Now is the time of year when dietary splurges can be indulged. While treating everyone to a restaurant's filet mignon is cost-prohibitive for most budgets, you can celebrate the holidays with family, friends and a large roast. It'll cost way less than you think - a spectacular way to end the year.
Here are five roasts to feed a crowd - a beef tenderloin and a standing rib roast, as well as rack of lamb, a crispy-skinned pork roast and whole roast fish.
With the recipes and how-tos, you'll be confident enough to cook just about any large piece of meat or whole fish. That way, you can remain practically stress-free. At least when it comes to cooking the main course.
Lamb - especially rack of lamb - is best when medium-rare. A half rack of lamb can weigh from a little less than 1 pound up to 1 3/4 pounds. It almost always has eight bones, unless one has accidentally broken off.
The larger racks generally come from domestic lamb producers. Northern California lamb is often grass-fed, generally has less fat, and tastes milder and less gamy compared with its imported counterpart.
Racks are usually fancied up by stripping about 1 1/2 inches of meat, fat and connective tissue from the ends of the bones, which is called "frenching;" hold the frilly paper caps, please. Depending on where you purchase the rack, it can come fully frenched, with the thick fat cap removed; or partially frenched, where more of the fat is left on but most of the meat and connective tissue is removed.
Fully frenched racks are grill-ready, although with a bit more fat than you might need for roasting; feel free to trim that. You should also trim away any tough silver skin.
Season the racks liberally with salt and pepper. Other variations such as marinating, seasoning with herbs or adding an herb-mustard crust are also good, as is pairing the lamb with a tangy sauce.
Large pieces of meat can be intimidating, especially when the skin is left on - for example, in a fresh, 9-pound picnic pork roast. But this very affordable cut of pork can be purchased for less than $3 per pound, partly because it is always sold with the bone and skin. The picnic comes from the upper "arm" where it attaches to the shoulder.
Because this is a very active muscle, it must be braised or cooked long and slow over low heat, so the meat becomes tender and the tough connective tissue develops a rich unctuousness.
