For Christmas dinner this year, my wife and I decided to have everyone
to our house instead of us going out this year.  I figured prime
rib would be a good dinner, so we got a 10 lbs. prime grade,
boned-and-tied prime rib,.  If you’ve thought about doing
something like this, it’s really not difficult to do, and it’s
definitely got the ‘wow’ factor when it’s done…

Some people sear a prime rib; Alton Brown did a show on prime rib where
he used a clay pot in the oven, and he seared at the end.  I’m
sure it was great, but when I was growing up, my dad used to take me to
a place that packed theirs in rock salt.  That’s how I wanted to
do it.  Supposedly, that’s an old English way to do it.

We got up and did our Christmas morning gift exchange, just my wife and
me.  It was really relaxing and nice (I got a video Ipod, so I was
very happy!).  Everyone was coming over at about 5:00, so I got
things going about 11:00 am. 

I had rock salt from a box in the salt section of the grocery, not the
bags out by the water softener salt.  I had a spray bottle to wet
it down to help it stick, and off I went.  I have an island in my
kitchen which I took over, and found out right away that the rock salt
was in pieces too big to stick to the roast!

Fortunately, I had a box of kosher salt, too.  This worked out
great.  Actually, I put fresh ground pepper on the roast first,
then a layer of kosher salt, then I sprayed that lightly with water,
then another layer, and I repeated that until I had about 1/4" of salt
all around the roast.  A lot of people use all kinds of rubs on
prime rib, and I am sure they taste great, but a prime grade hunk o’
meat like that doesn’t need much seasoning, I don’t think, and the
interior isn’t going to get the flavor anyway.  With brisket, the
shape of the meat means that the rub is much more of the flavor since
it’s an inch or two thick instead of 10" thick.  So my opinion is
that the salt crust gives a slightly crunchy exterior and allows the
interior to be uniform in doneness. 

I started up te smoker with a little bit of pecan wood and natural lump
charcoal, and put the prime rib on once it was up to temperature.
It got done in about 4 hours, so I wrapped in charcoal and put in an
empty cooler, then filled the rest up with towels. 

Along with the roast, I made a potato torte with rosemary and porcini
mushrooms; if you want that recipe, let me know, but it was
great!  We also had homemade horseradish sauce.  That’s an
easy one:

2 cups sour cream
1/4-1/2 cup freshly grated horseradish (to taste, basically)
1 Tbsp champagne vinegar
4 Tbsp chopped chives

I cut into the roast, and it was truly one of the best prime ribs I’ve
ever had.  Just a hint of pecan smoke (I didn’t want to oversmoke
it), and rare to medium rare wherever I looked.

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