According to Martin Berkhan, "Richard is a skilled practitioner of meat mastery."
Well, let’s see; you be the judge. We had early Christmas yesterday because some family members are out of town next weekend. I decided to do a boneless prime rib roast. 13.5 pounds. Here we are, ready for the oven. Click all images for the hi-res versions.

Rib Roast
I don’t like the heavy herbs & spices you often get crusted on prime rib in restaurants. For this, I merely brushed it with olive oil and then sprinkled with garlic powder, onion flakes, parsley, paprika and some grey salt and coarse ground pepper.
I preheated the oven to 500 and when ready put it in merely to give it a shock and tighten it up a bit, as well as create a bit of a crust on top. After only 15 minutes I turned the oven down to 120 (yes, 120) and then let it slow roast for 8 hours (yes, 8 hours).

Eight Hours Later
In the last hour or so I kicked it up to 130, then 135 in order to arrive at my ultimate goal of 127-128. Unfortunately I was so intent on digging in I didn’t pay too much attention to lighting and got a bit of a blurry image. But at least the red meat is red, as it should be.

Perfect Medium Rare
The sauce is simply your typical drippings. Cooking so slowly and low, there was no appreciable fat in the pan, just juice, so no need to separate. I just removed the existing juice to the stove top then deglazed the roasting pan with a cup or so of stock, then combined. It was very and deeply intensely beefy.
We ended up with a good 4 pounds or so leftover. I just lopped off a slice to have later and here’s how she looks right outta the fridge.

Leftovers
So whether it’s "meat mastery" or not, it’s certainly good enough for me.
This carnivore highly approves! Yum, Richard!
That sounds (and looks) delicious! At first glance I thought the title was “Meat Mystery”. LOL
I bought a prime rib roast yesterday and it’s a lot smaller than yours, but since I’m not all that comfortable with my oven as yet, I’m going to brown it in the cast iron skillet and then toss it in the slow-cooker. The slow-cooker is a MEAT-saver for me.
That’s better than mystery meat!
And, yeah, I’m drooling.
Ahhh, it was delicious, as good as any prime rib iv’e ever had.
If this is not meat mastery, I’m not sure what is. Well done.
That’s meat perfected.
Ha! Earlier today I saw a post on sous vide and thought about you, Richard. It made me wonder if you would be doing some special sous vide for Christmas. Then it occurred to me you hadn’t written about sous vide in quite a while. Now I have to ask, did you give-up on le vide?
No, but I haven’t used it in a while. I’ll be firing it up sometime soon.
Richard
I believe we would all be helped if you brought out your old libertarian blogging spirit, and combine some of these paleo and politics issues – such as the Food ‘Safety’ Bill just passed in the Senate. I’m super depressed. i hope it does not do too much damage to healthy food production.
Contemplationist,
Don’t worry, the government is here to keep us safe. No need to question anything they do, as their motives are always pure. Now turn the tv on or go back to sleep…
Nonsense, Contemplationist. Richard is not the opinionated type – and certainly not about such a topic…..
I’m with Martin on this one. Looks amazing!
Mouthwatering. Will try your brief high heat plus hours of slow roasting the next time I cook a slab of meat.
I wonder if that same method would work on a brisket?
I think it might work best of all on a brisket.
I’m still laughing about “Richard is a skilled practitioner of meat mastery.” My dirty mind immediately wondered why Berkhan knew about your self pleasuring… :)
The prime rib looks awesome. I’m going to have to copy that one as I happen to have a couple pounds of prime in the freezer.
Still need to try the braised lamb shanks you keep ranting about. I bought enough to feed the whole family and tossed em in the freezer til I have the time to make em.
http://articles.latimes.com/2010/dec/20/health/la-he-carbs-20101220
Shit, meant to post that link within a more appropriate article. My bad.
“”Fat is not the problem,” says Dr. Walter Willett, chairman of the department of nutrition at the Harvard School of Public Health. “If Americans could eliminate sugary beverages, potatoes, white bread, pasta, white rice and sugary snacks, we would wipe out almost all the problems we have with weight and diabetes and other metabolic diseases.”
It’s a confusing message. For years we’ve been fed the line that eating fat would make us fat and lead to chronic illnesses. “Dietary fat used to be public enemy No. 1,” says Dr. Edward Saltzman, associate professor of nutrition and medicine at Tufts University. “Now a growing and convincing body of science is pointing the finger at carbs, especially those containing refined flour and sugar.””
“What a bunch of opportunistic and shameless liars who ignore the natural selection that made us who we are. Veganism is merely a religion …” Yup Richard, that nails it for sure. I’m glad Sisson did a press release.
Our Christmas meat was prime rib. I need a nap now … Zzzzzzzzz …..