Updated: December 2023. I saw my Mom this morning, and she asked me about cooking a Christmas rib roast. It was like Christmas De Ja Vu. I would not commit, but it got me thinking about this post I wrote in 2017. It may be time for a rib roast this holiday. We'll see, but after reading more cookbooks than I can count, the rib roast recipe I've posted below. My holiday looks a little different these days. I'm now a parent to teens. This post was originally written in December 2017,
A week or two before the holidays, my Mom hinted that she would like prime rib by sending me online recipes every other day. The recipes would casually be slipped into my Facebook messages. This particular holiday marked our 12th Christmas without Dad. He used to make bone-in-prime every holiday. I had never made a rib roast before.
I read the recipes she sent, and they frightened me a little. I would never commit to her, and still, two days before this Christmas, I still did not know what I would prepare for our holiday dinner. I pulled countless recipe books from my pantry and thought I might attempt some beef or pork tenderloin. When I went grocery shopping, I took two cookbooks to Lowes Food, and they sat in the cart while I looked at meat. There was not a beef tenderloin in sight for less than $80.
My wallet spoke up. Boneless ribeye roasts were on a significant sale. A four-pound boneless ribeye roast was marked down from $52 to $32. I flipped through my cookbooks, surfed the internet on Lowes's free Wi-Fi, and decided to try it. It would be my meat entree and sides of corn pudding, macaroni and cheese, southern butterbeans, green beans, and rolls.
To prepare the roast, I rubbed the roast with kosher salt, garlic, and black pepper and put my oven at 350 degrees. Some recipes I read said a roast needed to be 135 degrees to be rare, averaging about 14 minutes per pound. But in hindsight, the Angus Beef Website has the best degree chart, which is more accurate.
I set my timer for 56 minutes and then tested my roast. It was not even close to rare at that point, so I began cooking it at 30-minute intervals. Eighty minutes had the roast at rare. I ended up cooking mine for two hours, and it cooked between medium-rare and medium. Next time, I will work to keep it more medium-rare, but it was cooked perfectly for my Mom.
My Simple Rib Roast Recipe
4 Pound Boneless Ribeye Roast
Salt
Garlic
Black Pepper
Heat oven to 350 degrees
Begin checking your roast at an hour. To be rare, a roast needs to be 135 degrees. Medium-rare will clock in around the hour-and-a-half mark. Practice makes perfect.
New Note:
In 2023, I buy a lot of groceries at Lidl and rely on many of their recipes. They have a beef roast recipe similar to mine, but it suggests adding rosemary. I will try that this year.
I wanted to squeeze in one more story before the new year. I wish all of you a very Happy New Year! Thanks for reading and being part of my family.
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