A few holidays ago, we made Garlic Prime Rib. It was really tasty.  Last year, I found the food blog Serious Eats, and their Perfect Prime Rib. I haven’t actually made the Perfect Prime rib recipe, but the science is sound.

For Christmas this year, I’ve decided to combine the best of both worlds: the flavor of the Garlic Prime Rib, and the cooking method of the Perfect Prime Rib.

So I present to you, the Perfect Garlic Prime (Thyme) Rib.

Here’s what our roast looked like this year:

(Astute observers will note that the package says nearly 17 lbs. We didn’t serve the entire thing. I cut off one rib to save for another time, for reasons explained below.)

And here’s the recipe:

Ingredients
6.5 kg Choice-grade standing rib roast^{1, 2} (labeled at Costco as “Beef Rib Whole Bone In Vacuum Packaged”)
25 cloves of garlic
5 Tbsp olive oil
4 Tbsp sea salt
2 Tbsp ground black pepper
2 Tbsp dried thyme

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to lowest possible temperature, 150°F or greater (some ovens can’t hold a temperature below 200°F).
2. Season the rib side of the roast with 2 Tbsp of salt
3. Combine the garlic, olive oil, remaining sea salt, pepper, and thyme in a food processor, or small chopper³.
4. Spread the mixture over the fatty side of the roast.
5. Place the roast, garlic side up, on a rack in a large roasting pan.
6. Put in the oven and cook until the center of the roast registers 120°F. In a 150°F oven, this will take around 5 1/2 to 6 1/2 hours. In a 200°F oven, this will take 3 1/2 to 4 hours.
7. Remove roast from the oven and cover with aluminum foil to rest.
8. Crank the oven to it’s highest setting, at least 500°F
9. 10 minutes before serving, place the roast back in the oven, and cook until crisp and well browned, 6-10 minutes.
10. Remove, carve, and serve.

Notes:

1. I generally aim for about 1 lb, or 0.5 kg of meat per person when I’m looking at a bone-in roast. (Boneless, I go for about a half pound or 250g of meat per person.)  In this case, the roast was about 14 lbs., which was a bit on the high end.  Fortunately, it worked out. We had 10 adults, 3 kids, and only two slices of leftovers.  I’ll chalk it up to my brother-in-law who had multiple servings.
2. In this case, my roast had 7 bones.
3. I use the Cuisinart SmartStick with the chopper attachment.