Fore rib of beef. Step-by-step guide to the ultimate roast

[zygalski]

Roast Rib of Beef



Forget the over-priced & dull Christmas turkey - this to me is the ultimate roast!
It's really easy to get fantastic results if you follow the recipe below:

For 4 people (and some leftovers)

2.5 to 3kg fore rib of beef, on the bone (2 or 3 rib joint)
2 large carrots
2 large parnsips
2 onions
1 whole head of garlic
fresh thyme

1 bottle of red wine
500ml beef stock (fresh or from concentrate or cubes)

King Edward potatoes for roasting
Duck fat or veg oil

Eggs, milk & plain flour for Yorkshire pudding mix

Vegetables (for garnish only)

Heat the oven to 220 degrees c




Season your fore rib generously all over with freshly ground black pepper & course sea salt



Heat some veg oil in a large roasting tray & when smoking hot, sear the beef all over until golden brown



Put the meat aside

Now peel & chop the veg into large chunks
Slice the head of garlic length-wise
Arrange the veg on the roasting tray & scatter some thyme on top



Place the joint on top
Put it in the oven & roast for 20 minutes at 220 degrees c



Meanwhile, make up the Yorkshire pudding mix by combining equal parts by volume of egg, milk & plain flour. Season with just fresh pepper at this stage, once the batter is smooth.



Put the batter mix in the fridge

After the beef has had 20 minutes, turn the oven down to 160 degrees c & roast for about 15 minutes per pound.
My joint is 2.5 KG or 5 pounds, so a futher 75 minutes it is....

Put a heavy tray in the top of the oven with a good covering of goose fat or veg oil in

Prepare your other veggies



Add your potatoes to salted rapidly boiling water & boil for about 15 minutes, or until the spuds are 2/3 cooked through



Drain, then shake fairly vigorously in the pan with the lid on



Get the tray with the fat in out of the oven & place the fluffy potatoes in



Roast for about 1.5 hours, turning every 30 mins or so

Once the roast is cooked, take the tray out of the oven. Nom nom!!!



Lay a generous amount of tin foil on another tray or plate
Carefully place the joint on the foil
Tear off another sheet of foil, place that over the rib joint & bring the base up to make a reasonably good seal
Leave it to rest for 30-45 minutes



Crank the oven back up to 220 degrees for the last 45 minutes
Turn the potatoes if you haven't already

Put a Yorkshire pudding tray in the top of the oven, each mould with about 3 teaspoons of veg oil in

With 20 to 25 minutes to go, take the batter mix out of the fridge & mix in a good pinch of salt.
Take the Yorkie tray out & place a ladle full of batter into each yorkshire mould.
The batter should sizzle around the edges.



With about 15 minutes until carving, you need to make the gravy.
Put the roasting tray with all the veg in on a high heat.
Once it really starts sizzling, add 3/4 to 1 whole bottle of red wine. As you add the wine, scrape all the bits off the base of the tray using a wooden spoon



Boil rapidly until the wine is reduced by at least half, & becomes syrupy.
Make 500ml worth of stock with a concentrate or cubes, or hot fresh stock.
Add this to the gravy tray.
Uncover the now rested beef & add all the juices from the base of the foil into the gravy mix

With 10 minutes to go, cook the brussel sprouts

Now you need to de-bone the joint to make carving really easy.
Simply hold as show & use a heavy chef's knife to follow the line of the ribs







Medium rare.
Perfecto!



Carve into generous slices, about half as thick as your average sirloin steak, none of this poncy, namby-pamby stuff

Carefully strain & then check the seasoning of the now reduced gravy. Add salt, pepper & a teaspoon or so of sugar if needed (yeah I know, but sugar works, trust me!)



Here come the calories - but seriously, who cares?!

[Mobile Chicane]

Wow, that looks awesome

You should treat yourself to some bigger plates in the Boxing Day sales though

[dazco]

What a fantastic post, thank you very much.

Looks fantastic

[otolith]

That is what's in our oven at the moment!

[maniac886]

That looks superb! Thanks for posting the guide.

[Mr Pies]

Fantastic guide, this should be in a sticky thread of some description!

[Bradgate]

Superb stuff, that looks amazing. The beef is perfectly cooked.

If someone was using your method but wanted a thicker gravy, they could add a tablespoon of plain flour to the roasting pan and stir it into the meat juices before adding the wine.

[zygalski]

Yes of course you can add flour.
However, I reckon that reducing the wine & stock by a decent amount gives a better result.
To make the gravy I added about 600ml of wine & 500ml of stock. The strained gravy was 400ml & was pretty thick, to be honest. I basically reduced the lot by almost 2/3. Any more thick & it would become a bit cloying.

[Cupramax]

Thanks, that's a fantastic guide... Been thinking about doing a Fore rib after having it round a friends recently and that's given me the impetus to do it now.

[SVX]

Excellent guide for first timers - I'd make a couple of minor changes to the technique, but at this time of year it would seem churlish!

[otolith]

I got a new meat thermometer for Xmas, one with a remote probe on a heatproof cable. Stick the probe in the meat, put the unit on the work top and shut the oven door on the cable. You can set an alarm to go off when the meat is up to temperature. I went for 55C yesterday, because we had some guests who would not like their meat as rare as we have it, and it came out just as intended.

Much better than my old digital probe or my old leave-in thermometer, both of which need the oven door opening to check the temperature.

[miniman]

Here's mine from yesterday

[zygalski]

That looks perfect!

[miniman]

Cheers, it was rather yum. As we ordered it in advance for Xmas, we ended up with a 3 rib rather than 2, so I am doing a load of bubble & squeak tonight plus extra Yorkshires and port & redcurrant sauce. And some sausages

[Mobsta]

Mobile Chicane said:

Wow, that looks awesome

You should treat yourself to some bigger plates in the Boxing Day sales though

Yes and yes.
Good job, nicely told with pics, too.

[Pothole]

first thing you need to do is buy bigger plates, OP!

[mattdaniels]

I just did a sex wee.

[smack]

Both of those look great!

[IainT V6]

Embarrassingly, I've never tackled a proper roast before but inspired by this thread, just back from butchers with 3.5kg rib for New Years Day.



Wish me luck!

[miniman]

IMHO Hugh Faintly Wittering's method from "Meat" is spot on.

20 mins as hot as the oven will go
Turn down to 160
15 mins per 500g for nicely pink as per my photo above. 20 mins for more well done, 12 for bloody.
Good rest - at least half an hour for me