Description
The forerib is the joint every other roast is measured against. It is the eye of the sirloin left on its ribs, wrapped in a seam of fat that bastes the meat from the outside while the bones hold the heat and do the same from within. Nothing else roasts like it, and nothing else carves like it at the table.
Ours is English Longhorn, one of the oldest cattle breeds in Britain and one that came close to being lost in the middle of the last century, when it was too slow and too old-fashioned for a market that wanted cattle finished quickly. It survived because a small number of people kept it going. We raise ours on Herefordshire pasture and give them the years the breed needs, which is where the marbling comes from, fine threads of fat through the muscle that melt as it cooks and do the work that no amount of seasoning can.
Hung on the bone and butchered on site by Jim and the team, then trimmed, chined and tied so it is ready for the oven as it arrives.
Choosing a size:
Two Rib. Approx. 4kg on the bone, £108. Serves six to eight generously, with enough left for sandwiches the next day. A Sunday lunch joint.
Four Rib. Approx. 8kg on the bone, £216. Serves twelve to sixteen. The size to order when the whole family is coming, or for a christening, a birthday or Christmas.
Six Rib. Approx. 12kg on the bone, £299. Serves eighteen to twenty-four. A proper occasion. We will cut it into two joints at no extra cost if it suits your oven better — most domestic ovens will not take twelve kilos in one piece.
Sold on bone-in weight. No two joints are identical, so weights vary a little either way. If you need a joint to a particular weight for a particular table, call us and we will find one.
Cooking
Take the joint out of the fridge a good two hours before it goes anywhere near the oven. Season it heavily. Start it hot, at 240°C for twenty minutes, then drop to 160°C and give it roughly fifteen minutes a kilo for rare, twenty for medium. Use a thermometer if you have one: 52°C at the centre for rare, 58°C for medium. Then rest it, standing on the bones, for at least half an hour and up to an hour. It will not go cold, and it needs the time.
