Rare Prime Rib

About a month ago, prime rib was on sale at the commissary for 5.99/lb.  I don't think I've ever made one at home and I thought it would be a nice treat to make for Rafe.  So I picked it up and put in the fridge, thinking I would find time to make it that week.   Never happened.  A couple of weeks went by and our afternoon schedules generally prevented me from making the prime rib for dinner in the normal way (350 degrees, 20 min. per pound).  At that rate, it was never going to get cooked!  Luckily, it was in cryovac, so the wait really didn't hurt the meat at all.

One day I just decided to go ahead and cook it, working around the afternoon schedule of doctor's appointments and school pick ups outside the house.  I took it out of the package, rinsed it quickly, threw it in a 2" half hotel pan, and liberally covered it with California garlic pepper and some kosher salt.  I threw the whole thing in a cold oven, turned the oven on to 270 degrees and left the house.  When we came back 3 hours later, I pulled it out of the oven and let it rest while I made mashed potatoes, gravy and the veggies for dinner.  The bonus to doing it this way (low and slow) was that rather than having the outside cooked well or mid well and the inside mid-rare as is the norm, it was a lovely rare to medium rare the entire way through.  One of the most perfectly cooked prime rib I've ever made.  My oven runs cold, which is why I cooked it at 270 vs. 250.  If it worked well, I'd probably do it at 250.  This was a 5lb prime rib, so at that temp instead of 20 minutes per pound cook time, I used roughly 35 minutes per pound.