CHRISTMAS TRADITION

We all have our traditions at this Christmas time. Tradition can be in many forms: worship, festivities,decorations and of course food. A Mad Meat Genius tradition is to feast on prime rib Christmas day. We like to find the best beef available and spare no expense. We have been to many local butchers, big discount warehouses and even Wally World. They all have decent products. None compare to the aged prime rib roast at Willowside Meat market in Santa Rosa. They hang the roast in their meat locker and dry age the beef. The results are a beef experience that is religious.Deep rich beef flavor with that Umami sensation. (I used the term Umami for the hipster readers).Oh, did I mention honest to goodness corn-fed beef. This is our 'Gold Standard' for prime rib.

We plan for the Christmas meal months in advance. This involves calling Willowside and placing our order. We ordered a three bone roast that weighed seven pounds. The butcher cuts the roast away from the bone and then re-ties it together. This works perfect for ease of carving after the cook. The strings are cut and the roast falls away from the hot and slippery bones. Ask your butcher to cut and tie the roast and usually they are happy to oblige. Pre-ordering our roast insures delivery because Willowside becomes very crowded at this Holiday time. Availability is limited.

We unwrapped our roast. This is a 'Choice' grade hunk of meat. The fat marbling is spectacular. We have tried the 'Prime' graded roast and found it to be to fatty for our taste. This roast will be seasoned with only coarse salt and freshly ground pepper. We do not want to mask any of the luscious beef flavor with seasoning rubs. We have tried several cooking methods and this one works for us. There is no wrong way to cook but it would be a sin to overcook this special meat. The seasoned roast is put in a roasting rack and placed in a hot 450 degree oven for 1/2 hour. After the 1/2 hour the heat is lowered to 325 degrees for the duration of the cook. Our roast cooked for almost 2 hours until the internal temperature reached 122 degrees. This next step is crucial and difficult to  carry out. Let the foil tented roast rest for 1/2 hour. This is a torturous procedure because the aroma is intoxicating. This allows the roast to settle and the juices to redistribute throughout.

This was one of the best Prime Rib roasts ever. This is our Christmas tradition that we are proud to share with you. We are going to have some of the best sandwiches ever today. We hope you had a wonderful Christmas and thanks for coming into our kitchen.