Common Mistakes: Holiday Edition: The Roast - Bon Appetit

I ruined the Christmas roast.

It was so expensive and I overcooked it.

I don't want that to happen again.

Dawn, what do I do?

Amiel, the perfect holiday roast is actually pretty easy.

There's a few steps you cannot skip.

Number one, last night I seasoned the

hell out of this thing.

I mean, I made it rain.

You want to see the salt, you want to see the pepper.

Seasoning it like that and then wrapping it overnight

helps the salt penetrate the meat,

that means every bite is gonna be super flavorful.

Step number two, this has been resting at room temp

for two hours, that's right, two hours.

A cold roast is not gonna roast evenly.

So, let it hang out for awhile, that way it'll go in

and roast really evenly.

Then I'm gonna tie some string in simple easy knots

between each of the ribs.

That's gonna help keep the roast in like a tight little

bundle and roast really evenly.

Give it a snip and repeat, for the rest of the ribs.

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And then into the roasting pan.

So I'm gonna start the roast at a high temperature,

like 400 degrees.

It's kind of like searing in the oven.

Then I'm gonna turn it down to 275 and let it

finish low and slow.

So we're gonna cook the roast to 115,

that's medium rare.

The best way to make sure it's at the right temp

is a digital instant read thermometer.

That way there's no guesswork.

One of these, it's a holiday essential.

Okay, Amiel, I've got my roast out of the oven,

it's gorgeous, it's brown, it's juicy.

I let it rest for 30 minutes, let those juices redistribute.

Now I'm ready to carve it out.

First, let's get the strings off.

Now, there's a couple ways you can carve this guy.

You can take it off of the bone and slice it thin,

but I kind of like a dramatic approach and we're just

gonna cut it into huge chops for sharing.

Look at that, this is a super succulent roast,

perfectly pink and juicy.

One more for my friend Amiel.

And we're just gonna serve it with some garlicky aioli,

as if this wasn't rich enough but

it's the holidays, treat yourself.

A beautiful roast is that easy.

This year, you won't ruin Christmas.