Christmas dinner recommendations for beef cuts
I've offered to cook Christmas Dinner for my husband's side of the family, but have one problem. While my husband and I aren't the biggest beef eaters nor big fans of steak, my in-laws are. I don't mind cooking for their requests and find it a fun challenge to cook a different type of meat, but here's the concern: due to not regularly cooking it, I'm not as well versed in the methods or approaches.
They would prefer either a prime rib roast or beef tenderloin; both cuts I have never worked with. While there are a number of recipes out there, I would like see if anyone on Tildes has a recommendation on how to cook either cut or another of similar quality. My mother-in-law does not like a lot of pink appearing in her steaks as well, so I'm having to consider how to handle that while also not over cooking the meat. I was already considering dry brining it overnight, but after that I'm unsure what direction i would go.
Any tips and advice would be greatly appreciated!
angry Gordon Ramsay noises
If you go with this one, sous vide would be the ideal solution, but it requires food safe ziploc bags and some way to keep a vat or tank of water at a consistent temperature for a while.
This is definitely not ideal... but Guga recently made "well done" (but actually medium rare) steaks that OP could consider cooking for their in-laws. It would be a lot of effort if cooking that way for more than just a few people, but the underlying idea might still be worth considering if it's just the in-laws that are the issue. E.g. Cook the roast to medium rare, but then just pan fry + butter baste enough slices for anyone that doesn't like it that rare.
This was the giggle I needed to combat the main dish nerves! But after knowing her so long and after so many holiday dinners together, I understand she has had some overly bloody cuts due to bad cooking timing. I'm hopeful that by taking the advice here in this thread that I'll be able to get her the right temp piece.
I usually go standing rib roast with the ribs tied on. I would strongly recommend a thermometer as it's an expensive cut of meat. There are a ton of methods. I go between Alton Brown or Chef John's method if you have a good oven. You can cook it up to whatever temp you like, the thermometer gives you flexibility. Don't forget the sear no matter what direction you choose 😀. Good luck!
*Spelling edit
https://altonbrown.com/recipes/holiday-standing-rib-roast/
https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/221958/chef-johns-perfect-prime-rib/
I use Chef John’s prime rib recipe for my Christmas dinner every year and it always turns out great and is very low stress if you do all stovetop side dishes.
I'm leaning towards the Chef John possibly; thanks for sharing that link! I've enjoyed his other recipes, but simplicity might be exactly what I need for the busy weekend we have planned.
Just prepare for a smokey house as the meat gets it's nice sear. We usually have all windows and fans open, granted I'm in AZ. The herbs and butter cooking smell fantastic. As the person above mentioned opens up a lot of time for stove top cooking.
There's already a comment with a good couple of links on meat cooking and doneness, I just stopped by to suggest that you consider a traditional accompaniment of a horseradish cream sauce to help alleviate any concerns about the more-done meat's dryness, as long as your in-laws are amenable to horseradish as a flavor.
https://www.seriouseats.com/sauced-horseradish-cream-sauce
I love this idea! They've normally just bought the squeeze tube stuff in the past, but a homemade version would be perfect.
For large piece of meats, reverse cooking is the technique of choice in my household. TLDR: Brine/Marinade overnight, dry the surface with paper towel as much as your can, then cook in the oven until you reach the desired temperature, then sear on a very hot pan (or grill). You do need way to measure the temperature though, ideally a thermometer probe that you can leave in the meat.
Kenji Lopes-Alt explaining the process for prime rib in video format.
The same, in text format, with results of his experiments.
The same, again in video, but from 1 hour ago instead of 7 years ago, and with a POV angle)
For your mother-in-law, you can either set your temperature target to medium-well, or
you could try to get a more triangular piece (... or carve it yourself) and serve the thinner (and thus more cooked) piece to your mother-in-law (I never tried this and I'm not even sure it works)nevermind this is a stupid idea. What you can do is to do the initial oven cooking of the roast well in advance, then cut a piece for your mother-in-law and let it cook in the oven some more at a higher temperature. When serving, reheat at a decent temperature and sear.We've done this in the past when other family members have cooked it, so I was already considering this approach. In addition to @roo1ster tip of saving her the end of the roast which usually cooks quicker.
I would very much avoid tenderloin if the diners prefer their meat medium well to well done. With a well-done steak you want a cut with a lot of intramuscular fat - it'll be less dry and significantly less tough. Typically this will be a NY strip, porterhouse, or ribeye (AKA prime rib AKA standing rib roast.) Tenderloin is a very lean cut which will dry out rapidly.
So I'd go with the prime rib, personally. A prime rib is also a very easy cut to pull out of the oven when it reaches mid-rare, cut in half, and put one half back in to climb towards well-done.
Prime rib is trivial to cook if you have a meat thermometer; if you don't, chef John's recipe works well. Either way I'd salt the exterior pretty heavily (or use a premade steak rub, your choice) at least a day before the cook. More is better, though you'll probably want to wrap it if you're going more than one day on the dry brine.
With a thicker, quickly brined and/or sauceless piece of meat, you may need to hit it with a finishing salt after you carve it. Fleur de sel / maldon is perfect, kosher salt is fine. You won't need a lot to finish; the idea is to salt the interior a little where the brine didn't penetrate, and because the flakes will be on the surface they will taste very salty.
If you do serve tenderloin, I would 100% make a pan sauce. You should pretty much always do that with a tenderloin in my opinion, but it's especially true if you're cooking a tenderloin to well-done.
IMHO, good beef has 3 components. Seasoning, browning, and temperature. Chief amongst them is temperature, and if you have a good thermometer, it's the easiest to nail perfectly every single time including the first time.
You can go with a good instant read thermometer like the https://www.thermoworks.com/thermapen-one/ (and if you don't have one already it's a great addition to any kitchen...).
If you've got the scratch for a slightly less general purpose thermometer, I'd strongly suggest getting one with a leave-in-the-meat probe and alarm system. Leaner, expensive cuts like the ones you're contemplating have a VERY tight window for perfection (less than 3 minutes) and it's ridiculously easy (especially on crazy busy holidays) to get distracted and end up with something only your mother-in-law would appreciate.
If you're ok with cleaning and storage of wired systems, I like this one: https://www.thermoworks.com/square-dot/
Thermoworks is (imho) the gold standard for cooking thermometers and you can spend a lot more on one of their fancier options (more probes, more bells and whistles).
There are now also a ton of options for wireless meat probes that require no wires, talk to your smart phone and analyze the temp data to pretty accurately predict when desired temp will be achieved. I've had good luck with https://www.amazon.com/MEATER-Thermometer-Rotisserie-Bluetooth-Connectivity/dp/B07TJ95CBM , though it does still require your phone and the probe to be on the same wireless LAN to communicate (your phone won't be updating you on the meat temp while you run to the grocery store).
note of caution: If you pull your roast out of the oven at your desired "done" temperature, it will be over cooked by the time it hits your guest's plates. The fancier smart phone apps analyze the data collected during cooking from both an internal meat probe and an ambient probe and will tell you when to pull the roast so that it never exceeds your target temp even after you remove it from the oven.
Most beef tenderloins have a large end and a small end. If you put your probe in the large end and target it for perfection, your MIL will be well pleased with the done-ness of the small end (and if she's not, just pop her slice in the microwave for a minute on high).
Thank you for the excellent write-up on how to utilize temperature to judge "doneness!" I do have a meat thermometer already that has saved me multiple times, but I didn't consider the continual cooking once it's out to rest. I'll have to keep that in mind, but using the roast ends for less pinkness is an excellent idea!
If you're feeding a tenderloin's worth of people anyways, you can't do much better than Beef Wellington for a Christmas dinner. Here's a recipe I have used in the past. The nice part about it is all the work is done the night before, so the day of you're just putting it in the oven and tending to your other dishes.