Christmas Dinner 2010

This year for Christmas I decided to cook a standing rib roast with Yorkshire pudding. It has been years since I cooked a rib roast and I've never made Yorkshire pudding. So here's what I did ...

Step One: Research

What gave me the idea was I saw someone on the food channel preparing it. So I searched for other shows that were cooking roasts and the two shows that surfaced to the top of my list were Alton Brown's Good Eats and Martha Stewart's Christmas Special. The method I most closely followed was Alton Brown's.

Step Two: Shop

I looked through the local papers and my local butcher shop, Bolner's , for any specials on standing rib roast and settled on H.E.B.'s Central Market. I like their butcher shop and really like that store.

Step Three: Start Cooking the Rib Roast

I used a probe thermometer in cooking the roast. I also used a glass bake-ware dish so I could make au jus from the drippings. Here are the steps I took.

1. Scar the top of the roast and coated it with olive oil, salt and fresh ground pepper.
2. Place the roast with probe thermometer in pre-heated 225 degree oven. Set the thermometer to alarm once the internal temperature of the roast reaches 118 degrees. It took approximately 3 and a half hours to reach 118.
3. Take the roast out of the oven, cover loosely with foil, and allow to rest until the internal temperature reaches 130 degrees.
4. Set oven to 500 degree. Place the roast in the oven once the internal temperature reaches 130 for approximately 10 to 15 minutes.
5. Take roast out of the oven, cover with foil and let rest until ready to serve.

Step Four: Yorkshire Pudding

1. The batter consists of 2 cups of all purpose flour, 4 eggs and 3 cups of milk. Add the milk a cup at a time until the mixture is the consistency of heavy cream. Let it sit for 30 minutes prior to baking. Click here for the recipe I used.
2. Take grease from the drippings using a baster and cover the bottom of each muffin cup of a muffin pan.
3. Pour enough batter into each cup to cover about 1/3 of the cup.
4. Bake in the oven at 400 degrees for 20 to 25 minutes.