# Electric knife/Carving board for Rib Roast?



## marajo (Dec 19, 2006)

How or rather with what do you slice your large rib roast?  Doesn't Alton Brown recommend an electric knife?  I am having 9 for Christmas dinner and need a large roast and want to keep it easy.  I don't have a specified slicing board either.  Recommendations please. thank you.


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## Andy M. (Dec 19, 2006)

Alton Brown sometimes gets a little weird with tools. 

Any long sharp knife will do the trick. If you have an electric knife, and you're comfortable with it, go ahead and use it. If you have a carving knife, use that. Or a chef's knife or a bread knife, etc.

Keep his technique in mind. He first cut the meat off the bones in one large piece, then trimmed off the fat and sliced it.


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## JDP (Dec 19, 2006)

Dittos Andy. I love Alton but he is always looking for muti-tasking tools which an electric knife is not. I can do fine with my old fashion manual knives and save my money for something more useful like a good digital thermometer that you can monitor the temp of you meat while it cooks so it isn't over or under cooked. As for your dedicated cutting board get some of those plastic flexible ones and you can put that on top of you other board 

Merry Christmas,

JDP


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## Michael in FtW (Dec 22, 2006)

Ditto, on the knife selection. Any long sharp knife will work - especially a carving knife or a bread knife. An electric knife may or may not be the ideal choice ... depending on where you're carving the hunk-o-beast and if you will be tripping over extension cords to use it at the table .... 

_Carving boards_ are nice - especially if your going to carve at the table and don't want the juices running off the cutting board onto the table. They generally come in 3 different configurations: (1) a groove (trough) around the outer edge, (2) groove around the outer edge with a large deeper well at one end, (3) groove, well, and a "tree" in the middle to channel juices to the well. Here is an example of the latter which shows the trough around the edge, the well, and the tree (something like this is what I would prefer for carving at the table). But, it's certainly not mandatory - especially if you're going to carve in the kitchen.


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## StirBlue (Dec 22, 2006)

I thought most people were carving half (one serving per guest) and serving all on a platter leaving an uncut portion at the end platter with a cutting knife and two prong fork lying beside the platter.  With mountains of sides at a large dinner, many people only eat one serving of meat or poultry.  
   Watching somebody carve at the table just is not entertaining as it used to be.   I suppose for some it is a very important tradition and I respect the thoughtfulness.  
   We don't use an extension cord; we use a drop cord!


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## Candocook (Dec 22, 2006)

I haven't read all the replies carefully so if I am repeating, forgive me.  The one thing I think an electric knife has going for it in carving a rib roast, particularly if the roast is rare, is that the meat "sags" and an electric knife just keeps cutting. All these other knives will do the job also IF and only IF they are razor sharp (for rare meat again). This is particularly true if you, as I do, prefer roast beef sliced fairly thin and not a big ole slab.
The trick of cutting the ribs off is also very nice for a rib roast. It can be done before roasting and then tie the meat back together. One step saved for the big day.
And a cutting board with a well to collect juices is very nice to have for these roasts.


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## Claire (Dec 25, 2006)

I love Alton's show, but do believe he makes things harder than they need to be.  Yes, I do have a nice carving set (no, no electric knife), but for many years I carved meat using a TV set ginsu knife, and no one every complained about the roast!  Food made with love is always the best ingredient.


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## Candocook (Dec 25, 2006)

Exactly--whatever does the job is what to use. 
Personally, Alton makes my teeth itch with his "schtick" that he has to do to be a food personality. Camera angles, bobbing camera, costumery, etc. It makes it impossible to get to his "points" valid though they may be.


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