h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Entry: Slow-cooked roast wing rib of beef - A35979259
Author: Pointy112 - U11879875

I cooked this last weekend and it was delicious. Although it takes 20 hours to cook there's actually very little preparation needed so it's a great dish to 'show off' with.

I'd love to be able to add the pictures directly into the articles, but I think there's some sort of restriction on doing that with entries isn't there?

will be back later to read this fully.

Looks really nice! You might want to track down the h2g2 AViators - they'll be able to help with the picture side of things.

Can I have a vegetarian version of this recipe?

It seems simple enough. The problem I see with the preparation of this dish is that you'd have to get up in the middle of the night to turn the roast And not leave the house for 20 hours, best not to leave the oven unattended...

And the cost of gas/electricity would make it expensive!

Preston Bloomin'heck never does anything quickly or cheaply

Vegetarian version:

+ Add some ground nut oil to a roasting tin
+ Sprinkle with salt and cracked pepper
+ Roast for 20 hours at 55°C, stiring occassionally.
+ Allow to cool, then drink. (*bleck*)

I've also changed the "turning the joint" thing so it's optional - I didn't do it myself, but it meant the side nearest the oven fan was ever-so-slightly better cooked than the side facing the door.

I also quite happily left the house on three separate shopping expeditions during the cooking process.

I've done this with pork. It's great in the winter when the heat overnight doesn't go to waste. One thing that struck me - normally with slow roasts you have to cover them and put loads of liquid like wine in with it - wouldn't it be dry as a bone after 20 hours uncovered?

Nice entry though

It's *such * a low temperature that it's not much more than just breathing hot air over it to warm it up a little bit.

After 20 hours the joint I cooked had hardly any fluids cook out of it. If you look carefully at picture 3 in the entry you can see there's a small amount of clear liquid in the roasting dish, but barely anything has actually cooked out of the joint, so it's still really moist.

I had the leftovers with toasted wholemeal pitta, green leaf salad and some blanched bell peppers, carrots and corgette for a few days afterwards, and I kind of miss it already...

PR thread for:
A35979259 - Slow-cooked roast wing rib of beef
by:
U11879875 - Pointy112

Wow, that looks fantastic!

Under buying - instead of just mentioning that the meat should be hung, why not go the whole hog and let us know the minimum hanging time? (doesn't Blumenthal go for 21 days or something?)

- also, adding a price is sort of meaningless because an entry isn't just for it's day on the FP it's forever (you could add: at the time of writing or something)

I'd change the Preparing sub-title to Preparation
OK, I know like to do the blowtorch thing. They really are annoying about it (I'm married to one, btw, so I'm not just being randomly rude aboutit). If you don't have a blowtorch, can you seal the meat by putting it in a large, hot pan and searing it normally? (although, of course, with crème brulée being so popular I'm assuming everyone has a blowtorch these days)

- you could mention that Groundnut oil is a "neutral oil" it really doesn't impart any flavour (whereas olive oil would)

Absolutely nothing else to add. This is making me

eep, don't know why I did that!!
my brain hurts.

Heh. I didn't have a blowtorch at the time. Well, I did - I'd just bought one, but it didn't have any fuel hence the note in the article.

What I did instead was stick a massive carving fork in it and hold it over the biggest hob ring running at full pelt. The hob didn't look very pretty aftwerwards but it did the job.

A large saucepan would probably work as well .

Action shot:

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2414/2481787590_1bee5c6d6b.jpg?v=0

wow! That's impressive. It's really like something Fred Flintstone would do!!

I've made a couple of changes suggested above:

+ Added a bit about ground nut oil in "Preparing".
+ Added a bit about searing the meat in a pan rather than using a brulee torch.

I'll do some more tweaks on the rest later.

M

Please may I have some cooked for me

Just a couple of pointers:

about 6 people = about six people

180° F or C?

It's looking good to me - and making me

One thing - can you give a Gas conversion for 55°C?

A very enjoyable entry

55 degrees C - you could probably cook this on a radiator.

Well, I found your entry quite easy to follow for a kitchen-impaired reader and it seems in pretty good shape. I only have a few comments of either the the stupid question, the typo, or the merely pedantic variety:

(stupid question) What is a diy store? (do it yourself, ie a hardware, or hobby store?)

(typo) 'just simply tieing the joint'
*tying* (unless it's different in UK, which is sometimes the case)

(merely pedantic) 'Either crush whole peppercorns in a pestle and mortar'
*with a mortar and pestle*

Um, that's about it

This sounds mouth watering.

With regard to the cost element mentioned previously, surely this would be a prime candidate for cooking in a 'slow cooker'. I'm sure that I've done something similar with said cooker. Would that be worth mentioning as an alternative?

DK

Sorry, Paliaway, I beg to differ. I've only ever known the thing as a pestle & mortar. In that order.

I only know mortar and pestle, in that order!

A quick google reveals it to be an AE/BE thing, though, so stick with pestle and mortar

(Though it is mortar and pestle in German, too!)

I realsed that it was probably a BE/AE thing as soon as I posted that. (and elgooged it)

As for Germans - well, you think they'd say it the same as the Brits for any reason?