Our Family's Prime Rib
Author: 
Recipe type: Main
Serves: 10 to 12
 
Ingredients
  • 1 (about 14 to 16 pound) beef rib, bone in
  • 8 to 12 cloves of peeled garlic
  • 6 sprigs of fresh rosemary
  • Ground thyme (add fresh thyme if available)
  • 1 large onion, sliced ¼-inch thick
  • Kosher salt
  • Freshly cracked black pepper
  • Black peppercorns
  • Olive oil
  • 6 - 8 slices of thick-cut bacon
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees F.
  2. Slice garlic pieces into halves or thirds. Set aside.
  3. Using a sharp knife, make a slit ¾ of the way up the fat cap. Pull the fat cap back and puncture the meat creating small slits all over prime rib meat (including the sides) with the top 1-inch of a boning knife. Insert garlic pieces in the slits.
  4. With the fat cap still pulled back, season the entire roast with a generous amount of ground thyme, several black peppercorns, and 5 to 6 sprigs of fresh rosemary. (Note: I usually use fresh rosemary and fresh thyme, but the market was out of fresh thyme so I improvised with a very generous amount of ground thyme.)
  5. Season with salt and pepper.
  6. Next, generously spread fresh onion slices in-between the meat and fat cap. Lay the fat cap back over the onions, spices, garlic and meat.
  7. Spread olive oil over the fat cap and using your hands, rub in a generous amount of rock salt. I usually use Hawaiian salt, but since I had a huge box of Kosher salt, I used this instead.
  8. Next, heavily pepper the fat cap with fresh ground black pepper.
  9. Lay bacon over the fat cap, covering it entirely. You'll find the bacon will turn crisp and very brown but it isn't necessarily to eat, it's really more for added flavor and protecting the top of the rib roast and inner meat (my unprofessional observation). I've made several prime ribs without using bacon, but for some reason this year the bacon really worked.
  10. Using butchers twine, secure the fat cap to the meat. You can either tie the two together at five or six different intervals (wrap the twine from the rib end to the loin end). Or, just use one long piece of twine, which is what I did most recently, and simply use a criss-cross method over and under the prime rib, holding everything all together.
  11. Place the roast, rib side down, directly in the roasting pan. In the past I've used a wire roasting rack to separate the drippings, but in my latest prime rib research, I learned there's no need for a rack.
  12. Place the pan in the center rack.
  13. Use a digital thermometer for optimal cooking. For medium-rare, the internal temperature of the meat is about 125 degrees F.
  14. For medium, the internal temperature of the meat is 140 degrees F. I usually cook the meat to 130 to 135 degrees F. It took somewhere between 2 hours and 2½ hours to cook the meat but I didn't time it since I was going by temperature, not time. I've read that the meat should be cooked approximately 15 minutes per pound if you are not going to use a thermometer, but I highly recommend using one.
  15. The temperature is very important.
  16. For the first 30 minutes, roast the prime rib at 450 degrees F
  17. Then REDUCE oven heat to 325 degrees F
  18. When the desired internal meat temperature is reached, remove the roast pan from the oven and allow the meat to rest for 15 to 20 minutes. Whatever you do, DON'T cut the meat immediately, or else all of the juices will escape, leaving you with a juicy mess upon carving, and a dry roast.
  19. FOR AJ JOUR OR GRAVY: Save all of the drippings from the pan, strain any bits and pieces of onion, meat or bacon so that you're left with just the liquid.
  20. Deglaze the roast pan with red wine (maybe ½ to 1 cup), add some beef broth (I used three 8 oz cans), salt, shoyu (soy sauce), and pepper to taste.
  21. To make a thicker gravy (which I believe my family prefers), melt 2 tablespoons unsalted butter and mix with 2 tablespoons flour. Bring au jous to a boil and add butter-flour mixture, stirring until thick. Increase amount of the butter-flour mixture according to your desired thickness.
Notes
To achieve internal meat temperature of 130 to 135 degrees F takes somewhere between 2 hours and 2½ hours to cook the meat. The meat should be cooked approximately 15 minutes per pound if you are not going to use a thermometer, but I highly recommend using a digital thermometer.
Recipe by Bebe Love Okazu at https://bebeloveokazu.com/2011/01/31/prime-rib/