Notes: This is a delicious and easy recipe for the holiday season. Order your prime rib bone-in from a good butcher or grocery store; plan on at least 1 pound per person when it’s bone-in. Our favorite supplier for prime rib or rib-eye is Coleman Natural Meats (see Suppliers).
Ingredients: 1 10-pound prime rib roast, bone-in
Lots of kosher salt
3/4 pound (3 sticks) unsalted butter
1/2 cup fresh thyme leaves (removed from stems)
1/2 cup chopped fresh rosemary
1 tablespoon freshly ground black pepper
Instructions:
1. The day before cooking: Generously season roast all over with kosher salt. (You’ll know you’ve used the right amount when you think you’ve over-seasoned it.) Place in a large roasting pan, cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate overnight to let the salt absorb. Remove butter from refrigerator and let it come to room temperature overnight.
2. An hour before cooking, remove roast from refrigerator to let it warm up a bit.
3. Preheat oven to 450º. In a medium bowl, combine room-temperature butter, thyme, rosemary, and pepper. Rub mixture all over roast, but especially over the top.
4. In a heavy-bottomed roasting pan, place roast bone-side down. Transfer to oven. Check at 30 minutes and baste with melted butter. If the roast is browning too quickly, reduce heat to 350º. Continue roasting, basting every 20 to 30 minutes.
5. The roast should be medium-rare after 90 minutes, but some ovens cook faster or slower than others. Use a meat thermometer to check for doneness: 115º for medium-rare, 125º for medium, 135º for medium-well, 145º for well done. (The Federal Drug Administration recommends a minimum cooking temperature of 140º; we tend to serve our meats rarer than most.)
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