Prime Rib With Horseradish Whipped Cream
This recipe is a combination of two recipes, with a few instructions added along with some horseradish whipped cream. After trying both recipes, we loved the 24 hour butter herbed rub in Williams Sonoma’s Rosemary-Rubbed Prime Rib recipe and it was combined with Paula Dean’s easy Foolproof Prime Rib recipe which works so well that it’s famous and you can find it on a lot of food websites.
It was my experience that her recipe results in a prime rib that can be medium rare or medium depending on not just the size but the shape of the roast. Some 5 to 6 pound rib roasts are shorter and wider with 3 ribs, and some are taller and narrower with 2 larger ribs. If you want to assure that it comes out exactly the way you want it, use a conventional method like Williams Sonoma’s recipe, and don’t rely solely on an instant read, use a probe thermometer with a read out on your oven or that sits on the counter as well. For their recipe you cook the roast at 450 degrees, then lowering the temperature and continue to cook the roast rather than turning the oven off, then you take the roast out at 125 degrees (rare) and it goes up the additional 5 to 7 degrees, depending on the size of a roast, to the 130 – 134 degrees (medium rare) as it sits (see ThermoWorks’ website).
The Phineas II Prime Rib restaurant in Springfield, Virginia, served a horseradish whipped cream sauce with their prime rib and after having their’s, from then on, to me it was like hamburgers and catsup, it’s just not prime rib without the horseradish cream.
Prime Rib
Ingredients
- 5 – 6 pound standing (bone-in) prime rib roast
- 3 teaspoons salt
- 1 1/2 teaspoons pepper
- 3/4 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
- 4 garlic cloves, minced
- 1/4 cup rosemary leaves, cut small
- 1 tablespoon thyme leaves, chopped fine
Instructions
Rinse the roast and pat dry with paper towels. Cut some 1/2″ deep slits in the meat about 1/2 inch apart. Mix the salt and pepper together and rub all over the roast. Mash the butter with a fork and add the garlic, rosemary and thyme. Rub the butter mixture all over the roast, wrap in plastic wrap and put in the refrigerator for 4 hours or overnight.
Next day, unwrap the roast and set on a rack inside a roasting pan fatty side up and let come to room temperature, about 1 1/2 hours. Set the oven rack at the lower third position. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees and bake the roast for 1 hour. At the end of the hour turn the oven off and do not open the door. Leave the roast in the oven for 3 hours. After 3 hours, open the door, tent the top of the roast with a small piece of foil to keep it from browning too much, and remove half of the drippings at the bottom with the turkey baster. Then close the door and turn the oven back on to 375 degrees, and set your timer to 40 minutes for reheating the roast. After 40 minutes, remove the roast from the oven and transfer it to a carving board, loosely covering it with foil, and let rest a full 15 minutes before slicing. This is so the juices redistribute and don’t come running out when you start to carve it and the meat looses juiciness and becomes tougher.
In this video Chef Michael Ollier shows you how to cut the bones off the roast and slice the meat. You use a boning knife for removing the bones to you can get around the attachments at the bottom and then a carving knife to slice the meat.
Using Paula Dean’s famous unconventional method, a roast will come out pink but, depending on its size and shape, it may be medium not medium rare which a lot of people prefer but may not be your preference. If you want to assure that it’s medium rare, use a conventional method like Williams Sonoma’s Rosemary-Rubbed Prime Rib recipe and rather than relying on the instant read that they tell you to use, use a probe thermometer with a read out that sits on the counter as well. For their recipe you start the roast at 450 degrees, then lower the temperature to 350 and at the end of an hour you continue to cook the roast rather than turning the oven off and you take the roast out at 125 degrees and it goes up the additional 5 – 7 degrees to the 130 – 134 degrees, medium rare, as it sits.
Horseradish Whipped Cream
Ingredients
- 1 cup whipping cream
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon pepper
- 3 tablespoons horseradish
Instructions
Whip the cream. I’ve found that I like it best to whip it until it’s just starting to hold a shape, not too stiff, so that it will melt over the meat. Once the cream has reached this point, add the remaining ingredients and mix. Cover and refrigerate. This sauce will hold for several days.
