Rib Roast - Delay Cooking for a delicious dinner

On the days where I get home late, there really are two options.  One is to find something quick, easy and delicious like I did last night.  The other is to use the slow cook feature on the oven (or a slow cooker should I get one).  The first time I did this, I did the forever roasted pork from Michael Chiarello that turned out amazing.  So tonight, I decided to try the slow cooking approach tonight.

For the meat option tonight, I decided to do a beef rib roast.  I've never cooked with it before, but I'm a big fan of ribeye steak, and it was on sale, so I thought I would give it a whirl.  So, this morning, I put together a rub for the roast.  It consisted of white and black peppercorns, paprika, garlic powder, sea salt and a hint of seasoned salt.  I pulled out the mallet and broke down the pepper corns and salt to try and make it a fine powder.  Looking back on it, it would have been better to do in a spice grinder.  Unfortunately my spice grinder's primary usage is as my coffee grinder, and in the morning, coffee trumps everything.

After I had firmly beaten the spices, I took out the roast.  I cut a half dozen slits in each side of it, then rubbed it down with a little bit of butter prior to spreading the rub all over it.  I tried to make sure I stuffed some of the peppercorns that didn't get smashed into the slits.  Then I popped it into the oven, and set the delay to come on.

When it comes to beef rib roast, the cooking is a little different than the pork.  With the pork, the entire dish is cooked low and slow.  However, based on various recipes that I read, when cooking the beef rib roast, if you are not going to be able to sear it in a pan on the stovetop prior to putting it in the oven, then you start at a high temperature for a short period of time to sear the outside, then reduce the heat to finish it.  So, I set the temperature to 450 on the delay for 30 minutes, and let it go.

When I got home, I could definitely smell the roast cooking, and the timer was going off.  I opened the door, and stuck in a thermometer to find that the temperature was almost 160, quite high for a beef roast (it should be in the 130-140 range in the middle).  I quickly pulled it out to stop the cooking and let it rest for a little bit.  When I cut into it, it was still juicy and still tasted pretty good.  I warmed up some rice, sauteed some red peppers, and had dinner ready 15 minutes after we walked in the door.

While this was good, it wasn't quite like the pork.  One of the challenges for me is figuring out cooking times.  When you are looking at recipes they tend to look at bigger roast, 4 - 6 ribs (6-8 pounds).  But, when I'm only cooking for two, I don't want to have the many leftovers (or spend that much money).  So I have to try and adjust for much smaller roasts.  In this case, I was using a 1.75 lb. roast with a single rib.  I had it cook at 450 for 30 minutes, but looking back, should have only done it for 20 minutes.  Also, I think I need to be more generous with both the slits and the rub so that the flavor permeates the meat, rather than just sitting as a crust on the outside.

But, even with the couple of issues, I'm realizing that doing a little work in the morning, and leveraging the delayed cooking capabilities will allow me to do more than just quick and simple when I get home.  I just need to remember to keep in mind the starches and vegetables, and factor that into the cooking time (fortunately I had leftover rice from last night, and didn't have to make any).  And one of these days, maybe I'll try and do something with the sides and not just the main course.