Susan Jung's recipe for slow-cooked bone-in rib-eye and roast potatoes
Throwing a party? Spread the festive love with a slow-cooked bone-in rib-eye roast.
When I plan dinner parties, I rarely cook for more than eight, not just because I have only eight dining room chairs and eight place settings, but because I feel comfortable preparing food for that many people; any more and I start to get stressed. I make exceptions for the holidays, when I tend to invite "orphans" - friends who have nowhere else to go to celebrate. Sometimes these friends ask if they can bring other friends, which means that on occasion, the number has grown so large that I have contemplated asking guests to BYOC (bring your own chair) or BYOP (bring your own plate) - although I've never actually had to do so. The table may be crowded, with cutlery and plates that don't match, but we have a great time with plenty of delicious food and drink.
A whole rib-eye roast has seven ribs and weighs about 10kg. When you get it, you should check it fits into your oven; if it doesn't, you'll need to cut it into pieces of three ribs and four ribs (if placed just right in a large oven pan, both roasts can be cooked at the same time). A 10kg roast feeds about 25, but if you're cooking for fewer, cut the roast into the amount you'll need and freeze the rest.
The second thing you should do when you get your beef is to salt it; with a hunk of meat this big, the seasoning needs at least a couple of days (four is better) to penetrate deep into the meat, rather than just staying on the surface. I usually use 15 grams of salt for every kilo of boneless meat (the weight of the meat x .015). It sounds like a lot, but the meat won't taste salty as long as you salt it far enough in advance. Because this roast has bones, I'd decrease it to 10 grams per kilo, which is also the amount you should use if you are very sensitive to salt, or if you're salting it fewer than two days before cooking it.
Other advice: use a leave-in programmable meat thermometer that you can insert into the roast before putting it into the oven, and which has an alarm that goes off when it's reached the right temperature.