Why San Francisco’s House of Prime Rib Covers Its Meat in Rock Salt Before Cooking It (2024)

FAQs

Why San Francisco’s House of Prime Rib Covers Its Meat in Rock Salt Before Cooking It? ›

Once the prime rib has been taken out of the dry-aging room, it gets completely submerged in rock salt; the goal is to not see any of the meat. This process helps retain its moisture. “You want to have the beef nice and moist,” says owner Joe Betz.

The roast is buried in rock salt, which keeps the outside from getting burnt and absorbs fat/etc while the roast cooks in a rather hot oven. (In general, the difficulty with large roasts like prime rib is getting the inside and the outside cooked to edible doneness levels at the same time.)

"When salt is added to a protein, the salt slowly draws out water from the surface of the meat," Dr. Le says. "That moisture then dissolves the salt, creating a highly concentrated salt solution that migrates into the interior of the protein.

Dry Brine for Prime Rib

Experienced pitmasters recommend starting your prime rib preparation days in advance with a dry brine. That's a BBQ term for salting your meat, then letting it sit in a refrigerator while the salt penetrates the meat.

How do restaurants make prime rib so tender? The secret to restaurant-style prime rib is cooking the meat super slow at low temperatures. I recommend cooking prime rib at no higher than 200 degrees F. This cooks the meat very slowly, turning the fat into butter and rendering the proteins juicy and soft.

Worrying About Seasoning

In fact, the longer the salt sits on the surface of the meat, the more moisture will get sucked out of it, which is the complete opposite of what you want. So by all means, salt and pepper generously, but you only need enough on the surface to season every bite, including the non-edge sections.

Season it as though it were right about to hit the grill. IF YOU PUT A TON OF SALT ON YOUR STEAK, IT WILL BE SALTY! Just use as much salt as you normally would add to a steak, and do not rinse the steak before cooking.

Osmosis—the process where water moves through cell walls to reach equilibrium. In this case, water moves from the less salty interior of the meat to the more salty exterior. This moisture drawn to the surface is why lots of chefs say that you shouldn't salt meat ahead of time.

Gently pat the salt into the meat. Next, place your steaks onto cooling racks, cover them with plastic wrap, and then put them in the fridge. You can let them sit in the fridge anywhere from 40 minutes to 24 hours. The longer you let them sit, the more concentrated the flavor is going to be.

What is the most important thing to do before roasting a prime rib roast? ›

Tying Prime Rib: It is important to tie the prime rib before roasting. If left untied, the outer layer of meat will pull away from the rib-eye muscle and overcook. To prevent this, tie the roast at both ends, running the cooking twine parallel to the bone. Just ask the butcher and they will tie your rib roast for you.

Brown the roast at 500°F (or as high as your oven will go) for 15 minutes. Lower the oven to 325°F to finish roasting: Reduce the oven temperature to 325°F. Roast in the oven until the thermometer registers 115°F for rare or 120° for medium rare, and 130°F for medium.

Dry the roast well with paper towels and sprinkle it liberally on all sides with kosher salt (1 teaspoon Diamond Crystal kosher salt per pound or 2/3 teaspoon Morton kosher salt per pound). Place salted roast on roasting rack suspended over a roasting pan and refrigerate, uncovered, for 24-48 hours.

Prime rib has a large “eye” of meat in the center, which is juicy, tender, and marbled with fat. This eye has a fat-marbled muscle around it, and the whole thing is surrounded by a thick cap of fat. This means that prime rib is tender, juicy, and extremely flavorful because the muscles aren't heavily used.

Prepare the Rub

You can season the roast a day in advance, but no later than 2 hours before cooking time. The seasoning needs time to flavor the meat while it's raw.

What's the Best Cut of Prime Rib? The first cut (sometimes labeled the small end or the loin end) comes from the hind of the standing rib roast near the loin. It's more expensive and generally regarded as the best cut because it has less connective tissue than the second cut and therefore is more tender.

Diamond Crystal brand kosher salt: I use about ¾ teaspoon Diamond Crystal kosher salt per pound of roast, but it's hard to over-season a prime rib so don't skimp on the salt. Freshly ground black pepper: The amount of black pepper is up to you, but I use about a quarter of the amount of salt.

Himalayan Pink Salt

Known for its pretty pink color 一 which comes from mineral impurities like magnesium, calcium and potassium from rock crystals near the Himalayas 一 Himalayan pink salt is an excellent kosher salt substitute. It's used to season recipes, cure meats, garnish dishes and rim co*cktail glasses.

Placing the oven rack too high up will cause your roast to brown too quickly and burn! After 30 minutes in the oven, add a ½ cup of water to the bottom of the roasting pan. The key is to allow the onions to brown and caramelize while roasting, but not to burn and smoke in the fat.