This has been our Christmas Dinner for the last 7 or 8 years and it is my favorite way to do a standing rib. Of course, it will be on our table again this year too. And I highly recommend the Brandied Mushrooms to go along with it.

Alexa

HERBED RIB ROAST
Active time: 30 min Start to finish: 11 hr
For roast
1 (7- to 8-lb) prime rib roast (sometimes called standing rib roast; 3 or 4 ribs)
1 tablespoon whole black peppercorns
2 bay leaves (not California)
1 tablespoon kosher salt
3 garlic cloves
1 teaspoon chopped fresh thyme
1 teaspoon chopped fresh rosemary
1 tablespoon olive oil

For jus
2 cups beef broth
1 small fresh rosemary sprig
1 small fresh thyme sprig
1 garlic clove, smashed

Prepare roast: Trim all but a thin layer of fat from roast. Grind peppercorns and bay leaves with salt to a powder in an electric coffee/spice grinder, then transfer to a mortar. Add garlic, thyme, and rosemary, then pound to a smooth paste with pestle. Stir in oil. Rub paste all over roast. Transfer roast to a rack set in a small flameproof roasting pan. Marinate, covered and chilled, at least 8 hours.

Cook roast: Let roast stand at room temperature 1 hour.

Preheat oven to 450°F.

Roast beef in middle of oven 20 minutes. Reduce temperature to 350°F and roast beef until a thermometer inserted into center of meat registers 110°F, 1 1/2 to 1 3/4 hours more. Transfer beef to a large platter and let stand, uncovered, 25 minutes. (Meat will continue to cook, reaching about 130°F for medium-rare.)

Make jus: Skim fat from pan juices. Add broth, rosemary, thyme, and garlic and deglaze pan by simmering on top of stove over moderate heat, stirring and scraping up brown bits. Transfer to a small saucepan and add any juices that have collected on platter. Gently simmer 10 minutes. Skim fat and season jus with salt and pepper.

Put slices from roast and serve with jus.

Cooks' note:

 Roast can marinate up to 24 hours.

Makes 8 servings.
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Brandied Steakside Mushrooms Recipe courtesy Paula Deen
See this recipe on air Sunday Dec. 19 at 7:00 AM ET/PT.

Recipe Summary
Difficulty: Easy
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 20 minutes
Yield: 4 to 6 people
User Rating:

3 pounds fresh mushrooms, sliced lengthwise
8 tablespoons butter
Seasoning salt (suggested: Jane's Krazy Mixed-up salt)
1/4 cup Worcestershire sauce
1/2 cup brandy

In a large skillet, saute the sliced mushrooms in the butter until brown. Sprinkle liberally with seasoning salt. Add Worcestershire sauce and simmer until almost all sauce is absorbed by the mushrooms. Add the brandy and continue to simmer until mushrooms are tender.
Serve with steak or roast beef.

Hi Sue. This will be the third year in a row of doing this for my family Christmas dinner...it has been extremely successful and everyone asks for it again!
And I am the queen of not handling last minute stress very well - lol. This recipe is amazing and not alot of last minute stuff to do. The sauce is great and most of it can be done ahead of time. and I also never used the watercress. And it's from our very own Sharon through krasna.

Stacy

Beef Tenderloin With Roasted Shallots, Bacon And Port (Krasna) - chase
1 1/2 Lb shallots (about 24) halved lengthwise and peeled)
3 Tbl olive oil
6 Cup beef broth
1 1/2 Cup tawny Port
1 Tbl tomato paste
2 3 Lb beef tenderloins, trimmed
2 Tsp dried thyme (I'd use fresh)
7 bacon slices chopped
6 Tbl butter
1 1/2 Tbl all purpose flour
1 Bunch watercress (I'd omit)
Position rack in center of oven and preheat to 375F. In 9-inch- diameter pie pan, toss shallots with oil to coat. Season with salt and pepper. Roast until shallots are deep brown and very tender, stirring occasionally, about 30 minutes. Boil broth and Port in large saucepan~
until reduced to 3 3/4 cups, about 30 minutes. Whisk in tomato paste.

NOTE: This may be done a day ahead
Pat beef dry; sprinkle with thyme, salt and pepper. In large
roasting pan , saute bacon over medium until golden, about 4 minutes. Using slotted spoon, transfer bacon to paper towels. Add beef to pan; brown on all sides over medium-high heat, about 7 minutes. Transfer pan to oven; roast beef until meat thermometer inserted into center registers 125F for medium-rare, about 45 minutes. Transfer beef to platter. Tent loosely with foil.
Spoon fat off top of pan drippings in roasting pan. Place roasting pan over high heat. Add broth mixture and bring to boil, scraping up any browned bits. Transfer to medium saucepan; bring to simmer. Mix 3 tablespoons butter and flour in small bowl to form smooth paste; whisk into broth mixture and simmer until sauce thickens, about 2 minutes. Whisk in 3 tablespoons butter. Stir in roasted shallots and reserved bacon. Season sauce with salt and pepper.
Cut beef into 1/2-inch-thick slices. Spoon some sauce over.
Garnish with watercress. Pass remaining sauce.
Serves 12.
Note: I think if you had the butter/flour paste and the rest of the butter the shallots and the bacon all lined up the sauce would be easy enough to finish off.

I'm in the Prime Rib camp!! My rub is pretty much the same as Alexa's.
We saved a whole Rib Roast from our small beef this fall. Probably 8-9 ribs, 20# range.
Can't wait to roast on Christmas! The Brandied Mushrooms sound like a perfect side!

Deanna

We would always serve my dad's Barbecue Beef Brisket. It would marinate and be cooked ahead of time, cooled and sliced, and reheated with the barbecue sauce in the oven. It may not be quite what you had in mind, but it's really good.

Barbecue Brisket

3-4 pound brisket
3-4 T. liquid smoke
1 t. garlic, powdered
1 t. onion, powdered
2 t. celery seed
1-1/2 t. salt
2 t. Worcestershire sauce
2 t. freshly ground pepper
2 T. soy sauce
1 cup barbeque sauce (your choice)

Cover both sides of brisket with a marinade made from all the ingredients except for the barbeque sauce. Place brisket in a 9x13 inch pan, fat side down. Cover and marinate meat in refrigerator overnight. The next day, cover pan with foil and bake in a slow oven (300 degrees) for five hours. Pour off liquid and reserve. Cool brisket. Slice against the grain, and fan the slices in the pan, adding a portion or all of the reserved liquid. Baste the brisket with barbeque sauce and heat for serving.

Another fan of prime rib here! Claire's bbq brisket would be a good option too. The brandied shrooms that Alexa posted are out of this world. I've made this one a couple of times over the years.

Posted by woodie2 (My Page) on Thu, May 4, 06 at 18:41

This is Ina Garten's method (The Barefoot Contessa) and if I could get it right, anybody can.
FILET OF BEEF
Serves 8 to 10
1 whole filet of beef (4 to 5 pounds), trimmed and tied
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature
1 tablespoon salt
1 tablespoon coarsely ground pepper

1. Heat oven to 500. Place beef on a baking sheet; pat the outside dry with a paper towel. Spread butter on with your hands. Sprinkle evenly with salt and pepper. Roast for exactly 22 minutes for rare and 25 minutes for medium rare.

2. Remove from oven; cover tightly with foil and allow to rest at room temperature for 20 minutes. Remove the strings and slice the filet thickly.

Serve with Gorgonzola Sauce.

Gorgonzola Sauce

Copyright, 2001, Barefoot Contessa Parties!, All rights reserved

Prep Time: 10 minutes Cook Time: 50 minutes
Yield: 3 cups

4 cups heavy cream
3 to 4 ounces crumbly Gorgonzola (not creamy or "dolce")
3 tablespoons freshly grated Parmesan
3/4 teaspoon kosher salt
3/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
3 tablespoons minced fresh parsley

Bring the heavy cream to a full boil in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat, then continue to boil rapidly for 45 to 50 minutes, until thickened like a white sauce, stirring occasionally.

Off the heat, add the Gorgonzola, Parmesan, salt, pepper, and parsley. Whisk rapidly until the cheeses melt and serve warm.

If you must reheat, warm the sauce over low heat until melted, then whisk vigorously until the sauce comes together.
Knowing you I'm sure it will be a great party Sue! What time should we be there...LOL!

David

I'm sure yours guests will be fine with whatever you make, even if it's not piping hot. You're not a restaurant and hopefully people are there for the company of friends and loved ones, LOL!

Don't stress yourself out over it. Life is too short to obsess over constant perfection.

Cold prime rib? I don't think it cools that much, by far.
I love, love prime rib but if you don't want to do that, I would serve a tenderloin.
I prefer a high heat prime rib, also. Though my holiday parties are small, there is always at least one or two who will not eat rare prime rib, so they get the ends.

You can do most of a tenderloin and mushrooms with garlic mashed potatoes in advance. I've served it to 10. It'll certainly keep the vampires away, and you should have a cardiologist or two on call!

Beef Tenderloin/Chateaubriand

Tenderloin (for 4) or two (for 8 or 10 guests), depending on how many guests you're serving
Mushrooms
Butter
Cream
Garlic
Salt and pepper

Mince several cloves garlic, mix into soft butter, set aside.

Heat oven to 450*. Put a thin film of olive oil in an oven-safe pan and make it very hot. Salt and pepper the roast liberally; sear the tenderloin on all sides in the hot pan, put in hot oven for 13-15 minutes (depending on size) for rare. Let roast rest 5 minutes before carving.

While meat is roasting (or in advance, if you prefer) heat butter in saute pan, saute mushrooms; add salt. When cooked, add 1/2 Cup cream in two steps, heating and stirring while cream cooks and thickens. As you turn off the heat, add minced garlic and stir. (At this point mushrooms can sit in the pan until you reheat them just before serving). Serve over slices of beef.

Garlic Mashed Potatoes For 4
5 or 6 Russet potatoes, peeled and cut
1 Cup Cream
1/2 stick Butter
4 or 5 cloves Garlic, minced

With the lid on the pan, cook the potatoes in the cream, 1/4 stick butter and garlic until potatoes are fork tender. Mash with fork or mixer until desired consistency. Add more cream if necessary, taste for salt. Tuck the rest of the butter into the potatoes just before serving.

Nothing like a great Rib Eye...Ive done this very successfully and Johnny enjoys to go out to the grill with a nice Rum & Coke and do his thing....Im a big chatty cathy story teller so I hold down the fort very nicely..Prime rib is another favorite you could slice it and kepp in in a very low temp oven for a bit...Id under cook it though!

Sue, this is our favorite Christmas dinner fillet! It's easy, can be made a head of time and is very elegant:

Tuscany Stuffed Tenderloin
1 onion, diced
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 pound fresh spinach, chopped
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
1/3 cup shredded Parmesan cheese
3 tablespoons drained and chopped dried tomatoes in oil
1 (4-pound) beef tenderloin, trimmed
Garnish: fresh parsley sprigs

Sauté onion in hot oil in a large skillet over medium heat until tender. Add spinach, salt, and pepper, and sauté 1 minute or until spinach wilts. Remove from heat, and stir in cheese and dried tomatoes.
Cut tenderloin lengthwise down center, cutting to, but not through, bottom. Lay flat, and spoon spinach mixture down center of tenderloin. Fold tenderloin over mixture, and tie with string at 1-inch intervals. (Tenderloin won't completely close.) Chill 2 hours, if desired. Place, cut side up, on a rack in a roasting pan. Cover exposed filling with a strip of aluminum foil.
Bake at 425° for 50 minutes or until a meat thermometer inserted into thickest portion of tenderloin registers 145° (medium-rare). Let stand 10 minutes before slicing; garnish, if desired.

Yield: Makes 10 servings

obxgina, your thinking is in line with Elery's. Last year he made a braciole for his family Christmas, it was very well received.

I kind of just like plain beef, with nothing added and no sauce, but everyone else likes the fancier stuff.

Annie

Any of the rolled rib, standing rib,stuffed fillet roasts posted here would have the same issue of cooling that you mentioned you wanted to avoid.
I don't really see anything that would stay hotter other than perhaps a stew type of dish served from a chafer or tureen on the table.
I have a recipe for a beef stew with dried cherries and lots of caramelized onions and I think mushrooms....if I can remember where I put it.
And there are things other than beef....like lamb shanks for example.
Linda C

I was going to suggest the recipe Stacy posted. It is excellent and I have never had an issue with it cooling too much.

Another thought is Beef Wellington. Great presentation and for sure no cooling or last minute issues. Somewhere I have a great recipe for it....but where?

Thank you everyone. My tongue is hanging out of my mouth reading these. All winners.

What to do, what to do.....

Sue

For those of you who hate room temp Prime Rib? Keep a pot of au jus simmering on the stove while the roast is resting. Place your dinner plates on a tea towel in the oven to keep warmed.
When time to cut & serve? I inquire to my guests, as to what degree they prefer..(rare, med rare, etc). For any who prefer it over med rare? Just dip their slice into the pot of au jus for just a minute (or two if med.well, etc).
I usually serve on 2 plates..one for the rare & med rares & the other for the medium & medium wells.
I also blend sour cream w/a zesty horseradish & a dollop of cream cheese and place a bowl of that on the table, for those who don't prefer dipping into the au jus bowl.

Thanks guys. I posted my woes of the evening on another thread. basically I undercooked the roast and had to put it back in after our helper already had cut it into steaks.

The port sauce was very good. I added some more turkey stock (thats what I had on hand) and reduced it for more sauce and it was lovely. The brandied mushrooms were very good too.

My meat did get cold which I knew would happen, but no one seemed to mind. Everything was wonderful.

Next time I think Ill slice the roast into steaks and cook them individually. With a helper, those last minute things aren't such a big deal.

Thank you all for your ideas and suggestions. I've saved each and every one of these to my files.

Sue