Best Roast Rib of Beef for Every Meat Lover

We have friends over for Sunday Lunch, there are 8 of us and all of us just love beef. Roast Rib of beef would be just perfect (we think the best joints for roast beef is Rib of Beef as usually  keeping the bone will make  tastier piece of beef when cooked )

My mother in law ordered the beef from our local butcher. When the actual beef arrived, I was stunned, it was huge, it was lb 10, well that was enough to feed 15 hungry man..., and we were only eight....

If you are thinking of cooking roast beef and wondering how to do it perfectly, you may want to open http://britishfood.about.com/od/introtobritishfood/a/roastbeef.htm:

Or if we combined the link with how we do it.... this is the outcome

The beef should be :

• Dark in colour - meaning it has been hung well and is mature (we were told by our butcher, our beef had been hung for 21 days and it was dark )

• A thick covering of fat which adds flavor and prevents the joint from drying out during cooking. This layer can be removed before serving so no need to worry too much about excess fat. (Ours didn't have enough fat, may be just the breed....)
• Marbling: Marbling is small slivers of fat running through the flesh which again adds flavor and prevents drying out during cooking (in the picture we can see there isn't enough marbling but there's layer of fat)

How Much to Buy

• 5½ lb/2.5kg bone in will feed 6 (we bought lb 10 just under 5 Kg for 8 !! )
• 3 lb/1.5kg boned will feed 6

Don't worry about buying too much as cold roast beef makes great sandwiches or it can be added to a plate of cold cuts ( yes we had left over, and it was delicious  for cold beef sandwich the next day...)

Cooking Temperature

There are varying opinions about what the perfect temperature to cook a roast beef but in my experience starting the beef in a very hot oven 425F/220C/Gas 7 for the first 30 minutes ( we put it on that temperature for 1 hour ) then lower the temperature to 375F/190C/Gas5 ( we lower to 200 C, because we want it to cook faster ) for the remaining cooking time then .... how long to cook beef depends on your preference for how 'pink' or not you like to eat beef.

Our intention was to have a medium-well done beef, but we put the temperature rather too high, accidentally the result was " the top part was well done and the middle part was medium-rare", which was perfect because half of our guests love the well done and the rest just adore the rare part. It was an accident but turned out just what every one would love it. Great....

Calculate

• Rare - 11 mins per lb/450g
• Medium - 14 mins per lb/450g
• Well done - 16 mins per lb/450g
These times are based on a normal convection oven, you may want to adjust for a fan oven according to the manufacturers instructions (we use a normal convention oven)

Another way to work out the cooking time is to use a meat thermometer pushed into the thickest part of the beef.

• 60°C/140° F - rare
• 70°C/160F - medium
• 80°C/175°F - well done

How to Cook

The beef should be at room temperature. Stand the beef joint in a roasting tin then cook to the temperature and time as above. (Yes we had the beef at room temperature, did not put much seasoning just rub about 3 tbsp Colman mustard and 2 - 3 tbsp sea salt, and that was it.....)

Rest, Rest, Rest

An important part of cooking any meat is once it is removed from the oven the meat must rest. Wrap the meat loosely in aluminum foil and put to one side. The fibers in meat tighten up during cooking and resting allows the fibers to relax, release some of the meat juices (great for the gravy) and results in a soft tender piece of meat. 20 minutes should be long enough but up to an hour won't do any harm. The joint is then ready to carve ( we have the rib to rest for 30 - 45 minutes before carving. The beef just out of this world, never had it so good before)