Method

• 1.
  Make the horseradish sauce ahead of time (the day before is fine). Combine all the ingredients, except the creme fraiche, and a pinch of sugar in a small bowl, and leave to macerate for an hour or two. Then stir in the creme fraiche. Cover and keep in the fridge, removing it an hour before serving to bring to room temperature.
• 2.
  Ideally, take the beef out of the fridge the night before you intend to cook it and keep it in a cool larder overnight, then leave it in the kitchen for a couple of hours before roasting. Preheat oven to 200°C. Massage beef with olive oil or dripping and season lightly all over with sea salt and black pepper. Place in a roasting tray and put into the hot oven to cook for 30-40 minutes, until meat is well browned and sizzling. Turn oven down to 150°C (leave oven door open for half a minute to help it cool quickly). I don’t want to be over- prescriptive about timings. You have a nice buffer of fat on one side and bone on the other, and you want the outer muscles to be well done. For the full 4 ribs and a joint that’s over 5kg, give it another 1 hour 20 minutes for a very rare ‘eye’ and up to 2 hours for ‘still just pink in the middle’. For 3 ribs, or a less well-covered joint, the range is more like 1 hour 10 minutes- 1 hour 40 minutes. You can also use a meat thermometer to check the cooking, inserting it into the thickest part of a central rib: a reading of 55°C indicates very rare meat, while 65°C will be just pink. When the meat is cooked to your liking, remove from the oven, reserving roasting tray and juices, and transfer to a warm serving plate or carving tray. Cover loosely with foil. Leave to rest for no less than 30 minutes before carving and serving.
• 3.
  While the meat is relaxing, make your gravy. Carefully pour off almost all the fat from the roasting tray, without losing any juices or burnt bits. Discard excess fat. If the tray is not too flimsy, you can place it over a medium heat and bring the juices to a sizzle. Sprinkle over 1 tsp flour and rub into the juices with a spatula. Work the spatula into the corners, scraping up all the burnt and sticky bits, sloshing in the wine and some of the stock as you go. Strain through a fine sieve into a small saucepan for the final tweak.
• 4.
  Bring your gravy to the boil, whisking to emulsify and thicken it. Taste and add a bit more stock, salt and pepper if needed, as you like. You can make it thicker by whisking in a little more flour, but go carefully, and always bring back to the boil, stirring, to cook out the flour. Keep gravy warm over a very low heat, then transfer to a gravy jug before serving.
• 5.
  Bring the joint to the table to show everyone, even if you’re going to carve it on another surface. Slice all the meat away from the bones. Then release the central muscle that is the ‘eye’. Thickly slice the outer layers, and thinly slice the eye. Everyone can have something almost burnt, and something pink or rare, or even a rib to gnaw on, according to preference. Serve up the meat on warm plates, with roasties and greens, and pass around the gravy and horseradish sauce at the table.