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Beef, Roast Ribs of
INGREDIENTS. Beef, a little salt. AVERAGE COST, 10d. per lb.
The fore-rib is considered the primest roasting piece, but the middle-rib is considered the most economical. Let the meat be well hung (should the weather permit), having previously cut off the ends of the bones, which shou which should be salted for a few days, and then boiled. Put the meat down to a nice clear fire, with some clean dripping in the pan, dredge the joint with a little flour, and keep continually basting it all the time it is cooking. Sprinkle some fine salt over it (this must never be done until the joint is dished, as it draws the juices from the meat); pour the dripping from the pan, put in a little boiling water, and strain the gravy over the meat. Garnish with tufts of scraped horseradish, and send horseradish sauce to table with it. A Yorkshire pudding sometimes accompanies this dish, and, if lightly made and well cooked, will be found a very agreeable addition.
BEEF PRESSED.
TIME.-10 lbs. of beef, 2½ hours; 14 to 16 lbs., from 3 to 4 hours.
SEASONABLE at any time.
Beef, Roast Ribs of, Boned and Rolled (a very convenient Joint for a Family). INGREDIENTS.-1 or 2 ribs of beef. AVERAGE COST, 10 per lb.
Choose a fine rib of beef, and have it cut according to the weight you require, either wide or narrow. Bone and roll the meat round, secure it with wooden skewers, and if necessary, bind it round with a piece of tape. Spit the beef firmly, or, if a bottle-jack is used, put the joint on the hook, and place it near a nice clear fire.
Let it remain so till the outside of the meat is set, when draw it to a distance, and keep continually basting until the meat is done, which can be ascertained by the steam from it drawing towards the fire.
As this joint is solid, rather more than 1/4 hour must be allowed for each lb. Remove the skewers, put in a plated or silver one, and send the joint to table, with gravy in the dish, and garnish with tufts of horseradish. Horseradish sauce is a great improvement to roast beef.
BEEF, ROAST SIRLOIN OF.
TIME. For 10 lbs. of the rolled ribs, 3 hours (as the joint is very solid, we have allowed an extra 1/24 hour) ; for 6 lbs., 1½ hour.
SEASONABLE all the year.
Note. When the weight exceeds 10 lbs., we would not advise the above method of boning or the joint cannot stand upright in the dish, and rolling; only in the case of 1 or 2 ribs, when would look awkwardly. The bones should be put on with a few vegetables and herbs, and made into stock or soup.
Two roasts in one entry: bone-in ribs cooked at an open fire, and the same joint boned and rolled. Almost everything here translates to an oven, but the timing and the salt advice do not.
- The fire is now an ovenBoth versions assume a joint turning on a spit or bottle-jack in front of a clear coal fire, with a dripping pan beneath. In an oven, sear the joint at 450F for 20 minutes, then drop to 325F for the rest; set it on a rack over a roasting tin so the fat still collects for basting and gravy.
- Cook to temperature, not to the clockBeeton's 15 minutes per pound for bone-in and roughly 17-18 for the rolled joint will overshoot rare beef badly on a modern rib. Use an instant-read thermometer in the centre: 125F for rare, 130-135F for medium rare, then rest 20-30 minutes before carving.
- The steam test"The steam from it drawing towards the fire" is the doneness signal this recipe gives for spit roasting: the meat throwing off visible steam toward the heat source. It has no equivalent in a closed oven and should simply be ignored.
- SaltingThe instruction not to salt until the joint is dished rests on the old belief that salt draws out the juices. Modern practice is the reverse: salt the surface generously an hour ahead, or a day ahead uncovered in the fridge, for better browning and seasoning that reaches past the crust.
- "Well hung"This means dry-aged in a cold larder, which is why the weather is mentioned. Ask a butcher for beef aged three to four weeks; supermarket rib is usually wet-aged and will taste milder and be slightly wetter in the pan.
- Dripping and the flour dredgeClean dripping is rendered beef fat, still sold in tubs; any neutral fat works. The flour dredge browns the outside and thickens the drips slightly -- it is optional if you sear at high heat first, and continuous basting is unnecessary in an oven, where two or three bastings suffice.
- Fore-rib and middle-ribFore-rib is the British cut sold in the US as a standing rib roast or prime rib. Middle-rib is the neighbouring cut towards the shoulder, cheaper and a little coarser. Ask for the chine bone removed and the joint chined for carving.
- The gravyPouring off the fat, deglazing with a little boiling water and straining gives a thin jus, not a thickened gravy. Use good beef stock instead of water for more body, and use the cut-off rib ends and bones as the note suggests -- roast them with onion, carrot and herbs for that stock.
- YieldAllow about 12 oz of bone-in rib or 8 oz of boned and rolled beef per person; a 10 lb bone-in joint serves 10 to 12 with cold beef left over. Tape has largely given way to butcher's twine, and wooden skewers to metal ones.
Roast ribs of beef is the joint at the centre of the Victorian middle-class Sunday table, and Beeton treats it as a household fixture rather than a special occasion -- hence the average cost per pound, the note on which rib is most economical, and the reminder that the bones become soup. The entry captures a technology in transition: the spit is still assumed, but so is the bottle-jack, a spring-driven clockwork hook that hung a joint in front of the fire and turned it automatically, freeing a servant from cranking. The boned and rolled version is offered explicitly as a family convenience, easier to carve and to serve cold later in the week. Horseradish with beef is an English pairing of long standing, generally traced to the seventeenth century, and Yorkshire pudding, cooked in the older manner beneath the turning joint to catch the drippings, is mentioned here as an optional extra rather than the obligation it later became.