Christmas Dinner

[SuperChuck]

Funny, just yesterday I was flipping through this month's Cigar Aficianado and they suggest prime rib for Christmas dinner...

My family tends to do a beef roast or occasionally a ham....

My ex-wife doesn't celebrate Christmas so nothing special for me on Sunday.

Your ex-wife does your cooking for you?

[Kayakinboy]

Your ex-wife does your cooking for you?

CC got her lockdown... he's got a DAMN good divorce attorney!


Christmas will be a VERY big SMOKING day for me. I get up, smoke an untold story up to my mom's house. Hang out there for a couple of hours. Get some of my grandfathers FAMOUS bread that he only makes on christmas, then I get in the car, smoke something else (Double Corona sized) get home. Clean up, and drive over to the girlfriends house, which will be harder to get her over to the aunts house this year because of the wheelchair and all, eat over there, do gifts, bring her home and finally go home... I'm not a big fan of this day lol

But since you asked I'll be eating Ham, sweet potato casserole, and pumpernickel bread

[rpb67]

Christmas day is 100% Italian.

Antipasto,stuffed artichokes and stuffed mushrooms,manicotti along with meatballs and sausage.

For dessert it will be cheesecake,tiramasu,and expresso

Mixed in will be a glasses of dads homemade wine and the annual Louis XIII drink that we have every yar as well.

Merry Christmas

[mithril]

lets see, i already had one christmas dinner with my family. we had chicken. i have two more dinners to go to. one at my wife's mother's house and one at her father's house. not sure what they are preparing. but that prime rib sounds great.

[nhcigarfan]

I cook prime rib for Christmas. Here is what I do.

This first part is optional.
(I have a second fridge in the basement that makes this easier)
Get an untrimmed rib roast. Wash rib and pat dry, lightly salt and pepper, place on cookie drying rack, place rack in cook sheet, cover with paper towels and place in fridge, replace paper towels every 12 or so hours for 4 or 5 days. With a 7 pound roast you will evaporate about 3/4 to 1 pound of water out of the meat. As water itself has no flavor, the flavor of the beef will be intensified. Don't believe me? go to a high end steak house that serves dry aged beef.

Now on the day of cooking, if you did the above trim the fat and ends of the meat cutting away just enough to remove the dry looking stuff,

then re-season with salt, pepper, garlic and rosemary... or whatever seasoning you like, and allow the beef to warm to about room temperature.


Now you will need a digital thermometer, the kind with the probe that you can leave in while cooking, look for one that allows you to set a temperature alarm.

Insert probe and place roast in a 220-degree oven. Set temperature alarm for 125. Yes this will take a a couple of hours depending on the size of the roast. Once the alarm goes off remove the roast and let it rest, the temperature should continue to rise to about 135.

Turn oven up to 500 degrees. Then put the roast back in for about 10 min. no longer. This will add a nice crust.

Take out roast and place on cutting board or service tray.

Place the dish you cooked it in (the roast should be cooked on a rack or broiler pan) and put the dish on the stovetop, degrease with red wine, about a cup and a half and a cup of water,

Scrape up all the bits off the bottom of the pan and stir until almost boiling. remove, and separate the fat from the stock, return stock to a boil and reduce.


Slice, serve and enjoy.

[TheSilentChamber]

A bottle of jack daniels and a few microwaved burretos.

[stjohnroe]

Ahhh, well I am doing the standard Turkey roast this year, just for eight, and I will be starting on the Claret at 11am (probably). I would like to have done Goose, but the majority would not have it. Bugger.

Myself, I just like the Brussel sprouts.

[SuperChuck]

...
Get an untrimmed rib roast. Wash rib and pat dry, lightly salt and pepper, place on cookie drying rack, place rack in cook sheet, cover with paper towels and place in fridge, replace paper towels every 12 or so hours for 4 or 5 days. With a 7 pound roast you will evaporate about 3/4 to 1 pound of water out of the meat. As water itself has no flavor, the flavor of the beef will be intensified. Don't believe me? go to a high end steak house that serves dry aged beef.

...

Now you will need a digital thermometer, the kind with the probe that you can leave in while cooking, look for one that allows you to set a temperature alarm.

...

Good call on the probe thermometer... I started using one about a year ago and my meats have never come out so good. We set ours for about 5 degrees less than the recommended temp (it gets up to temp by the time it's served). Perfectly cooked every time.

Does the same drying technique work for any cut of beef? My favorite steakhouse dry ages their beef... I've thought about doing it at home, but I never knew how...

[nhcigarfan]

Does the same drying technique work for any cut of beef? My favorite steakhouse dry ages their beef... I've thought about doing it at home, but I never knew how...

It does, but you need un-trimmed meat (for the large cuts), and I have only done it for rib roast up to about 8 pounds. I have done it on single sirloins and filets but I only let them go a day. I knew a chef who would do whole ribs, a couple at a time in a single fridge and what he did was take a bag of rice, about 5 pounds and put it in a low, flat dish. The rice really seemed to assist in soaking up the moisture. But I have never tried it myself.

If you want to give it a shot, try it on a couple of sirloins. Dry one, and wrap the other in plastic wrap, grill them at the same time and see what you think.

One thing I noticed is that the dry aged steaks cook a little quicker than normal.