Slow Roasted Prime Rib

Dead animal flesh! That is what pops into my mind as I think about cooking Prime Rib for our Christmas dinner here in our little 100 plus year old house at the base of our Wind River Mountain range in this wonderful state called Wyoming. One of the many cultural aspects of living in Wyoming is the consumption of meat. All types of meat. Almost as many kinds of meats as you will find in a Cabalas holiday gift catalog.

Now, I want to be sensitive to some degree to my few friends out there that are vegetarian because I don’t want to send you into a dry heaving fit. So you may want to cover your eyes, because this is hard core Meat-ography.

Prime Rib has been a regional favorite since I moved here in the early 80’s. It wasn’t uncommon to see flocks of family’s heading out on a Friday nights to eat at some of the local hot spots. My first Job was dishwashing at one of those places. The restaurant was called “The Commons” and it had a reputation for great, no frills, family food. Friday night was always the traditional “Prime Rib” special. I don’t recall that they ever had any leftovers, but I do recall it was very busy. I’m sad to report the restaurant is no longer called “The Commons” and the décor has changed over the years and personally for me, it has lost that charm I came to know.

Another local favorite was, and still is, a place called “Svilars” located in a tiny little town called Hudson. This little restaurant has had, and still has, a reputation for some local hard core Prime Rib. I don’t eat there often, but this year I ate there twice and it was good each time. It’s hard to explain this place without going into a load of local history. I’ll leave that up to our local historian Tom Bell, who knows more about this area than anyone I know. Overall these two places had/have a place in my hart for the people who owned and operated them and who always served delectable Prime Rib that sent you home overstuffed and wishing for stretchy pants or sweats.

Many locals now make there Prime Rib at home for family and friends during this time of year. My Sister is one of those locals who serve’s up a mean Prime Rib. Over the years I’ve learn about 100 ways to cook that bad boy. One of the best I’ve done was using a machine called the “Alto sham”. But, I don’t have a spare eight grand to buy one and install it into my kitchen. So I resort to the next best method (in my humble opinion) is slow roasting at a low temperature. It can take as long to cook this roast as the thanksgiving turkey and depending on the size maybe longer. Be that as it may, its time well spent in the oven as you will tell when serving a slab of wonderfully, juicy, tender, medium rare mouthful of joy.

Slow Roasted Prime Rib

3 to 13 lb. Prime Rib Roast (bone in will take longer to cook but imparts more flavor to the meat)

Lowry's seasoning salt

A-1 Steak Sauce

1 large Jar of crushed/minced Roasted Garlic

1 bundle Cilantro

Start prepping the day before you are planning on serving the roast. I have done it the day of before but it just doesn't taste the same and it just adds more to an already chaotic day.

Sprinkle your roast generously with the Lowry's seasoning salt. Seriously coat it in Lowry's seasoning salt and rub it in with your hands. Make sure it is completely coated with the Lowry's seasoning salt. Don’t stress about it being too salty just close your eyes and do it.

Add together the A-1 sauce, Garlic and Cilantro in a food processor and puree till totally blinded.

Now pour the A-1 mixture all over the roast. Did I mention how well seasoned your hands will be after this? Make sure you rub the A-1 mixture in on all sides of the roast.

Once you've done this, wrap it in saran wrap or foil or whatever you want (just make sure that whatever is in the fridge doesn't seep through whatever is separating it from your meat.) So, let the meat sit and marinate overnight making sure you pull it out around 6 hours before you plan on serving it.

Browning the roast: You can do this one of two ways:

Firstly, cooking in an oven at 500 F for about 10 minutes in a roasting pan. Or by searing it in a sauté pan until brown. I found the latter to be useful only for smaller roasts. Searing a 13 lb. roast in a sauté pan ………Well I’m sure I don’t need to explain this.

Roast prime rib for 30-45 minutes per lb. boneless and 45-60 minutes per lb. bone in. Roast should be rare to medium rare and the inner temperature will get up to 145 degrees or so when done. I've seen where people have said that 140 is rare 145 is medium rare and any higher than that and the roast is overdone and ruined. Since this is a slow roasting recipe I’ve found that even getting up higher than 150 the meat will still be nice and pink but let’s play it safe and stick with the lower temps.

Now, I have to warn you about the cooking time. I have looked all over the internet for how long to cook prime rib at low temperatures and got results giving cooking times anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour per lb. at 200 F. After a little experimentation I found that a boneless prime rib (which is what we used to use at the restaurant) will be about 30 minutes per lb. I imagine bone in will take up to an hour per lb. at the same temperature but once again, I can't say for sure because all ovens were never created equally. (Chef Snobbery)

Another note about the cooking time: if your roast gets done way too soon, like even up to several hours too soon (this has happened to me) you can lower your oven to the warm setting when your prime rib gets up to 145 and if it starts to get cool again bump it back up to 200. I went back and forth like that for about 4 hours and still wound up with a nice, moist, pink prime rib roast. But, end game here is, shoot for the finishing time.

Finito!