Calling all Prime Rib chefs...

Sac Arrow

Sac Arrow

Touchdown! Greaser!
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Full disclosure: I'm not new to the game. But I am looking for a new approach. I am currently sitting on a standing rib roast, USDA grade prime, aka Prime Rib, roughly 4.5 pounds in weight. The standard procedure is to preheat the oven to 350 degrees, and cook until the meat thermometer indicates medium rare, which ends up being closer to medium. Yes... I know. I like rare, but, I try to achieve a workable medium without needing to have people nuke it or slap it in a frying pan, but that's a different story. It's too small to cut in to two pieces.

I've read recipes that would have you sear for 20 minutes at 450 and reduce to 325, and it reduces the cooking time even. Thoughts?
 
Starting it at 450 puts a sear on it and keeps the moisture in the meat. It's a critical step.
 
I've used the second method (high heat first) but with a slight twist. This is apparently a Paula Deen recipe. Works great.

Directions
  1. Allow roast to stand at room temperature for at least 1 hour.
  2. Preheat the oven to 375 degree F. Rub roast with House Seasoning; place roast on a rack in the pan with the rib side down and the fatty side up. Roast for 1 hour. Turn off oven. Leave roast in oven but do not open oven door for 3 hours. About 30 to 40 minutes before serving time, turn oven to 375 degrees F and reheat the roast. Important: Do not remove roast or re-open the oven door from time roast is put in until ready to serve.
 
There are recipes that have you start at something like 500 or more and put it in and shut the oven off. I used that once and it worked fine.
 
For 4-5 lb, oven 450, 60-70 minutes, 120F on the meat thermos meter is rare, monitor your thermometer and increase time is you want some less rare.
 
It's called the no-peak method... We use it and it comes out absolutely perfect. Serious, it works excellent for prime rib. I heavily rub with minced fresh rosemary, garlic, and Thyme, kosher salt, cracked pepper, granulated garlic the night before and wrap in plastic wrap tightly. Take out of fridge about an hour before cooking. Use a meat rack to elevate off the bottom of the pan is a must or it cooks unevenly. Follow the cooking temp/time below and do not open the over ever until it is done. Period.

You can thank me later..... I do take gift cards and Paypal.

https://www.geniuskitchen.com/recipe/easy-no-peek-prime-rib-26927
 
I prefer the reverse sear.

Salt it a couple days prior (denature the proteins), roast it at the lowest heat possible until the probe thermometer says it's ready (maximize the enzymatic reaction period), let it rest (let the hydraulic pressure of the juices come down) and then sear it (Maillard reaction). The resting period is usually about the same amount of time as it takes for the oven to come up to searing temperature anyway. However, there have been times I've taken it outside and used a torch to sear. One of these years I'll have to try searing it over the charcoal chimney.
 
There are a couple of methods to adding a crust:

1) high heat at the beginning, followed by low heat
2) low heat first, then high heat at the end

I do #1 - high heat, put the roast in, let it brown for some amount of time, then drop the oven heat down for the rest of the cooking time.

I've tried #2 - but that's a problem for me. After the roast is cooked, a lot of fat has dripped into the pan and when that high heat hits it, it tends to really smoke and splatter.

I don't have the exact temps and times right now, but I think it's like 450 or higher for 20-30 minutes, then set the oven to 250 and don't open the door until it's done. I aim for med-rare.
 
See the alton brown flower pot slow cook recipe. this will truly give you the perfect "all-pink inside" of a good restaurant. ive used this many times and will be using it again this xmas.
 
And that reminds me that I'm supposed to pick up a 10 pounder on the way home.
 
FORANE said:
There's a better way.


Fly to key west.
Go to the commodore boathouse bar.
Order a beer.
Order the prime rib.
Click to expand...

The gas cost to an from makes it a worthwhile experiment though. Not gonna spend $500 for steak.
 
A good buddy is a reverse sear fan. I do it at 450 to start and 325 for the balance. A couple of years ago we did a Prime Rib throw down at Christmas. Mine, his, and one other roasted on a Green Egg. We had about 20 voters. Mine won. It wasn't even close. Now my buddy's into sous vide cooking. I wouldn't put a sous vide Prime Rib past him this year!
 
Stewartb said:
A good buddy is a reverse sear fan. I do it at 450 to start and 325 for the balance. A couple of years ago we did a Prime Rib throw down at Christmas. Mine, his, and one other roasted on a Green Egg. We had about 20 voters. Mine won. It wasn't even close. Now my buddy's into sous vide cooking. I wouldn't put a sous vide Prime Rib past him this year!
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Thats a big piece of meat to do that. I'm curious if it will turn out well.
 
Our best prime rib happened by accident, the year things went to hell. I put the rub on it, warmed it up to room temp, and cooked according to some recipe... don't remember exactly, but it was a "sear and let it sit in a warm oven" method. Somewhere along the way, we found out our daughter and her family would be late. How late we didn't know, but late. I ended up taking the meat out of the oven; I didn't want it to get too done, and we needed the oven for other things. Lacking a better idea, I wrapped the roasting pan (with lid) in aluminum foil, then two nice thick comforters. We finally ate, about 2 or 3 hours later than planned. The prime rib was perfect. Probably dumb luck.

This year we have nice big new double wall ovens. The prime rib gets its own oven, and I'm not starting the meat until we know for sure when people are arriving.
 
flhrci said:
Too much trouble to be a cattle rancher? LOL
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I'd need a bigger freezer.

My daughter lives deep in "beef country", I should get her to drag a carcass back home with her for Christmas. Yeah, that's it.
 
I cook on high heat @450 for 30 min or so until it is seared like everyone else says, but then finish at 250 for several hours depending... This works well for larger roasts, not sure on something like 5 lbs... Going to pick up a 20lb roast in a day or two myself...
 
If you do a forward sear, 325-350 is too hot if you can spare the additional time in my opinion. After you form the crust, I'd drop it down as low as the oven can go. I'd even turn the oven off when the probe thermometer is within 15 degrees of target if the oven won't reliably go below 250.
 
Stewartb said:
A good buddy is a reverse sear fan. I do it at 450 to start and 325 for the balance. A couple of years ago we did a Prime Rib throw down at Christmas. Mine, his, and one other roasted on a Green Egg. We had about 20 voters. Mine won. It wasn't even close. Now my buddy's into sous vide cooking. I wouldn't put a sous vide Prime Rib past him this year!
Click to expand...

I'm leaning towards this so far.

asicer said:
If you do a forward sear, 325-350 is too hot if you can spare the additional time in my opinion. After you form the crust, I'd drop it down as low as the oven can go. I'd even turn the oven off when the probe thermometer is within 15 degrees of target if the oven won't reliably go below 250.
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Maybe compromise? 300? I have 2-3 hours but not several.
 
I sous vide mine for 4 - 6 hours at 118* - 120*, crust it and finish it in the oven at 500* for 10-15 minutes.
 
I second the sous vide recommendation. If you want a consistent medium rare your options are either to sous vide or lower the oven temperature.
Either way you're going to then want to either use a high temp roast or pan seering to finish it off.
 
Sac Arrow said:
Maybe compromise? 300? I have 2-3 hours but not several.
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If 2-3 hours is all you have and it's only 4.5 lbs then 300 sounds about right.

Edit: if things are going faster than planned and the probe thermometer is getting close to the target temperature then don't hesitate to turn off the oven, assuming your hot box isn't super leaky/drafty.
 
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asicer said:
If 2-3 hours is all you have and it's only 4.5 lbs then 300 sounds about right.

Edit: if things are going faster than planned and the probe thermometer is getting close to the target temperature then don't hesitate to turn off the oven, assuming your hot box isn't super leaky/drafty.
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Game is on. I'm rolling with that.
 
Update: 20 minutes at 450, roughly an hour at 300, the temperature dial of the meat thermometer is moving just a little bit faster than where I want it to be, given the time of day, so I've throttled back to 250.

I am using a variation of an online suggestion to mix butter, salt, pepper, thyme, oregano, sage, garlic and something else I forgot about but I had to improvise. I do not have butter. I have margarine. I do not have thyme and sage. I do have an Italian spice blend that will work. I decided to omit the garlic as I do not have fresh garlic and the powder stuff doesn't cut it, and the pickled stuff is nasty. Margarine melts very weirdly, but, it worked out and I think it will work out. We will see.

If this all works out, I may well author a Ghetto Prime Rib thread.
 
Sear at 450 ,15 -20 minutes,then lower the heat to 300-325,monitor meat thermometer.
 
Sac Arrow said:
Update: 20 minutes at 450, roughly an hour at 300, the temperature dial of the meat thermometer is moving just a little bit faster than where I want it to be, given the time of day, so I've throttled back to 250.

I am using a variation of an online suggestion to mix butter, salt, pepper, thyme, oregano, sage, garlic and something else I forgot about but I had to improvise. I do not have butter. I have margarine. I do not have thyme and sage. I do have an Italian spice blend that will work. I decided to omit the garlic as I do not have fresh garlic and the powder stuff doesn't cut it, and the pickled stuff is nasty. Margarine melts very weirdly, but, it worked out and I think it will work out. We will see.

If this all works out, I may well author a Ghetto Prime Rib thread.
Click to expand...

Don’t overthink it. Salt and pepper. Lots of both. Rub it in. Roast. Done. It’ll be awesome
 
I was able talk my meat guy into taking his thumb off the scale and he sold me an 11 pounder for the price of a 10.

my rub recipe:

3-4 Tbs black pepper
1 Tbs kosher or sea salt
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp onion powder
1 tsp dried parsley
1 Tbs chili powder
1 tsp oregano
1 tsp sugar


Meat:

Preheat to 450
Cook at 450 for 10 min
Set oven to 250
Wait
 
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Matthew said:
I was able talk my meat guy into taking his thumb off the scale and he sold me an 11 pounder for the price of a 10.

my rub recipe:

3-4 Tbs black pepper
1 Tbs kosher or sea salt
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp onion powder
1 tsp dried parsley
1 Tbs chili powder
1 tsp oregano
1 tsp sugar


Meat:

Preheat to 450
Cook at 450 for 10 min
Set oven to 250
Wait
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Is this the competition recipe? Will we win contests with it?
 
flhrci said:
Is this the competition recipe? Will we win contests with it?
Click to expand...
Yes, and you?...no.

Tonight I'll dig up the horseradish cream sauce recipe I like for rib roasts. It's pretty much heavy whipping cream, horseradish, and cider vinegar (plus a little salt, white pepper, and cayenne). Whip it into a heavy whipped cream consistency, let the flavors blend for a few hours, and serve it cold on the side. Good stuff.
 
I passed out before it occurred to me to take gratuitous photos. It turned out good. I would say it turned out well, but if Prime Rib turns out well, that is bad.

Notes:

1. Next time I'll do 450 for 20 minutes then 250. The time penalty for 300 vs. 325 was not significant.
2. I was unimpressed with the garlic herb butter blend. Maybe because margarine isn't as good as butter for these kinds of things, but I'll stick with my dry rubs.
3. I can't think of anything else.
 
eetrojan said:
I think you need an instant read meat thermometer so that there's no guesswork. :)
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My favorite (get one that's a bright color so it's easier to find in the kitchen drawer):

https://www.thermoworks.com/ThermoPop

I also use a wireless temperature probe, the transmitter sits on the counter with the probe stuck into the roast in the oven, and the receiver sits next to my recliner while I watch the ball game.
 
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