An expensive hunk of meat

I had always wanted to try a Prime Rib Roast. You'll hear it called many things, from a standing rib roast, to prime rib, to whole lotta beef. This is basically a prime rib, with the bones still on. I had seen it done many times on BBQ shows and had some recipes, so I finally decided to try it.

We went to Walworth County Farm days, and found a "high quality" butcher out there, so I bought one. VERY expensive. In the end, I think Bunzels' has the best quality and fresher, so I'm sticken' to Bunzels.

Anyway, I riffed a rub of salt, pepper, granulated garlic (available at the Spice House in Tosa- much better than garlic powder). I seasoned this 10 lb monster pretty heavily, as you want a flavorful crust to form. I then rubbed Dijon mustard on it. Now this isn't one of T-Bone's made up recipes, but had found many recipes in my books and on the web the recommended the mustard OVER the rub. Most recommended thyme and rosemary too, but my thyme plant died, and we were using rosemary on the potatoes.

I went about 2.5 hours in my kettle grill, drip pan in the middle, with hickory chunks. My temperature fluctuated pretty widely, so I went from 250 to 300 to 350, where as it should have been reversed. I pulled it off about 5 minutes after the internal temp was 125.

Summary: the crust was awesome- cripsy, salty, lots of hickory flavor, very moist. The only problem was I overcooked it a little. Its supposed to be medium rare and very pink in the middle, and I basically overshot medium a little, especially on one end that was smaller. It wasn't dry though. It was also such a huge hunk of meat, the middle had a little less flavor than the outside.

I will do this again, but I learned the following: Bunzels rocks, and I will continue to get my meat from them, I will pull the meat off as soon as it hits 125, start out at a higher temp and let it drop (like Cooks recommends), and probably do a sauce for the less flavorful portions. Prime rib often comes with a sauce, and Andrew (my preacher who has purchased a backwoods smoker) has done a rib roast with North Alabama White BBQ sauce, and it goes well.

All in all a good first attempt, and worth doing, but only for good friends, given the expense. And who was worthy? Our good friends MBP and Bob, as well as Mr. and Mrs. Flamb. And for the record, we recorded 3 gutteral grunts from Mrs. Flamb, which is better than 4 stars and 2 thumbs up.