World's Most Perfect & Expensive Rib Roast

Eveh! I paid $70.00!!! for a rib roast to make for DH for Christmas Dinner. $70.00!!! That's $14.00 a pound. Outrageous. Just outrageous. But, that is what it costs to live here, and that is what you pay... For US beef. I don't eat it - but I do have to cook it. DH is a "meat and potatoes" man. It isn't dinner if it doesn't include meat - preferably red meat. I can get away with making an occasional eggplant Parmesan but there is little else that I make that I can serve and call "dinner" if it doesn't contain meat.

The most perfect every single time roast beef - no matter what the cut - is the easiest in the world to make. You can stick it in the oven in the morning and leave it in the oven ALL DAY and it will be ready for dinner when you get home from work. I used to do this all the time when we lived in the States and I had a "real" life that included a job in an office where I spent a whole lot more than forty hours a week...

Buy a roast. Big, medium or small. But just about any cut will do for this... [The cut that you would use for stew is going to be tougher than a rib roast. Obviously.]

Pre-heat the oven to 450°. Season the beef - I use liberal [and I do mean liberal!] amounts of garlic powder [NOT garlic salt] and fresh ground black pepper. And, I use a little salt. Just a little, though. I cover the entire piece of meat - every side of it - with garlic powder, fresh ground black pepper and a little salt [even the bottom]. Put the meat in a GLASS [yes - this does make a difference!] baking dish - a brownie pan - or if your roast is big enough - a Lasagna pan. You do not want the dish too big for the piece of meat [otherwise all the fatty juice will dry up and you won't have what you need for adding flavor to the gravy].

Stick the roast in the 450° oven for TWENTY MINUTES and ONLY twenty minutes. Then, when twenty minutes is up, turn the oven down to 350° and cook the roast as follows:

SEVEN minutes per pound for rare-to-medium-rare meat;
NINE minutes per pound for medium-rare-to-medium; and
ELEVEN minutes per pound for medium-to-well-done.

Round up. If your roast is three and a half pounds you cook it for 28 minutes at 350° for a rare-to-medium-rare roast beef. If you want the meat to be cooked a little more - so that it isn't still going "moo mooo" you cook it for 36 minutes at 350° and if you want the meat to be more "done" [cooked!] you cook it for 44 minutes at 350°.

If you have a five-pound roast - which is what I cooked - and I cooked it rare-to-medium-rare, which is how DH likes it [yuck! just gross!] you cook it for 35 minutes at 350°.

First, the 450° for TWENTY MINUTES - no matter how big or small the roast - then go by the times listed above.

Here's the thing. YOU CANNOT OPEN THE OVEN UNTIL YOU ARE READY TO SERVE THE ROAST! I used to post sticky notes on the oven door so that NO ONE would walk by and go, "Oh my gosh, whatever is in the oven smells soooo good - and it does smell good - I'll just open the over door for a peek - the smell will permeate throughout your kitchen and your house - but DO NOT OPEN THE OVEN DOOR! No matter what!!! At any point in the entire process. If you forgot to add salt - too bad - you open the oven door and you are going to RUIN the roast. Ruin. It.

Like I said, I used to get roasts ready and cooked before I left for work in the morning. Yep. I cooked the first part while I was in the shower - the 450° - and then turned down the oven to 350° while I was getting dressed, feeding Boy Number One [our Rottweiler, Sergeant] and then letting him out to do business, etc., and doing my hair... Voilà. Dinner is done. For the most part. I would leave it in the oven all day long - nine, ten, eleven hours...

When I would get home from work, first I would pour a glass of wine. My favorite is Sterling Cabernet Sauvignon. The year 2000 was great - but good luck finding a bottle of that! Then I would pour a second glass and take my shoes off, take the suit I was wearing off and put on a "house uniform" [bike shorts and a tee-shirt or sweatshirt]. Turn the oven to 325°. As SOON AS IT REACHES 325° set the timer for TWENTY MINUTES. In twenty minutes you can either whip up McCormick "brown gravy" or open a jar of beef gravy. Let it simmer on the stove on low - you'll want to add the drippings from the roast to the gravy. If you want to get real fancy - mash real potatoes. There is really no point, though, when Betty Crocker makes excellent Butter & Herb instant mashed potatoes?!! No fuss. No mess. Ten minutes. Just add water, milk and butter... Heat a can of green beans in the magic mini oven [this is what DH calls our microwave - I do a lot of cooking in the "magic mini oven"]. If you are doing this for a special occasion, like Christmas Dinner or for company - sauté some mushrooms. Canned mushroom will not do for this purpose. You must use fresh mushrooms.

...when the timer goes off in 20 minutes - take the roast out of the oven. Let it sit for five minutes or so before slicing / carving it. I usually transfer the roast to a cutting board so I can take the drippings that are in the glass baking dish and put them in the gravy.

Dinner is done!

Just try this. You WILL thank me. Hey. Sometimes I'm a giver...

P.S. Buy a Turtle Cheesecake at Sam's Club for dessert. They have FABULOUS cheesecake. Oh my gosh. What I wouldn't do for a Sam's Club in The Sandbox.