Cooking Prime Rib – Prime Rib Recipe

A full standing prime rib is 7 ribs, about 15 pounds, and large enough to feed up to 14 people. Prime rib is “standing” when the bones are included in the roast, allowing the roast to stand by itself.

It’s important to keep in mind that just because you have “prime” rib, it doesn’t mean that it’s USDA Prime. Most of the time the “prime” ribs we get at the grocery store is actually USDA Choice quality – which is fine, but it’s not “prime.” USDA Prime prime rib has more fat marbling throughout the meat and can easily cost 50% more per pound than USDA Choice prime rib; most likely you would need to special order it through a butcher.

Cooking prime rib is a Christmas tradition in many homes and if you’d like to give it a try this year, here’s an easy Prime Rib Recipe:

Ingredients:
One standing rib roast, 3 to 7 ribs (estimate serving 2 people per rib), bones cut away from the roast and tied back to the roast with kitchen string (ask your butcher to prepare the roast this way)

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Method:
1. Remove roast from the refrigerator, loosely wrapped, 3 hours before cooking. Roasts should always be brought close to room temperature first, before they go in the oven.

Cookbooks often call for the excess fat to be removed. By “excess” fat they mean any fat more than an inch thick. The fat is what provides the flavor and what you are paying for with prime rib, so you want to leave it on. Your butcher should have removed any excess fat.

If your butcher hasn’t already done so, cut the bones away from the roast and tie them back on to the roast with kitchen string. This will make it much easier to carve the roast, while still allowing you to stand the roast on the rib bones while cooking.

2. Preheat your oven to 500°F, or the highest it will go (our oven only goes up to 450°F). Generously sprinkle salt and pepper all over the roast.

Get the rest of the recipe at Simply Recipes HERE