Dry aging a prime rib is a labor of love that I have to thank my mother for undertaking with me. We bought a beautiful prime rib at the local butcher intending to freeze for a week then eat it for New Year’s Day dinner. But when the sweet little old butcher heard our sacrilegious plan for his beautiful hunk of prime rib he intervened and insisted that we dry age it at home. After a quick primer from the butcher and checking with both Alton Brown and Guy Fieri (he may have strange hair but he has good step-by-step directions for this process) on the web, we began dry aging at home. My mother bravely took custody of the large roast and gave up her fridge to the endeavor.  If you are going to spend $100 on meat might as well admire it in your fridge for a week or more while it ages.  The smell of aging meat may last longer in your refrigerator than the leftovers but a dry aged prime rib is a really a special meal and worth the effort. We now make one of these roasts at least a few times a year, it is always the favorite dinner of anyone invited to join us.



How to Dry Age a Prime Rib | Cook Better Than Most Restaurants
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Dry Aged Prime Rib

Course Holiday, Main Course
Cuisine American
Servings 8

Ingredients

  • 1 Large prime rib not too well trimmed
  • 1-2 packages of cheesecloth
  • Large roasting pan with rack
  • Olive oil
  • Garlic salt
  • Thyme
  • Black pepper
  • Salt
  • New box of baking soda

Instructions

  1. Get your roast home and rinse and dry it very well. Wrap the roast loosely in 3 layers of cheese cloth and place it on the rack in the roasting pan in your refrigerator. Replace the cheesecloth on the roast every 24 to 48 hours. Let the roast age for 7-10 days. Once you finish aging the meat put the new box of baking soda in your fridge to deodorize.
  2. The roast will look and feel like cured meat on the outside, and smell kind of funky after a week.
  3. The dry exterior now needs to be cut away, you can easily tell the parts you want to cut away from what you want to keep once you start.
  4. The dry outside will be gray or brownish the meat you want to eat is red and healthy looking.
  5. Coat the trimmed beef with olive oil to stop it from continuing to oxidize. Crust the outside with garlic salt, thyme, pepper and salt or whatever spices you like best. In our family you have to keep the prime rib simple or there would be mutiny at the dinner table, so garlic and thyme is the tradition. Allow the meat to rest on the counter until it comes to room temperature.
  6. Pre heat the oven to 400 degrees, I use the convection setting in my oven to help form a nice crust on the meat. Roast for about 20-30 minutes per pound or to your preferred internal temperature. I like about 115 degrees for the center of the roast. Remove from the oven and let rest about 15-20 minutes before you carve. A prime rib dinner is about having the meat be the star, so we serve with green salad and bake potato. I fry up good bacon to make my own bacon bits and dice fresh chive for the potato fixings to make the potatoes almost as special as the roast.

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