For Thanksgiving this year I was fortunate enough to spend it at work with a great group of guys, and my family as well. We had several different dishes and meats. We deep fried a turkey, which may very well been the most tender, moist, best tasting turkey I have ever had! Kudos to Aaron on great brine and perfect cooking time! We also had a ham and of course, some BEEF! I picked up a standing rib roast from R&B Meats in Continental, Ohio. I couldn't ask for a better cut, it was marbled very well, it was fresh, and the flavor was outstanding.
First off, lets talk about prime rib briefly. I am not an expert, but to my knowledge there are two different ways you can get prime rib, bone-in or no bone. I have cooked both and I will say that my favorite was the bone-in or standing rib roast. The roast with out any bones is referred to as a rolled rib roast. If you have read my blog before you know that I am not afraid of fat in my beef! Having said that, I like it to be marbled extremely well. It makes the meat more tender, and adds flavor throughout the entire cut of meat as it cooks. Prime rib is usually an excellent example of good marbling. Many people, will tell you if a prime rib is pink, it is over cooked! I prefer prime rib served medium.
Also, when getting the prime rib from your butcher, ask him to either tie it for you, or net it. This will keep the roast from falling apart while you are cooking.
Whenever I talk to someone about cooking a prime rib, they freak out because they think they will ruin an expensive and very good cut of meat. I think that prime rib is fairly simple IF you remember a few things while preparing and cooking it. So... your buying the roast, you'll need a half to full pound of meat for each person your feeding, depending on appetites. After you bought the prime, take it home and coat the roast in fresh cracked black pepper (coarsely) then cover the roast in kosher salt. I let mine sit in the fridge overnight and let the salt work in to the meat. It may seem like to much salt but it isn't at all, and there is a lot of meat there. The next day or at a minimum a few hours later, pull out the roast and let it warm up (room temp) before starting the cooking process. FYI, some recipes will tell you to cut in to the prime and insert garlic, or rosemary, or other aromatics. As long as you keep these things from burning you can add whatever you'd like for flavor purposes. Personally, I enjoy the simple seasoning of salt and pepper.When you place the roast in your roasting pan ALWAYS place the roast fat side up! This allows the juices to flow through the prime and add flavor. If you place the fat side down, you'll lose all that flavor and if it burns on the bottom, it will just add more to the clean up.
The next step of putting the roast in the oven can vary based on what you want. You can cook the roast low and slow and the roast will remain more moist and tender, or you can crank you heat up to 500 degrees and sear the outside creating a crust on the outside, which will also help hold in the juices! You will lose some tenderness from searing it but it gives you a good crust on the outside which adds really good flavor. Cooking "low and slow" might be your choice if it is your first time cooking a prime rib. It is easier to control the end product and temperature of the meat, and it has the least amount of variables. "Cooks Illustrated will tell you to roast at 200 degrees F for 30 minutes per pound. So if you have a 5 pound roast you will roast for 2.5 hours. Now take what I just said as a rule of thumb and do the following in the last hour. Get a meat thermometer and check the internal temperature. You always want to cook it to about 5-10 degrees less than what you are actually shooting for. You are going to let the roast rest for a minimum of 10 minutes and it will continue to cook while it is resting. Letting the roast rest, allows all of the juices to remain in the roast and make it more tender and flavorful. So if you want a rare roast, cook to a final internal temperature 130-140 degrees, medium 145-155. So if you want a roast cooked to medium pull it out of the oven at 135 degrees and let it rest for 10-20 minutes and the end temperature will end up at about 145 degrees.
The other method is to preheat your oven to 500 degrees. Take the weight of the roast and multiply by 5 for your cooking time. So if you have a 6 pound roast cook it at 500 degrees for 30 minutes. After the 30 minutes shut the oven off and do not open the door! Let it stay in there for 2 hours. This method doesn't not allow you check the temp through the cooking process and makes me go crazy because I'm not in the loop as to what the internal temp is. If you have a wireless electronic meat thermometer, this would probably be my choice in cooking methods though!
So your roast is cooked! Now it is time for you to slice it and enjoy your product!
