Find out why you should be wrapping your Prime or Choice Standing Rib Roast in cheesecloth for at least a few days before you cook it for your big meal.
Seasoning your meat shouldn't just occur at the table. And it should go further back then just seasoning it before right before you cook it. I always like to find ways to season my meat while it's hanging out in the fridge waiting to be cooked. It's got nothing better to do right?
This is especially true with a standing rib roast. Find out how you can begin the seasoning process in the fridge by applying a dry aging technique using cheesecloth.
🌬️ Why Dry Age
Why should you even bother? What dry aging does is removes some of the water from the meat. But wouldn't that make it dry? We aren't talking about a lot of water just enough to intensify the flavor. With less water there is more beefy flavor. If you cook the meat to the optimal temperature it will still be plenty juicy.
The typical process of dry aging involves hanging the meat up in a humidity controlled room. Not exactly what your fridge is. But it will work well enough that it's still worth doing. It will improve the flavor of your meat.
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🧀 Why Cheesecloth?
I use cheesecloth to wrap the roast while it's dry aging in the fridge. The cheesecloth allows air to still get into the meat. If you didn't use the cheesecloth the outer part of the meat will get too hard. You want the meat to dry out but you don't want jerky on the outside! This is what a cheesemaker would do to age their cheese without it becoming too hard on the outside.
You will need to wrap your roast in about 3 layers of cheesecloth. If your roast comes tied you can just leave that on. There is no reason to remove it.
Before you wrap season your meat with kosher salt, black pepper, and if you want some dried herbs - I like rosemary. The salt will draw out moisture at first but then it will get sucked into the meat along with the other seasonings so that your roast is seasoned not just on the outside but inside as well.
📅 How Long?
The optimal time would be between 5 and 7 days. 24 hours wouldn't really be enough to do much. If I only had 3 days I would still give it a go. It will make some difference.
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🧪 Results
To show you how much water loss you could expect, I weighed the roast before and after dry aging. It started out as 5 pounds 11.5 ounces. I then dry aged the roast for 4 days in the fridge.
After the 4 days, I weighed the roast again it was at 5 pounds 7.3 ounces. That is a loss of 4.2 ounces of water weight. The meat darkened in color as well.
At the point it was time to cook the roast. I did mine sous vide. This process cooks the roast to the perfect temperature. Then I took it out, rubbed it with herb butter, and put it into a 500 degrees oven to brown the outside really fast. That butter on the outside made this roast the absolute best we ever had. Finger licking good. Here is a picture of it.
Sarah Kuhner
I just bought this for Christmas. We might just have to do this!