this year when I wanted to put in a broccoli casserole for 20 minutes. Couldn't do it, so that's why the 350° temp at the end was available. So you live and learn. The whole meal was really a success though. Well worth it.

Update 25-Dec-2008:
Did it again with a slightly bigger roast (5.38#). Same story. Good stuff.

Update 26-Dec-2010:
Again it was great. This year it was only $5.99 per pound! Got a six pounder.
Now on 29-Dec-2010, I'm slow roasting on the grill, the ribs (3 of them) that were cut off on Sunday.
The smell is right.