Making a classic standing rib roast for the first time can be a little intimidating because it is usually for some special occasion and can be a large financial investment. The good news is that it is actually very easy…if you have a necessary tool, a meat or instant-read thermometer.
It also helps if you have a good butcher (specialty shop or general grocery store) who does much of the prep work for you. If not, just clean a couple of inches off of the ends of the bones to expose them, if desired. You will want to leave at least 1/4″ of the fat cap on the opposite side from the bones, but you may want to trim it some if there is more than 1/2″ of fat. Finally, it is much easier to slice after cooking if you cut the bones from the meat the length of the bones, but leave the meat attached at the end of the bones. Even if you don’t cut the bones from the meat, tie the meat with butcher’s twine between the bones before roasting.
There are several schools of thought about what is the best temperature(s) to cook a standing rib roast. Here is what I did and it turned out well for me:
Classic Standing Rib Roast
Ingredients
- Standing rib roast (3 - 7 ribs) (est. 2 servings per rib)
- Kosher or Sea Salt
- Pepper
- Butcher twine
Instructions
- Remove roast from refrigerator and allow to stand at room temperature for about 2 hours.
- If roast has not been prepreped, upon removing it from the refrigerator, remove any excess fat while leaving a 1/4 inch or so cap on the top of the roast. Then, if desired, cut around the rack of bones to seperate the bones from the rest of the roast. Place the roast back on the bones and tie with butchers/baking twine to secure the roast on the ribs. Cutting the ribs off before roasting makes serving off the bone easier.
- Coat roast (including underside and between bones roast, if not prepreped) in salt.
- Perheat oven to 450 degrees F.
- Coat roast lightly with black pepper, if desired.
- Place the roast bone side down on a roasting rack or a rack make of celery, carrots, and onions in a baking pan.
- Roast in oven at 450 degrees for 20 minutes. Reduce the temperature to 350 degrees F unitl a leave-in or instant read probe reads 125 for rare or 135 for medium-rare.
- Tent loosely with foil upon removing from oven and allow to rest (the temperature should keep increasing) for 20 minutes.
Notes
The total cooking time will depend upon the size of the roast, oven, desired doneness, etc. You should estitimate 12 to 16 minutes per pound to reach the rare or medium rare stage.