Prime Rib

Makes 6 large servings

Takes 1 hour to prep the meat, 24 to 48 hours to dry brine, 10 minutes to dry rub; cooking time will vary based on the thickness of the meat. To reach 130°F in the deepest part of a boneless roast, if the roast is about 4 inches thick, allow 30 minutes per inch of thickness.

• 1 (8-pound) bone-in beef rib roast (about 3 bones wide)
• Kosher salt (about ½ teaspoon per pound)
• Mrs. O’Leary’s Cow Crust (page 167)

1. Prep. Remove the rib bones from the roast and trim off all the fat cap from the top of the roast. Go ahead and trim right down to the meat. The fat will not penetrate the meat (see page 44); if you leave it on, people will trim it off at the table, and all the effects of the Maillard reaction and rub flavor will be lost. Be sure to get the silverskin, too; it can be chewy.

2. Sitting on top of the eye of the ribeye is another muscle called the rib cap (see photo, below). Shaped like a large fish fillet, it is heavily marbled. I think it is the single best muscle on the steer. It tends to go to well-done, so I like to remove it and grill it separately. You can practically peel it off with your bare hand because there is a layer of fat between the rib cap and the eye. There is also another little muscle on the opposite side of the rib cap, called the lip. There isn’t much meat there and it is buried in thick layers of fat, so I remove it and grind it into hamburger.

3. Make the roast as round as possible, pressing on the sides and squishing it into a round tube. Tie it with butcher’s twine every inch or two to help it keep its shape. Sprinkle with salt and dry brine in the refrigerator for 24 to 48 hours.

4. An hour or two before cooking, wet the meat by patting water on it and apply the rub all over, using about 1 teaspoon of rub per 8 square inches of meat.

5. Fire up. Set up your grill for two-zone cooking and get the indirect zone to 225°F.

6. Cook. If you have a leave-in digital meat thermometer with a probe on a cable, insert it now so the tip is dead center in the thickest part of the meat. If you don’t have a probe you can leave in the meat, you absolutely must have a good digital instant-read meat thermometer and you should check the roast every 30 minutes at first, and more often as the roasting progresses.

7. For a slight smokiness, add just a little bit of wood to the hot part of the fire, 2 to 4 ounces max. Don’t overdo the smoke.

8. Look at the meat—if one side is getting too dark, rotate it. When the temperature in the deepest part of the interior reaches 115 to 120°F, remove the probe (it just gets in the way) and place the roast over the hottest part of the grill. If you are using charcoal, you can add more hot coals; if you are using gas, turn all burners on high; and if you have a sear burner, give ’er all she’s got, Scotty. Raise the lid and stand by your grill. If you’re using a pellet grill, bring the roast indoors and sear it under your broiler.

9. Get the surface of the roast a deep dark brown by leaving it on the hot part for 5 to 10 minutes. Roll it a quarter turn and repeat on all four sides. During this process, the interior temperature will rise another 10 to 15°F. Check the meat temperature again and take it off when it reaches 130 to 135°F for medium-rare, even if all sides are not browned.

10. Serve. Set the meat on a cutting board with a channel that can hold the liquid that will flow as soon as you cut into the roast, and have a platter with a lip ready to hold the carved slices. Serve your meat hot! Don’t let it rest, or it will overcook by carryover (see page 5). First remove the twine and use a sharp knife to cut slices ¼ to ½ inch thick. Pour any drippings from the cutting board onto the platter holding the sliced meat and spoon it on top of the slices as they are served.

For Those Who Don’t Want Medium-rare

There is a high likelihood that some people at the table will want their meat cooked to medium, medium-well, or well-done. If you know there will be exactly two people who like their meat that way, then they can have the two ends. Because the ends get more heat, they will be 10 to 20°F warmer.

If there are more than two who want their meat brown, you may want to lop off a hunk of the roast just for them and essentially cook two roasts, one to medium-rare, and one to their preference. If necessary, you can put a few slices back over a hot grill for a few minutes per side and they can have well-done ribeyes.