Standing Rib Roast Help

Money_Hillbilly

I am experimenting with a 4 day dry brine followed by an ultra low 200 degree cook then after along rest a 500 degree sear.  I have read numerous articles about the tenderizing process of allowing the enzymes to do their work as long as possible while keeping meat temps in a specific internal range.  The same process that lets the SV process work so well on tough cuts for long periods of time.  I have had great success using SV for rib roast as noted in the photos below.  I just want to try another method to compare.  Any experience with this method?

Beginning the 4 day dry brine process here.

Previous Sous Vide method.

SonVolt

You'll get much better results cooking large roasts slowly in the oven than you will get with SV. You want some evaporation to intensify the flavor and develop a better crust. SV is working against you in both regards. 

PigBeanUs

you won't need a sear if it is a crisp crust you are after.

just air dry for a few days (part of the dry brine process anyway).

Ozzie_Isaac

I air dry in fridge for 5 to 7 days.  I salt 24 hrs before the cook.  Then smoke at 225-250 until IT is ~115.  I pull off at that point and rest for 30 minutes while I crank the egg up to 550-600.  Then hard sear.  Results are usually fantastic.  The crust is usually satisfactory after the smoke, but I like the results from the hard sear.

PigBeanUs

it’s a “to each his own” situation, absolutely

But have never seared a roast, and always have a crisp brown crust on both the fat and the exposed flesh. 

See so many pics here of blackened fat, smeared crust. 

usually though that is on something that hasn’t dried a few days first. 

It’s not possible to sear fresh fat. Just too wet. But dried fat, sure. 

Money_Hillbilly

@SonVolt  I am not sure I agree with you on taste and crust. I have won 2 cookoffs and over $1k with SV short ribs and the last rib roast I did SV was one of the best I have ever done.  The big variable is the size of each roast and the timing.  I need to build a chart and document the results by weight. 

SonVolt

You can definitely make great roasts with SV, I just personally  feel roasts cooked in open air are better.  Kenji / Serious Eats also agrees.  

Q: What about fancy-pants chefs who cook their ribs sous vide or sear them with various pieces of industrial machinery?[TOP]

Leave the fancy-pants methods to the fancy pants. In my experience, cooking large roasts—whether prime rib or turkey—in a sous vide water bath certainly guarantees perfectly evenly cooked results, but a lot of the deep, roasted flavor notes that you get from meat roasted in the open air are completely absent.

https://www.seriouseats.com/2014/12/food-lab-guide-to-prime-rib.html#sousvide

There is no right answer tho as your anecdotal experience shows, everyone likes what they like.

Money_Hillbilly

After 4 days dry brining in the fridge rib roast on at 7am 200 degrees.  We will see what this process yields.

Foghorn

It will yield perfection in about 3 hours or so.  As was mentioned earlier, the sear is optional.  I've done it both ways and prefer not to sear.  The dry brining is going to give you a good crust after you roast it.

PigBeanUs

Golden Brown is good, right?

Flames and black burnt stuff from a roaring sear are broseephus visuals for instagram bro-grillers. But they don’t *really* add anything. I mean... grill marks don’t have flavor. It’s carbon. Flecks of blackened sat same thing.

Those hundred year old chop houses that serve perfect roasted prime rib just let them cruise all day. 

Doesn’t always have to be “loOkIt mAh FaH-LaMeS!!!”

Runamuck

Oh my, my mouth is watering already! Take to a few degrees less than you want to finish, rest, and slice perfection. Makes for one of the best meals, and simple to do. I also like to let dry for a few days in refrigerator uncovered, dry brining the last couple days before letting come to almost room temp. Then I put on the egg at 225 + or - until done. Everyone always loves it.

Money_Hillbilly

On a 1-10 scale maybe a 6.  Cooked and seasoned about as well as I can do, tender, nice crust just not much taste or flavor.  I have to admit I have been pretty spoiled with Wagyu, this one is choice angus.  

 

Ozzie_Isaac

Did a rib roast today too.  Seared it just for the 'grams.

Foghorn

And that's why I don't sear...

Ozzie_Isaac

Foghorn said:

And that's why I don't sear...

It was flame kissed .... Usually they do not flare up like this, and I consider this result user error.

Foghorn

Ozzie_Isaac said:

Foghorn said:

And that's why I don't sear...

It was flame kissed .... Usually they do not flare up like this, and I consider this result user error.

Understood.  I've done a bunch of them that way.  But at this point I just don't think there is any real benefit to the sear.  It doesn't improve the crust.  It might make it worse.  It cooks that meat in the periphery from pink to brown.

I have to admit that I discovered this by accident one time.  I had planned to sear and I got distracted.  I let the temp get to 120 in the center.  My crowd likes it pretty rare and they get grumpy if I overcook it - so I skipped the sear.  I've never gotten such rave reviews and I had a bunch of serious foodies over for that meal.  I've never gone back.

The best systems are engineered to minimize/eliminate user error...  

That's just my $0.02.  We all need to cook and eat how we like.  There's not a right or wrong here because I'm sure I would have eaten the heck out of whatever portion of that roast you served me - and loved it.

Ozzie_Isaac

Next time I will go no sear and see how I like it.  The above flamming photo was an attempt to sear at 750+.  I traditionally do 550 with much better, if less spectacular results.

4TheGrillOfIt

I don’t see any benefit to searing.  This isn’t a steak.  The amount of surface area with crust is pretty negligible once sliced. It’s hard to achieve an even sear on such a huge chunk of meat—the spinalis will likely be overdone.