We don’t often have prime rib roast. In fact, the last time that I did it, I used what I call the Scary Method – putting the roast in a 500F oven, leave the oven on for 5 minutes per pound for medium-rare, then turn the oven off and don’t open the door for 2 hours. This worked perfectly for me the time that I did it, but I’ve heard so many people say that they had a disaster – raw meat mostly – when they went to serve it that I decided to try the ATK method. It is slow roasted and extremely easy – figuring out the timing is the hardest part. I was very happy with the results. I was serving 2 people who like meat well done, so I took it JUST over medium-rare. The center cuts were just slightly more than we really like. Since this roasts at 200F, you first sear the roast in a pan and when it is done and has rested, you broil the fat cap until crisp. I was tempted to slice that off and eat it in the kitchen all by myself! It was incredible. You don’t get a lot of drippings when you cook the roast at such a low temperature and besides, I’m not a fan of making gravy last minute. So I made my gravy the day before with homemade beef stock. The bones don’t roast enough to eat, so I tossed them and all the leftover scraps into a bag to make more stock for the freezer. NOTE: You REALLY do need an instant read thermometer to make good roast beef. They are expense, but cheaper than ruining a $70-$90 piece of meat! And once you have one, you’ll find yourself using it all the time.
1 (7-pound) beef prime rib roast (3 bones)
Kosher salt and ground black pepper
2 teaspoons vegetable oil
Recipe
Using a sharp knife, remove the bones from the roast, keeping as close as possible to the bones. You want the bone section off all in one piece as you will be tying it back onto the meat before cooking. Cut a 1-inch crosshatch pattern in the fat cap being careful to cut DOWN TO the meat, but not INTO the meat. Rub 2 tablespoons salt all over entire roast and into the slits you’ve cut. Place the meat back onto the bones and put on a plate. Place, uncovered, in the refrigerator for at least 24 and up to 96 hours.
Adjust the oven rack to the middle position and heat oven to 200F. Heat the oil in a 12-inch skillet over medium-high heat until smoking. Sear all sides (except the side cut from the bone) until browned. Put the meat back on the bones and let cool for 10 minutes. Using 2 strands of kitchen string, tie the bone onto the meat. Place on a wire rack in a roasting pan, fat cap up. Season with pepper. Roast about 3-4 hours – until the meat reaches 110F.
When the meat reaches 110F, turn off the oven and leave the roast inside. Opening the door as little as you can, wait until the meat registers 120F for rare or 125F for medium-rare – another 30-75 minutes longer. If, at the end of this time, the roast is still not at the target temperature, heat the oven to 200F again, wait 5 minutes, shut it off and let the roast sit in the oven until it has reached the target temperature.
Remove the roast from the oven and tent loosely with foil. Let it rest for 30-75 minutes (now is the time to roast your potatoes and make your Yorkshire puds).
Move the oven rack so that it is about 8 inches from the broiler and heat to broil. Take the foil off the roast and screw it up into a ball and place that under the ribs so that the fat cap is flat. Broil until the fat cap is browned and crisp – 2-8 minutes. Try to resist slicing this off and eating it by yourself.
Place the roast on a carving surface, remove the twine and take the ribs out from under the meat. Slice meat into 3/4-inch slices. Serve.