Rib Roast - Prime Ribbin' It Old School

Sometimes, it's the old school flavors that treat you best.  Clearly, I've become a bit of a foodie.  Making recipes that span ingredients like shallots, fresh tarragon, fresh mint and using zesters, gravy separators and slicing celery on the bias, I'm realizing that "old school" is not exactly defining my palate or my repertoire.  Well, sometimes a little old school is all you need to remind yourself that there is a reason why certain styles just don't go out of style.

This past Friday was another one of our "let's have some friends we haven't seen in almost a year" dinner parties.  These means that I got the opportunity to go big in terms of the size of the meat in question.  Sure, I could cook individual steaks or chops, but when there is a Rib Roast still on the list to be attempted, and a Big Green Egg waiting for a new focus, it was an easy decision.  So, let's talk old school in terms of preparation.

I got a 3 Rib Prime Prime Roast at Paulina Market.  There was much debate that led to the size and cut.  Do we go Choice cut?  Do we go Prime?  If you read my previous blogs about Rib Eye and Prime Rib Eye, despite the amazing meal I had with the Choice, I didn't waver long and I went with the Prime Rib Roast.  Then, there was the debate of 2 bones vs. 3 bones.  If you start from the large end, 2 bones may be too much meat for 4 people.  If you start from the small end, 2 may not be enough.  So, I threw the curveball.  I reached back and said "give me 3 from the small end".  Now, the guys at Paulina are great to me.  I've learned more in the past 5 months from them about meat than I had in the previous 40+ years.  You have no idea how awesome it felt to say "give me 3 from the small end".  It meant what it said, sure.  But it also meant, I'm starting to know what I'm saying when it comes to this stuff.  Too much fun, I tell you.

OK.  I get home with my 3 bone Prime Rib Roast.  I put a few slices into the fat side, and just coat everything with Worcestershire Sauce.  I then coated it with Montreal Seasoning.  Lastly, I put a layer of Lawry's Seasoned Salt (for Prime Rib) on it.  That's it.  Three wonderfully old school ingredients.  Nothing else.

Meanwhile, outside, the Big Green Egg had been lit, brought up to heat and set up with a plate setter used for cooking things out of direct heat.  I got the Egg up to 350 degrees, put the Prime Rib on, and slowly monitored the cooking temperature to let it rise to 375.  After a couple of hours, and using a thermometer diligently, I got the internal temperature to about 122 and took it off, tented it in foil, and left the thermometer in there to let it rise.  Once the temperature got to 133, I carved.  It is kind of amazing that a roast will rise in temperature by 11 degrees over 15 minutes or so, when it's not even over the heat.  Fun stuff.  I apologize, once I carved, we were ready to eat.  So, no pictures of the wonderfully medium rare inside that tasted insanely delicious with that crispy old school coating on the outside.  But, here is a shot of it pre-carving.  A thing of beauty.

28 down, 31 to go!