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Prime Rib Roast

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YouTube: Prime Rib Roast in Cast Iron

May 12, 2018: For Mother's Day this year, my Mom came up to visit, and we made a prime rib roast. Of course, prime rib is something you'd want to make at any time of the year, or for any special occasion. There's a popular method for making prime rib that involves cooking the meat at 500 degrees and leaving it in the oven for two hours. However, for a cut as expensive as prime rib, I wanted to take the guesswork out of it. After all, my oven isn't the same as a professional chef's oven, and if it isn't calibrated the same or cleaned the same, it's not likely to give the same result. And when it comes to roasting meats, I've become a convert to cooking by temperature rather than by time. So instead, we used a probe thermometer and tried the reverse sear method.

Pans needed: #8 sized (10 inch) cast iron skillet for roasting the meat in the oven.

The reverse-sear method is very efficient at retaining the juices in the meat. Because of this, it's likely the meat may not release a lot of that precious au jus. If you want a really flavorful au jus (which is just a fancy name for beef gravy!), you may want to get an additional piece of (much less expensive!) meat, such as a cheap chuck or sirloin. Cut this into pieces and place them around the roast before cooking. This meat will release its juices as it cooks, and you'll have a lot more au jus to work with.

At least two to three hours before cooking, pat-dry the roast with paper towels. Coating it with a generous amount of kosher salt. Cover the roast with plastic wrap, and let it rest to come to room temperature.

After two and a half hours, preheat oven to 300 degrees Fahrenheit. Cut carrots, celery, onions into large pieces. Prepared an herb butter of softened butter and spices: pepper, garlic, rosemary, thyme.

Place the roast into a cast iron skillet. Generously cover the top and sides of the roast with herb butter. Surround the roast with vegetables.

Place the entire pan and meat into the oven. Roast until the internal temperature of the meat reaches 120 degrees Fahrenheit.

Note: Even though the probe thermometer is a very accurate tool for tracking the temperature of the roast as it cooks, you will of course want to keep an eye on it as it roasts. Because you're cooking this at a relatively low oven temperature, the temperature reading on the thermometer should rise very slowly. If it seems as though the temperature is shooting up far too quickly, the thermometer may be touching a pocket of fat or a bone – and this is registering an incorrect temperature. Remove the thermometer and re-insert it, and see if the temperature changes. Also, you may even want a second instant-read thermometer available to double-check and make sure the temperature reading is correct.

Remove the roast from the pan, place onto a plate, and cover the roast with foil. Let it rest, to allow "carryover cooking" to raise the internal temperature to 130 degrees Fahrenheit. Remove the vegetables and juices, wipe the pan and place it onto the stovetop. Heat the pan on medium heat for at least 5 to 10 minutes, to bring the temperature of the pan to searing temperature.

Sear the outside of the roast in the hot cast iron pan. It's only necessary to sear the outside for about a minute, because the meat is already cooked.

The roast can then be sliced and served.

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