Rib Roast

knelson

Guys, I'm doing a rib roast-not a standing rib roast from Kroger or Costco, but one I got with the 1/4 steer I bought about 2 months ago. Weighs just under 3 & 1/2 pounds.  Thinking I will do it on a v-rack in a pan w/ red wine, apple cider vinegar, & maybe some beef consommé in the pan along with some onion, celery and rosemary off the vine. My question is this-normally I'd try to pull it @ about 125 and let it rest for 15 minutes to come out nice & rare, but the wife wants it more done. If I pull it at 135 or even 140 is it likely to turn into shoe leather? Would appreciate any thoughts or tips any of you might have re my approach, cooking time, temp etc, thanks! 

Foghorn

First, welcome aboard.  Hopefully you'll post pics of this cook and become a regular contributor.  

It seems that you know that it will rise 5-10 degrees after you pull it while it rests.  There is a gradient between rare and shoe leather .  Here's a good link that helps with that.  It's for steak and not a roast - but you get the idea.  I'll add that the colors seen in the link do not correlate precisely with my experience as it seems off by about 5-10 degrees.  

http://www.askthemeatman.com/beef_photo_doneness_guide.htm

My father preferred his steak well done - but juicy.  It is possible - if you pull the meat at a temp in the low 150s and let it rise to about 160.  When you do that, the meat is light brown but juicy.  

So, with that said, for your wife, try pulling it at 135 and see if she likes it in the medium rare to medium range.  It won't be like shoe leather.

Or just cook it the way you want it - and slice her off some on each end.  

Mark_B_Good

We did two Rib Roasts yesterday ... both 5 lbs. I had a crowd over that like their meat more on the well done side (much to my dislike) ... and my mate was really worried about seeing raw meat ... so we aimed for 145F on one and 160F on the second ... all the well done crowd was happy ... I wasn't.  The 145F was only juicy close to the bone ... next time I'd take them to 135F and the well done gang can eat the end pieces.