Roast Prime Rib Au Jus
 
Prep time
Total time
 
Recipe type: Entree
Serves: 4-18
Ingredients
  • 1 standing rib roast (the small or loin end is preferable to the large or chuck end)
  • Kosher salt and pepper
  • About 1 Tbsp vegetable oil
  • ½ cup red wine
  • 3 cups beef stock
Instructions
For the Roast Prime Rib:
  1. To make the roast easier to handle when searing and allow seasoning all over you can cut the bones away and tie them back on after searing. If you choose to do this, just cut the meat away from the ribs, getting as close to the ribs as possible.
  2. Do not trim the fat cap – it will baste the meat as it roasts.
  3. Pat the roast dry and season all over with salt. Figure about 2 Tbsp salt for a 3-bone roast. Adjust accordingly to size.
  4. Refrigerate uncovered 24 – 96 hours.
  5. Put oven rack in middle position and preheat oven to 200 degrees F.
  6. Heat enough oil to cover bottom of pan in a large skillet over high heat (or if you’ve got a very large roast you can put a roasting pan over 2 burners and heat). When the oil just begins to smoke, sear the roast just until well-browned on all sides except for the bone side or side that was cut from the bones – do not brown that side. It should take 6 – 8 minutes total.
  7. Place the roast back on the ribs fitting it to where it was cut.
  8. When it’s cooled enough to handle, tie the bones to the roast, tying a length of twine around it between each pair of ribs.
  9. Set the roast, fat cap up on a rack in a sheet pan. This will allow good air circulation around the roast for even cooking.
  10. Roast at 200 degrees F for about 30 minutes per pound until the internal temperature reaches 120 F for rare or 125 F for medium rare. The best way to monitor the temperature is with a probe inserted into the center to a depth of about an inch away from the bone hooked up to an electronic thermometer that sits outside the oven. If you don’t have one, take the roast out periodically, shutting the oven door and check it with a meat thermometer.
  11. When done let it rest, tented with aluminum foil for about 30 minutes.
  12. While it rests, if you’re making Yorkshire pudding, you’ll start that by melting the rendered beef fat in the pan that you seared in and pouring ¼ cup of that into your pudding pan.
  13. We’ll get to the Yorkshire pudding in another post, but once you’ve poured off that hot fat into your pudding pan, and gotten the pudding in the oven, you’ll deglaze the skillet that you seared in with some red wine and add some beef stock to make your jus.
For the Au Jus:
  1. Once you’ve used or discarded the oil from the skillet you used to sear the roast, add ½ cup red wine and cook over medium high heat, scraping the bottom of the pan with a wooden spatula to release the browned bits. (If you seared in a roasting pan rather than a skillet you may need to add more wine here to get enough liquid in the pan to work with.)
  2. Boil down the wine until it’s reduced by half and then add the 3 cups beef stock.
  3. If you're cooking for a large crowd you can use more beef stock.
  4. Continue to boil periodically scraping the pan with your spatula until reduced by about half.
  5. Taste and season with salt and pepper if necessary.
  6. When ready, carve the bones away from the roast or snip the twine and remove bones, slice and serve.
Notes
Cooking time and number of servings will vary based on the size of the roast. Figure on roughly a half hour roasting per pound and figure you'll be able to serve 2-3 people per rib. The smallest roast you should do is 2 ribs and the largest possible, a full roast, which will contain both the small/loin end and the large/chuck end will have 7 ribs. You might want to consider 2 loin roasts rather than one full roast if you have a large crowd to decrease the cooking time and also to use just the superior end of the roast.
Recipe by Savory Nature at http://savorynature.com/2013/12/11/roast-prime-rib-au-jus/