Jan 15 Boneless Beef Rib Roast

• boneless beef rib roast
• 6 to 8 cloves garlic
• 1 bunch fresh rosemary
• 1 small bunch fresh sage
• salt and pepper

For the past several years my mother and I have made a standing rib roast for Christmas. The first year was an unqualified disaster. We were determined we could do better and gave it a second attempt the following year, which turned out completely amazing. I think we've been trying to recapture the glory of that second year ever since. I'm not quite sure we got there this year, but it was pretty darn good.

Well, truthfully, we didn't actually make a standing rib roast this year. My mother picked up a boneless rib roast. Who knew there was such a thing? A rib roast certainly makes me think bones, but evidently they're not required. I'm assuming the poor cow it came from had ribs. I imagine they simply cut them off.

To begin with, we let the roast come up to room temperature. When that was just about ready, we made a rub from the garlic and herbs. I chopped the garlic finely, then placed the side of the knife between my fist and the cutting board and pressed down firmly on the garlic to work it into an almost paste-like consistency. I removed the stems from herbs and chopped the leaves quite finely. I then mixed the herbs with the garlic, adding just a little bit of salt for friction as I mashed it all together.

We then liberally coated all sides of the roast with salt and pepper, and applied the rub over the top and sides. Because our rib roast lacked the actual ribs, it definitely required a rack for roasting to keep it out of its own juices. We placed the rack in a pan and added just a little water to keep any of the first drippings from burning.

The roast then went into a 425° oven for 15 minutes. Afterwards, we reduced the heat to 325° until a thermometer inserted in the center read 130°. That took right around 2 hours. We then removed the roast from the oven, tented it with foil, and let it rest for a good 15 minutes or so, by which time the temperature had risen to around 140°.

There was nothing to do at that point but slice it up and serve. Even without the ribs in our rib roast, it was quite tasty.