Cook's Country

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- I think I'm home I think I'm home How nice to look at you again Along the road Along the road Anytime you want me You can find me living right between your eyes, yeah Oh, I think I'm home Oh, I think I'm home -Today on "Cook's Country," Bridget and Julia streamline a classic recipe for boneless rib roast with Yorkshire pudding and jus... Jack challenges Julia to a tasting of black tea... and Ashley makes Bridget a family-favorite recipe for Lighthouse Inn potatoes. That's all right here on "Cook's Country." -In England in the early 1700s, meat was often cooked on a spit over a shallow pan in front of a roaring fire. -As large, fatty cuts like shoulder of mutton slowly roasted, the fat dripped into the hot pan below. -Then in 1737, dripping pudding was introduced in the cookbook "The

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Or, an Infallible Guide to the Fair Sex," which called for cooking a pancake-like batter right in the hot dripping pan. -Now, it became a filling first course served before the more expensive meat. It's kind of like a cheap date filling you up on bread before dinner. -And the most famous of the dripping puddings was Yorkshire pudding, known for its airiness and crisp top. -In the 1800s, recipes began making Yorkshire puddings with the drippings of beef roasts instead of mutton, and that became popular here in the States. -And that's what we're making today, the classic, very British pairing of prime rib and Yorkshire pudding. Cooking a standing rib roast, also known as prime rib, can strike fear into the heart of any cook because this is a very expensive cut of meat and you don't want to screw it up. But luckily, Bridget's here to show us how easy it really is. -No anxiety. -No anxiety. -No fear, and, actually, the better the piece of meat, there's all this flavor built inside. We don't have to add all these bells and whistles. Basically, we're gonna leave it alone as much as possible. But you do have to start off with the right cut of meat. So, you can buy these. It's a boneless prime rib. We want you to order a first-cut prime rib. But let's talk about this. This is the second-cut here. You can see, there's a small, little muscle right in the center. That's the rib eye. That's the part of meat everybody wants. -That's the good part! -It's so tender and juicy. We want more of that. So we're gonna go with a first cut. Now again, this is the rib eye. It's almost the entire thing here. So, this is a 5 -- You can go up to 5 1/2-pound rib roast. You want to order one -- you can actually see it right here -- that has a good amount of fat on it. -Oh, yeah. -But we want to take some of it off of here. It's not all going to render away. I'm gonna take a very sharp knife. And you want to leave 1/4-inch on there after you've trimmed it. And I like to use a sharp boning knife for this. It's nice and flexible. You're gonna take away the fat but not take away the meat. And it's better to make shallow cuts as you go along. And some areas will have a little bit more. It's okay if you expose some of that meat. This is getting pretty good. Now, the rest of this roast, we want to create a cross-hatch pattern. All that fat on the calf's not only going to cook up into this big, beautiful crackle, but it's also going to allow our seasonings to penetrate the top of the meat. We want to space our cuts about an inch apart. And I always like to make my first cut right from one corner to the other. And I'm being careful not to go too far into the meat. I don't want to create a whole bunch of exit channels for that juice to come out. You just want to go on a diagonal, again, about an inch apart. All right. And same thing. We're gonna go corner to corner. Really sharp knife for this. You definitely want to use a sharp chef's knife. Sometimes I use a slicing knife, too. That is looking good. -That looks great. -Now we want to season it. We're going to use kosher salt, and this is 2 tablespoons. Now, we want to season the whole thing, so I'll start on the bottom. Just work it in there. Sides. Now I am gonna work it into the cross-hatching, as well. That's looking great. All right. So, we haven't forgotten about these trimmings. We're gonna use these for the Yorkshire pudding, but we want to cut them into about 1/2-inch pieces. All right. So, this is looking good. I've got a lot more than I need for this recipe. I do need about 3/4 cup, or 3 ounces, of trimmings. That looks just about right. The rest of it, I'm gonna go throw in the freezer. -Yeah. Save it. -Now we're gonna go ahead and cover this with plastic wrap. And then, the beef roast, we're gonna leave as is, unwrapped, but we're gonna put both of these in the refrigerator for at least 24 hours and up to 4 days in advance. Now, that's really important, because you want that salt to have plenty of time to work its way into the meat. So, into the fridge it goes. -Okeydoke. -All right, so, you can see what the roast looks like after it's been in the fridge for 24 hours. It's dried out a little bit on the top. That's actually really, really good, because we want that surface to get nice and crisp. It's time to roast. -All right. -So, we have a roasting pan. -Imagine that. -And here is the 3/4 cup of the fat that I cut earlier. -Mmm! -Those little beef trimmings. Gonna scatter them all over the pan. Now, we went ahead and greased the pan, too. We don't want anything sticking to this, because we're going to be using that to make our Yorkshire pudding. -Ooh! -V-rack goes into the pan. Roast goes onto the V-rack. -Ohh! -One last thing to do before it hits the oven... Yes, thank you. You are the pepper grinder. -Mmm. Yes. -A nice shower of pepper on it. -Say when. -That's great. This is going to be slow-roasted. It's a 250-degree oven, as there's an enzyme in the meat that's activated at lower temperatures. So the longer we keep it there, the more tender the meat's gonna be. For medium rare, we want to cook this until it's about 120. It's gonna spend about 2 1/2 to 3 hours in the oven. -It's a good, long time. -Finally, Yorkies. -Yorkshire pudding! -Yorkshire pudding. Now, it's a pudding in the instance that you make a custard. That's why they're called puddings. It's not a dessert. This is 2 1/2 cups of all-purpose flour, and this is a tablespoon more of the kosher salt. We used some on the roast. Some's going to go in here. We'll whisk this together. All right, let's move on over to our eggs and milk. This is going to be a bit looser of a batter than some Yorkshire pudding batters that we found, because we want it to be custardy on the inside. A really good Yorkshire pudding should have a shell on the outside, a little chewy and a little custardy on the inside. -Mmm! -We're gonna use 4 eggs here. And we're gonna whisk in 4 cups of whole milk. Let me just break up these yolks a little bit. Go for it. That is it. -All right. -Looks like eggnog. -Hmm. -We're gonna whisk this in, gradually. Make sure it's all incorporated, and we'll start to see a batter come together. All right, so, that looks great. Now, gonna cover this with a little bit of plastic. If we were gonna use this within an hour, we would just let it rest at room temp, but since the roast is in there for a couple of hours, we're gonna put it in the fridge. -All right. -So, again, it's got to rest at least one hour. All right. It's been about 2 1/2 hours. I'm gonna take the roast out, but while I'm there, I need you to do some work. -All right. -Can you crank the oven up to 425? -You got it. -I think you can handle it. -Mm-hmm! -Hello! -Ohh! -That smells good. -Mmm! -425, you said? -Yes, please. -Hoo-hoo. That looks good. -It is so good. Now, it's not quite done yet, and this top is gonna get beautifully crackled a little later on. But we do need to check the temp. We're looking, again, for medium rare. Fingers crossed. -120? -Ish. Right into the thickest part. Sweet. It's ready to come out of the pan. Going to use the tong-and-fork method. -Ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh! -There we go. We're gonna have a little bit of spillage there. That's okay. Now, we want to let this rest for a good hour. Don't want to tuck into this meat right away. All the juices will come out. So, I've got a fine-mesh strainer. Would you mind helping me out there? -Absolutely. -All right. And just scraping any of those cracklings down in there. -Those would be amazing on a salad after you crisp them up. -We are looking for about 6 tablespoons of fat. In this case, we're just a little off, and that's totally fine. You can use a little bit of vegetable oil. I'm gonna go right in between 1/4 and 1/2. That would be 6 tablespoons. And this goes right back into the pan. We need to, again, wait for that oven to come up to 425 before we put our pan in there. We want that fat to get super, super hot, because it needs to be. Once that custard hits it, it's gonna create steam, and that's how you get lift, all right? So, just a couple minutes until that oven comes up to temp. -All right. -Oh, you can see it's just smoking. -That's a good sign. -Super hot. And I am going to put my towel on this to remind me not to grab it. -

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Yes. -Now, quickly, we need to go over to the Yorkshire pudding batter and give it a quick whisk, just to recombine it. Sometimes, as it sits in the fridge, it separates a little bit. There we go. Now into the hot pan. Right into the center. You can hear a little bit of that "ssssss." That's a good sign. -

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-This is going to go back into that 425-degree oven. And that's gonna stay in there until it gets golden-brown. We'll see it puffed around the edges. It'll be a little bit sunken in the center. And that's gonna take about 40 to 45 minutes. -All right. -All right, Julia, so, the pudding has about 15 more minutes left to cook, but, in the meantime, we're gonna sear the roast. -Yeah. -And I have a tablespoon of vegetable oil heating in this 12-inch skillet. It's over medium heat. I want to get it to the point where it just starts to smoke. That's how we'll know that the pan and the oil are hot enough to give the meat a good sear. -All right. -Keep an eye on that. In the meantime... Voil. It's still there. -Oh-oh-oh! And it's still gorgeous. -It's still gorgeous. It's rested for a good hour. Now, I do want to pat it dry so it doesn't steam in the pan. It's gonna get some good color. -Ooh, that fat's gonna cook up nice. -So, into the pan it goes. There we go. -Ooh. -And we're gonna let this color on all sides. We want to get a nice crust all over the roast. That's gonna take about 5 to 7 minutes. -Now, that is a thing of beauty. -Gorgeous, right? Time to get it out of the skillet. -I'll hold the skillet for you. -Thank you.

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Let's go ahead and make a quick jus. I have, over here, one onion that we've chopped fine. Gonna add this right to the flavorful fat. -Mmm. -And I'll cook this, still, over medium-high heat. Now, the liquid that's gonna come out of the onions, I'll use that to deglaze the pan and scrape up any brown bits. This is gonna take about 3 minutes, until the onions are softened. All right. Still scraping away. -It smells good. -Let's move over, just for a moment. We want to thicken this, but not too much. Just give it a little bit of body. Again, it's not a gravy. It's a jus. I have here a teaspoon of corn starch and 2 1/2 cups of beef broth. Add that together and whisk it. De-lump it. Let's pour this into the skillet.

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And this is really where we can start to pull up some of the brown bits on the bottom of that pan. And I'm also going to add a tiny, little sprig of thyme. It's great when you use the whole sprig. It's easy to fish out, plus the stem gives tons of flavor. We're gonna bring this to a boil. -Mm-hmm. -And once there, I'll reduce the heat to medium-low. We're gonna simmer this until it reduces and thickens, and that's gonna take about 5 to 7 minutes. -It smells so good. -You can see, it's actually thickened just a little bit. I'm gonna strain it right into this fine-mesh strainer. -Here. I'll hold it for you. -Thank you. Catch all the onion and that little bit of thyme. Press on the bottom here, make sure I extract all that beautiful jus. Now I'm gonna keep a lid on it just so it stays nice and warm. -All right. -Okay, in the meantime, it's rested just that little bit while we were making the jus. Now, with cuts like this that do have a little bit of marbling and fat, you like to keep the slices on the larger side. About 3/4-inch is fine. -Yes! -Yes! -Baby! -

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That is perfection! -It kind of is. -Ohh! It is pink all the way through. There's no gray band whatsoever. It's a perfect medium rare. -I'm gonna keep on carving this, and we can clean up, and then we'll be ready for the pudding. -Ooh, yeah. -Beau-ti-ful. Oh, it's gorgeous. -And that's that magic of that hot, hot fat. We added the batter in it, created steam, and you get that beautiful puffing. Just taking a knife, going right in there. -Ohh. -Now, you can cut this into smaller pieces for company, larger pieces, one whole one for yourself. -No. I know. -The bigger, the better. -Ready to serve. -All right. I've got some plates here. -Fantastic. -Roast beef for you. -That is such a gorgeous piece of beef. -All right. Let me give you an inside piece there. And then a little jus. -A little jus. -All right. And if that wasn't enough, we've got a little bit of horseradish sauce for you, as well. -Ohh! I love that sauce. In fact, you can find a recipe for this on the website. -You don't even need that knife for that meat. -Mnh-mnh. -It cuts like butter. -I mean, super-silky. Ohh. -So good. -Check out that Yorkshire pudding. See how nice and moist it is on the inside, too? -Oh, yeah. Look at that creamy bit. -Yes. Still a little eggy, a little custardy. -Mmm! -Mmm-mmm! -For the ultimate boneless rib roast, with Yorkshire pudding, start by salting the beef and save the fat trimmings. Roast the beef in a very low oven, with the trimmings in the bottom of the pan. While the beef rests, whisk the pudding batter and cook it right in the pan with the drippings. Before serving, sear the beef on the stovetop, then use that fond for a quick jus. From "Cook's Country," a top-drawer recipe for boneless rib roast with Yorkshire pudding and jus. -This is amazing. -I think we're gonna have to work on your British accent, though. Right, guv'nor? -

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-Welcome! Welcome!

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Tea is the most popular beverage in the world, besides water, of course. And although coffee far outsells tea here in the U.S., tea drinking is on the rise. So Jack's here to tell us which brand of black tea is best. -This is a really fascinating taste test. It's actually two tests. -I was just noticing that. -Yeah, so you either have two chances to be right or two chances to be wrong. -

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-These are the same brands in both tastings. The brands that we liked plain ended up at the bottom of the rankings when we added milk and sugar, and vice versa. And so I wanted to sort of bring this to life. What you're really looking for is black tea that has been fermented. So, it starts out as green tea. All tea begins its life as the same plant, and then it's fermented, and that develops its color and its flavor. And the big thing it's developing are the tannins. And so, the tannins, the same thing -- You know. You're a wine lover. -Mm-hmm. Yep. -It's the thing that gives red wine that sort of astringency. -Mm-hmm. -And we found that, in the plain-tasting, the ones that had low tannins did better. -Mm-hmm. -The ones that had the highest amount of tannins, almost too much tea. Things completely reversed themselves once we added the milk and sugar. Turns out there's actually something chemical going on. The casein, the protein in the milk binds with the tannins... -Ah! -...and you can't really taste them as much. And the brands that had low tannins seemed almost weak once we added the milk and sugar. -That makes sense. -Yeah. And so the fascinating thing is that the amount of tannin is the amount of tea in the bags. -Really? -Yeah. We opened up all the bags, we weighed them, and some brands have 35% more tea in the bag. So they have a lot more tannins. -So, if you're doing loose tea, you can kind of control that yourself. -Yeah, you can. So, any thoughts about these two brands? -Oh, yeah, definitely. This one was far more tannic and left a very dry, sort of sandy-tongue feeling. This one was lovely. Floral notes. The tannins, I didn't taste them as much. -All right. Let's move over to here. -All right. -So, these are the seven best-selling brands. Some of them are labeled English Breakfast or British Tea. That's all marketing. -Mm-hmm. -There is no such thing, really, as English Breakfast tea. -There's no blend that's consistent. -What's consistent here is these are all black teas and they're the top-selling brands in the U.S. Now, you've got milk and sugar. -Yeah. -We put set amounts of milk and sugar in. So, what are you noticing in terms of these two samples? -This one seems overwhelmed by the milk and sugar. It's pretty much all I can taste. This one feels more balanced. -Okay. So, where do you want to start? -Let's start over here. -All right. -So, this is the one I liked plain. And this is Twinings. And this is what our studio audience liked plain, what the tasting panel liked. -Yay. -This is the lowest amount of tannins. You really can taste the tea without that sort of puckeryness in your mouth. -Mm-hmm. -It was our favorite if you are going to have your tea straight up. -Okay, and the one that was a bit tannic? Oh. Tetley. -Tetley. Again, this had the highest amount of tannins. -Mm-hmm. -We felt like it was just a lot of tea, a lot of tannin, without any milk or sugar in there. -Okay, so, over here, this is the one I preferred with the milk and sugar. -Huh. -And that's Twinings. I'm a Twinings girl, I guess. -You know what? And the studio audience agreed with you. I want to say, you guys all don't like tannins. -No.

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I like my wine smooth and my tea smooth. And this is Tetley. -When the expert panel tasted them, they actually liked the Tetley better with the milk and sugar. They felt like the Twinings kind of faded the tea flavor behind the milk and sugar, as opposed to the Tetley could stand up. But I don't know that I've convinced you, and I know I didn't convince the studio audience. -No, I liked -- Yeah, Twinings is my tea. So, there you have it. If you drink your tea plain, you want to reach for the Twinings English Breakfast tea, which is $3.49 for 20 bags. But if you like it with a little milk and sugar, like I do, go for the Tetley British Blend at $3.99 for 80 bags.

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-One mark of a great recipe is that it lives on after its namesake is long gone. Take, for instance, Lighthouse Inn potatoes, named after the famous Lighthouse Inn in New London, Connecticut, which shuttered its doors in 2009. But we have a local connection, and it's Ashley, who's made this dish for years. And she's gonna tell us why we should be making it all the time. -So, we grew up going to the Lighthouse Inn every Friday night for dinner. And I was really excited when I found out I got to bring the recipe to "Cook's Country," 'cause it pays homage to my family. All right, well, let's get started here. So, the recipe starts with 2 1/2 pounds of russet potatoes, which I peeled first. I'm gonna cut them into one-inch chunks. -Nice and big. -Nice and big. Every time my family has a gathering, someone is assigned the Lighthouse Inn potatoes. -I love this. -Yeah. -Now, and you're using russets here. You wouldn't want to use something that was waxy, because you want these to give off some of their starch, right? -Yeah, so, russets have a high starch content, and that helps give a really nice, silky, creamy texture to the sauce. -Perfect. -Now, here I have 2 1/2 cups of light cream. So, I'm just gonna toss these in here. I'm gonna season them pretty aggressively, but it's a good thing at this stage. 2 teaspoons of salt, 1 teaspoon of pepper. And this is the controversial ingredient... -

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-...one that I think my nana is still asking me, to the day, "Is it really worth putting this ingredient in?" But it's 1/8 teaspoon of baking soda. And, Nana, Mom, it is important, because what it does is it helps to neutralize the tannins in the potatoes. They give off some of that natural acidity, a little bit of acidity. And this helps to prevent the sauce from breaking. So, I'm gonna bring this cream to a boil over a high heat, and then I'm gonna reduce the heat down to low and cook these potatoes at a bare simmer for 20 to 25 minutes. Okay, it has been 20 minutes. Let's take a look at these potatoes. You can see that everything looks a little different at this stage. -I could eat those right now. -Oh, yeah. But we're gonna have to wait a little longer. So, first, let me check for doneness. The paring knife needs to go in nice and tender, but I don't want any of the potato to crumble apart. So, that looks perfect. But, as I mentioned, it does look a little different, and I want to loosen things up a bit. So, I'm gonna be adding 6 tablespoons of unsalted butter that I cut into 6 pieces... and our remaining 1/2 cup of that light cream, because, at this stage, it's not done cooking. It's gonna finish cooking in the oven. -Okay. Oh-oh! -So, I'm gonna stir this for about one minute, just until that butter is melted. Now let's focus on the topping. -Yum. -So, here we have one cup of panko bread crumbs. That's the Japanese bread crumbs, really nice and coarse. And here we have 2 ounces, or 1 cup, of grated Parmesan cheese. -I love that this dish is so decadent. Cream, potatoes, butter. It's just not enough. Let's put some cheese and bread crumbs on the top. -

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Oh, man. So, more butter. Let's do it. -Let's do it. -4 tablespoons, unsalted, and that's been melted already. And 1/4 teaspoon of salt. Let's give this a nice little mix here. So, I'm gonna transfer these potatoes to the 13x9 baking dish here. -And it does look a little loose at this point. That's going to tighten up, right? -It will. -Okay. -So, time for the topping. -Yes. -Now, if you notice, it's a good amount of topping, but, as we said, we're really going for it here. -Oh, this is looking good. And really easy so far. -So easy. Now it's time to bake these. They're gonna bake in a 375-degree oven, on the middle rack, for about 15 to 20 minutes. -Okay.

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Ohh! Come to mama. -Yes, please. -I'm following you. -

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So, as you can see, it is bubbling around the edges. The topping is nice and golden-brown. -It's beautiful. -Thank you. -It's stunning. -So, it's almost done. We have to wait 15 minutes, though. Okay, here is your promised portion, Bridget. -Thank you. -You're welcome. And as you can see, it is not too soupy. -Mnh-mnh. Not at all. Really set up. -It definitely did. -All right, now, this one's for you. I'm diving right in. Sinful. -

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-This is so decadent and luscious. -The Parmesan cheese, the butter, the bread crumbs. -It's just about the perfect potato side dish. -Thank you. -Thank you, Ashley. -Yeah. -We appreciate it. Well, this amazing dish starts by cooking russet potato chunks and a little baking soda in light cream to create a silky sauce. Then finish with more cream and butter. Transfer the mix to a baking dish, top with a combo of panko and Parmesan, and bake until bubbling. So, from "Cook's Country," the iconic, amazing, Nana-approved Lighthouse Inn potatoes. And you can get this recipe, along with all of our other recipes, tastings, and testings, along with select episodes, on our website, CooksCountry.com. Thank you, Ashley. -Thank you. -Thank you, Nana. -

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So good. -So good. -Let us help with dinner tonight. Visit our website anytime for access to this season's recipes, taste tests, and equipment ratings. Or to watch current-season episodes, log on to CooksCountry.com.