first prime rib

so i've failed twice. first, i thought that this new "blogging about cooking" initiative will get me to write more, but that didn't happen. second, i said i was going to talk about my awesome pork chop recipe. that is also a negative.

instead, i am here at 12 at night, happily buzzed after a glass of wine, to post about my trials and tribulations of cooking rock salt encrusted prime rib.

where's the meat?

this was my first time cooking any piece of meat larger than a game hen, so i was scared of royally screwing it up. i didn't want to end up with 3 pounds worth of overcooked, dried beef jerky...especially since this cut of meat is pretty expensive to throw around and fool around with.

so the awesome part of this recipe is how it's cooked -- basically "encrusted" in a layer of flour, water, rosemary, and rock salt. it creates a cave for the meat, really flavorizing (is that word?) the meat and trapping all the juices inside.

the meat and the flour mixture

after it is cooked until the internal temperature reaches 130F, you're supposed to crack open the crust, throw away the crust, and (obviously) eat the meat. mr. bf tried wanted to pour the leftover juice on top of his meat, but i had to remind him that it had been soaking in 3 cups of rock salt.

chipping away at the crust

the prime rib was really nicely cooked, and i was expecting the outside to be extremely salty after sitting in salt for an hour or so. but surprisingly it wasn't.

the crusted prime rib, right out of the oven

this is definitely a repeat recipe, minus a few lessons learned that i have documented below (after all, that's what we consultants are good at doing)

lessons learned:

1. cover the pan with aluminum foil first. my pan has been soaking for almost 48 hours and the flour and salt mixture is STILL stuck on the pan.
2. when the recipe says take it out at 130F, then take it out at 130F. mr. bf prefers medium over medium rare meat, so i figured i'd keep it cooking until 135F. by the time the meat had cooled and cut, the end pieces were well done and pretty tough.
3. 3.2 pounds feeds 2 people for 2 meals. that is, only if those 2 people aren't 300 lb sumo wrestlers who eat abnormal amounts of food.

safeway has bone in meat on sale this week, maybe i'll grab another 4 pounder to try again.