Every New Years Eve we go up to the family place in Point Blank and I cook for everyone while we watch football and let the kids run wild. Last year was the first year I did a prime rib and it was a hit. I think I'm going to make that an annual staple.

Last year I did an herb butter coated roast, low and slow in oven to ~110, then under the broiler to crisp the outside type approach.

What is the board's preferred method? Bonus points for detailed recipe/instructions. Would love to learn from the board. Here's a pre cook picture - didn't get a final product one because it was time for dinner and everyone jumped on it too fast!

1) Sous vide to 124, bone in, for 8 hours. If you have a vacuum sealer, this is preferred. 124 is pretty rare, but that is how I like it. Just don't go over 127 or so. Season only with salt.

2) 8 to 12 hours later, 30 mins before dinner, remove, cut open, pat very dry with a clean lint-free towel. I like flour sack cotton towels for the kitchen.

3) Lightly coat with butter or olive oil. You are just trying to get enough oil here to make the seasonings stick.

4) apply dry rub

5) Put in iron skillet or large foil pan, bone side down, in a pre-heated oven as hot as it will go without turning on broil.

6) Pull out when crust looks yummy, maybe 10 minutes.

Prime rib is something I had not eaten until I was an adult. I started doing prime ribs a while back for Christmas because growing up it's not something our family could ever afford. My mom and dad had their first one some years back when I cooked one for Christmas. Ever since, I have loved doing it and watching them every year (just mom left).

Ironically, this year I am looking at a $400+ price tag for a piece of meat and debating on it.

Having cooked prime rib for so many years and cooking it so many different ways; I have come to this conclusion: It's just a great piece of meat. It's awesome no matter which way you cook it.

My prime rib journey from over the last 20+ years started out as a classic salt crusted, oven cooked prime rib. I found the recipe in an old cookbook my aunt had. My current version is cooked on the smoker, but I don't consider it smoked. I cook at oven temperature with logs that have been broken down into a nice coal bed already. I typically use oak because that's what I get easily and cheap. I typically get a post oak and live oak mix. I don't separate them; they all go in the same stack. I am sure other woods will be awesome too.

Since you asked for the long version:

This methods is basically the old school way of cooking a prime rib start hot to sear and then drop to 325 ish until done. The difference here is that I do it on the smoker.

Start by getting the pit nice and hot with a super clean fire -- coals only. Having the ability to have another fire next to you in a fire pit or elsewhere is essential here. It's what allows you to only add hot coals to the firebox no logs or splits.

Its also the key to the sear.

Don't forget your water pan. I like filling up the bottom of my pit with water. Not only does it add humidity. Also when fat drippings fall they don't burn and release that bitter burning fat smoke. They float in the water

For seasoning the meat. I will typically season the meat with just season with coarse salt and pepper and sometimes garlic powder. Having a big group, this is the 'try and please everyone' rub. I have found when smoking low and slow herbs get too smoky and some get bitter. I haven't tried when roasting like this because of a few picky eaters.

After the pit is up to about 450 500 degrees and you have a clean fire coal bed only. Place the prime rib in the pit until you get a really good sear (about 15 - 20 minutes).

Next, drop the temp back down to 325 ish.

That's where the having a separate fire close by comes in. You have to scoop coals out of the smoker and back into the firepit in order for it to drop the temp down to 325 fast enough.

Then continue to cook until your desired doneness. Only adding hot coals to the firebox from your separate fire versus full logs to maintain pit temps at 325

Continue cooking at 325 until the internal temp reaches your desired doneness. Rest it and slice it, and eat it…


If your wife (or other family members) are like mine and complains that prime rib is too pink in the middle and not cooked enough; here is what I do:

I position the prime rib so that one side gets more of the direct heat from the firebox. I have one end just into the hot zone and do not ever rotate it. You may have to do the biscuit test or have multiple thermometers to figure out exactly where that is. I figured out over the years I had to do a high temp and low temp biscuit test on my pit. On my pit; the hot zone shifts a couple of inches between 225 and 500 degrees. I don't know if it's linear, but I treat it that way. On a reverse flow offset, the hot spot might be right where the pipes release the smoke/heat from the firebox into the chamber.

This position adjustment gives me just enough of one end to be medium or close enough to medium for her when the cook is done. All the rest is very even.

I don't like the au jus made from drippings that come right off the smoker; especially when cooked low and slow. I like a traditional old school au jus and a simple old school beef gravy on my mashed potatoes.

So I will do make it a day or two ahead of time in the oven. Typically with something like a chuck roast. I may even separate some of the good juice for a pure au jus and with the remainder and add in some ox tail and bones to also have a gravy with some of that roasted marrow for the mashed potatoes.

To me the clean hot fire and cooking at oven temps, complements the additions of things like au jus and horseradish versus low & slow.

We need a "TexAgs Christmas" in March or April before it gets too hot where we all just cook different stuff together and share recipes, even if its our Christmas and thanksgiving recipes. Then come together and eat

For the vast majority of cooks, there's no reason to pay for prime. Choice is fine.

A 20lb rib roast is really big. Often even full seven rib roasts won't be 20lbs. If I wanted 20lbs of rib roast, personally I'd prefer two smaller roasts cut from the chuck end rather than one seven rib one.