Olympic Opening Ceremonies Prime Rib Dinner

Prime rib is my favorite cut of beef. Years ago I read that you should dry age your roast for a couple of days before cooking it. So, whenever I cook prime rib, I unwrap it, place it on a tray and set it in the refrigerator for 2 days uncovered. This is supposed to draw the moisture out of the meat making it more tender. You know at the grocery store when they say 'dry aged', it's basically the same thing but it's usually a whole cut and they dry it in specific conditions for many more days. Don't be alarmed when you take it out of the frige to find a deep dark red color and the outside layer very dry looking. It will be tender and moist.

My favorite way of cooking prime rib is a recipe from the 60's. It calls for roasting it for a short period of time at 450, then turning the oven off and letting it sit in the oven, door shut, for several hours. Then 30-40 minutes before eating, turn the oven back on to 350 or so and roast. The first time I tried it this way after remodeling our kitchen, resulted in a well done, overcooked roast. My new ovens retain the heat so well, this method did not work. But I found it was the best method if you have an older oven that does not retain heat well. So now, I just roast at 450 for 15 minutes and then turn down to 350 for the rest of the time, depending on the size of the roast. My ovens, Fisher & Paykal, have a setting called "roast" where it does this automatically for you and you just set the temp at 350. It will quick brown the outside at a higher temp and then adjust to the temp you've set. I will have to address my excellent ovens at another time.

The photo above is Chris' plate. He likes medium rare. He also likes to scoop his baked potato out and eat mainly the skin. That unnatural looking sauce is indeed cheese whiz and sour cream heated together.

Last thing to mention is the excellent left overs. Check back in in a couple of days for the gift that gives again... my kids call it pasta with brown sauce.