Prime Rib: Cooking with Fire

If you read my Roast Chicken blog that I posted yesterday, you will know that I have abandoned convection cooking. From here on in, I'm just using the heat of the oven to cook my foods. My oven is gas, so the source of that heat is fire.

This recipe is very simple and follows a similar methodology that I used for Roast Chicken. You are going to start cooking the meat at a very high temperature and then turn the heat down to gently finish cooking the roast. All you need to do this is an oven and a calculator. Well, that's not quite true, because I also use Lunds & Byerly's Dry-Aged Beef Seasoning...a spectacular combination of gray sea salt, rosemary, marjoram, thyme, basil, fennel and lavender. You can order it online from their web site: https://lundsandbyerlys.com

This recipe works for both bone-in and boneless prime rib roasts. You are first going to blast the roast with heat, 500º for 15 minutes. Then you turn the oven down to 325º and cook it based on the weight of your roast and the desired level of doneness you want. Here are the cooking times for the different levels of finish:

Rare: 11 minutes per pound

Medium Rare: 13 minutes per pound

Medium: 15 minutes per pound

Here's an example of how it works. You bought a 6-pound roast and want to serve it medium rare. You heat the oven to 500º. First, cook the roast for 15 minutes at that high heat level, then turn the oven down to 325º. Then cook the roast for 78 more minutes at that lower temp (6 pounds X 13 minutes).

Using this recipe with my new oven has yielded perfect results every time. And, just as I discovered with my chicken, cooking the roast in this conventional manner yielded juicier meat than when cooked with a convection oven. For the purposes of sharing the recipe, I will use a 5-pound roast as an example. But you can buy whatever size suits your taste and adjust your cooking times accordingly.

Ingredients

One, 5-pound prime rib roast

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

3 tablespoons Lund's & Byerly's Dry-Aged Beef Seasoning

Directions

1. Remove roast from refrigerator and let it sit on the counter for at least 3 hours prior to cooking.
2. Pre-heat oven to 500º.
3. Rub roast with oil and season generously with Dry-Aged Beef Seasoning.
4. Put roast on a roasting rack/pan and slide into the oven. Cook for 15 minutes.
5. After 15 minutes, reduce heat to 325º and cook for 65 minutes (5 pounds X 13 minutes for medium rare). Do not open oven during the entire cooking process.
6. When the 65 minutes is up, remove roast from oven, tent with foil and let roast rest for 20 minutes. Then carve and serve.

Wine pairing: If you want to hang out with the big dogs on the porch, grab a Ramey Cabernet Sauvignon from Napa...yours for just $53.99 at Total Wine. Or, if it's your day to run with the chihuahuas, you can get a 90-point Columbia Crest Cabernet Sauvignon from Washington state for just $6.97.

Me and Goldie, 1956