A big piece of beef will last a long time, but will you want to keep eating it?

Time: 5 hours 30 minutes

Difficulty: 1/5

Ingredient Availability: 4/5

When looking for recipes to make for Christmas this year, I saw a few for standing rib roasts. I had never had or made one before, so you know me, I wanted to try it. I chose this recipe because it had the option of a herb rub that the other recipes didn’t have. Most of the other recipes were really basic with just salt and pepper, so I didn’t think that it would be as good of a review. Even this one didn’t give the greatest guidance with the rub.

Key Ingredients and omissions:

I’m not sure how common it is to find a standing rib roast at the typical grocery store, hence the knock on the ingredient availability. My go-to store just happened to have some when I went out to get the other ingredients I needed for the holidays, so I pick it up from there. I know that they typically don’t have them, so during other times of the year they may be harder to find. Other than that, I think the rest of the ingredients are pretty standard.

Tools:

• Roasting tray/pan

Cooking Review:

Rub and sit: 2 hours 30 minutes

The recipe just says herbs when referring to what to be used in the rub for the roast. I decided to use rosemary, sage, and thyme in mine along with the smoked paprika, garlic, and olive oil. I just chopped up the herbs and blended them together with the garlic, paprika, and oil. I also added the black pepper to the rub instead of putting it directly on the roast. After seasoning the roast with salt, I applied the rub all over the roast and let it sit out for about 2 hours.

Roasting and resting: 1 hour 50 minutes and 1 hour rest

I baked the roast at 450 degrees Fahrenheit for 20 minutes before reducing the temperature to 350 for an hour and a half. At this point, the thickest part of the roast registered about 125 degrees Fahrenheit. I let the roast rest for about an hour before slicing and serving.

Analysis:

As should be expected, the outside of the roast was very flavorful, as that is where all of the flavorings were added. However, these parts are the driest and more tough parts. I’m not saying that the roast was dry and tough. Just compared to the more central slices, the outer parts were drier and tougher. The trade off here is obviously the amount of flavor you get. I liked the flavor of the beef on the inner parts with the little bit of rub flavor on the edges, but I know some people will perceive this as being bland. There’s not much more to this dish. The rub really depends on what herbs you choose. I recommend the sage, thyme, and rosemary that I used, but others might not. I’ll give this recipe a 7/10 overall. It could give some herb recommendations and maybe give some tips on how to get a more even experience throughout the roast to get a better score. I wouldn’t mind making it again, though.