# Prime rib in a DO?



## noahfecks (Jun 14, 2008)

No reason it couldn't be done, gonna need a big ass oven. Its going to be really hard to get it nice and rare. Do you have quite a bit of experience with cooking large cuts of meat in a DO? If not start with something less expensive and build up to it. But heck, for all I know your are a DO master chef.


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## MNichols (Nov 20, 2015)

I did a full 7lb sirloin in a DO once on a Deso trip, dried it really well, coated with sugar, put directly on the fire to caramelize the sugar and create a good sear / crust, then into the DO, 6 coals on the bottom, 4 on the top, about 40 minutes later checked with a meat thermometer, was perfectly rare / medium rare depending on where you cut. And yes, if memory serves we replaced the coals when they burned down with coals from the fire. 

I don't see any reason you couldn't do this with a small prime rib. The sear is key in my opinion, and instead of regular white sugar, I'd use Brown sugar, rosemary, a little sage, smoked paprika, white pepper and a little cumin on a prime, but that's just me


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## okieboater (Oct 19, 2004)

I do brisket quite a bit on river floats.

I put a spacer lid (home made) in my DO to keep the meat off the bottom maybe one forth inch.

Do a rub on the brisket, pour a can of adobo chilies on top then cola or dr pepper a can or so, then put it on the coals. Will take at least for me 4 or 5 hours. Plan on new charcoals as needed. After a while I take a look and continue cooking till the brisket basically will fall apart. Last one I did in a 14 anodized DO was with the camp chef cover on my partner steel stove. Takes a bit of testing to get the heat and setup working right but for me much easier than using charcoal. 

I have served the brisket sliced or pulled apart in chunks (a big fry pan of green beans, onions, pecan or almonds etc with DO baked spuds is awesome) or pulled pork style on toasted hamburger buns with potato salad, chips or the oven french fries in another DO etc is also very good.

I used to do brisket in my smoker (best smoke flavor for sure) but the DO on a stove method works great on river trips but will take a lay over day to make unless you precook at home in the oven..


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## MT4Runner (Apr 6, 2012)

Or precook with a sous vide, reheat in a 120° bath in camp, then sear/serve?


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## MNichols (Nov 20, 2015)

Thanks Okieboater, I hadn't thought of that. I generally smoke them, slice it and vacu-seal, then toss in the DO to reheat, hadn't thought of actually cooking it on a layover day, good call !!


As far as Sous Vide, getting a little culinarialy fancy with the food, huh MT4 ?


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## MT4Runner (Apr 6, 2012)

MNichols said:


> As far as Sous Vide, getting a little culinarialy fancy with the food, huh MT4 ?


Christmas gift from my wifey. Time to find uses for it!


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## okieboater (Oct 19, 2004)

unfortunately for me, Sous Vide is above my river cooking skill set.

I have read about Sous Vide and it sounds like a good deal. But, as mentioned, 
Sous Vide is something I need to leave to those with more cook skills than I have.

On the other hand, this thread is one that I have a lot of interest in following.

Buzzards have a lot of river skills to share and this will be a tasty addition to my recipe file.


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## stone (Mar 11, 2014)

I was on a trip that tried this.

The rib was packed in kosher salt inside the Dutch oven.

Unfortunately, the thermometer system malfunctioned and the roast turned out medium well. Still tasty, just not the same.

I would try it again, but with a better thermometer.


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## [email protected] (Jun 1, 2010)

Here is a fun meal that is a little easier than Prime rib to cook and get right. Can be done at home, sealed and frozen in boiling bags for a quick dinner on the river. 

Scott's DO oven ribs
Ingredients 
⦁	4 lbs. baby back pork ribs or beef ribs or however much will fit in your DO
⦁	3⁄4 cup brown sugar (light or dark)
⦁	1 teaspoon smoked salt 
⦁	1 tablespoon smoked paprika 
⦁	1 tablespoon garlic powder
⦁	1⁄4 teaspoon ground red pepper (optional) 
⦁	2 cups of your favorite Barbecue sauce (Bulls-Eye Original is mine)
Directions
1.	Preheat DO to 300 degrees f.
2.	Peel off tough membrane that covers the bony side of the ribs.
3.	Mix together well the sugar and spices to make the rub (at home).
4.	Apply rub to ribs on all sides just before cooking.
5.	Lay (two layers) ribs on a double layer of non-stick foil, shiny side out and meaty side down.
6.	Lay one layer of foil on top of ribs and roll and crimp edges tightly, edges facing up to seal.
7.	Place in DO and bake for 1 1/2 hours. Do not add any more charcoal after 1 1/2 hours and let stand for 45 minutes in DO.
8.	Remove from foil and save foil for later.
9.	Cut ribs into serving sized portions of 2 or 3 ribs.
10.	Arrange bony side up.
11.	Brush on sauce .
12.	Repeat on other side.
13.	Grill the ribs on your fire pan, bony side down. Cover with foil loosely to cook on the sauce until it bubbles and sticks on ribs.
14.	Serve with extra BBQ sauce, coleslaw and baked beans.


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## Fly By Night (Oct 31, 2018)

Wow, I've found a list of people to invite on the plentiful permits I'm going to score this year.


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## Nubie Jon (Dec 19, 2017)

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1FK4sOmz-3VBTkYpSexeLztKU2CTNE2qy/view?usp=sharing

I cook a fantastic Rib Roast at home and I don't see why it couldn't be duplicated in a DO. First of all I must confess I am a low heat then high heat guy. My roast starts like this:

1. Trim the bones from the roast and then retie on with butchers twine. No sense loosing all that flavor but make serving a lot easier!

2. Rub liberally with Olive Oil, the entire roast.

3. Coat generously with Kosher Salt and pepper.

4. Place in pan (or DO) elevated off of the bottom.

5. Slowly roast between 180 and 220 degrees F until the internal temp reaches 125-128.

6. Remove from oven, cover and raise temp to 450 f..... This maybe the difficult part as you would physically have to remove the meat from the DO.... Or maybe it gets a good fire sear.

7. Once at 450 F place meat back in over for 15 minutes.... pull out and let stand.... make your Au Ju .....

8. Meat should land at 130-135 and be very tasty!


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## John_in_Loveland (Jun 9, 2011)

Personally, I wouldn't use a Dutch Oven. I want the meat to be accessible so I can closely monitor the internal temperature. I use a remote digital thermometer. I place the thermo-couple into the center of the roast and plug it into the read out, thus allowing me to watch the temperature throughout the entire cooking process. That said, I see no reason you couldn't cook it on a grill or Asado cross over an open fire like the Gauchos do in Argentina. You'd just need to have a supply of good wood (not pine) and a sense of adventure. (and patience)



I am planning to build an Asado Cross as my project in my first welding class. Not sure how I would take it on the river but it will be fun to play with at home. Especially if I can convince my wife to let me do a whole lamb.


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## John_in_Loveland (Jun 9, 2011)

MT4Runner said:


> Or precook with a sous vide, reheat in a 120° bath in camp, then sear/serve?



This is about as fool-proof as it gets.


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## GeoRon (Jun 24, 2015)

Many times I've cooked pork tenderloins in a DO and made certain to have enough left over to dice up the next morning to make a big pot of SOS(sh*t on a shingle or chipped pork on toast if you weren't in the army). 

It is really easy in that once the DO is cooled down put all the left overs still in the DO in a cooler if you have room. Next morning while you are dicing up the tenderloin start the gravey with water that breaks loose meat and things stuck to the bottom of the DO.

Many people have never had SOS or never had it on the river hence it gets chowed down pretty fast.


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## cupido76 (May 22, 2009)

Fly By Night said:


> Wow, I've found a list of people to invite on the plentiful permits I'm going to score this year.


Haha... this is a great thought that I will also consider if I win a permit this year!


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## zbaird (Oct 11, 2003)

okieboater said:


> unfortunately for me, Sous Vide is above my river cooking skill set.
> 
> I have read about Sous Vide and it sounds like a good deal. But, as mentioned,
> Sous Vide is something I need to leave to those with more cook skills than I have.
> ...



Thats one of the beauties of sous vide. Its hard to fuck up. Sous vide, vac seal and into the fridge then cooler. Sear on the river. Perfect.


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## okieboater (Oct 19, 2004)

Maybe I need to do a duckduckgo search on sous vide and do some reading in this off the river time.

dave


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## raymo (Aug 10, 2008)

Ok, I'm game what is sous vide?


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## noahfecks (Jun 14, 2008)

boiling your meat in a bag


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## raymo (Aug 10, 2008)

*That would smart I'm sure.*



noahfecks said:


> boiling your meat in a bag


That would smart a little I'm sure. That did give me an idea thought. I have rosted turkeys in Reynolds Roasting bags and the Turkey was moist and browned. Why can't you roast a prime rib, cornish game hens, beef or pork ribs, corn beef brisket, chuck roasts, etc. in these bags at home and place them in a second bag, leaving them in the first bag with all the juices and freeze, than when you get to camp just boil them in water to thaw and serve. I'm going to try this tomorrow with some pork spair ribs I have. Put a tea spoon of flour in the bottom of the cooking bag, rub some dry rub on the ribs and bake for about 90 minutes at 350°, serve with home made barbecue sauce, potato salad and asparagus. These posts always make me hungry. I had a strong cup of coffee around 10:00 pm and it is keeping me up.


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## MNichols (Nov 20, 2015)

raymo said:


> Ok, I'm game what is sous vide?


At its most fundamental level, sous vide cooking is the process of sealing food in an airtight container—usually a vacuum sealed bag—and then cooking that food in temperature-controlled water. In French, the term translates to "under vacuum," which makes sense. Chefs vacuum seal a protein with marinade, sauce, herbs, or spices and drop it in a large pot of water. There’s no contact with a heated metal surface. No contact with flames or steam or smoke. The water never comes to a boil. Yeah, it's pretty low-key.
A sous vide machine uses a heated metal coil to warm water to a constant temperature, never fluctuating to high or low extremes. This means that the cooking progress is gradual and controlled. Proteins like steak, pork, chicken, and fish cook for elongated periods of time, slowly heating up until the entire piece of protein reaches the temperature of the water. Since the water never goes past the desired temperature of doneness, the meat takes significantly longer to cook (A 12 oz. NY strip takes a little over two hours), but it also means that you’ll never have an overcooked piece of protein.


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## John_in_Loveland (Jun 9, 2011)

noahfecks said:


> boiling your meat in a bag



I have to call BS on this. Sous Vide is no different than braising, which is a moist heat cooking method. Collagen breaks down in the presence of moisture which is why things like pot roast, short ribs, etc are typically braised like this. Sous Vide takes it a step further by extending the cooking time significantly. Is as MNichols says, you can't over cook things. I cook individual chicken breasts at 150 degree for 70 minutes so they stay juicy.


Granted you don't get the Maillard reaction that browns the meat so you either prebrown it or hit it hot and very fast after cooking.



People ask "aren't you suppose to cook chicken to 165?" Destruction of harmful bacteria is not one size fits all...its a time temperature relationship.


And in case you are wondering, I have a degree in Meat Science so know a little something about this.


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## John_in_Loveland (Jun 9, 2011)

John_in_Loveland said:


> Personally, I wouldn't use a Dutch Oven. I want the meat to be accessible so I can closely monitor the internal temperature. I use a remote digital thermometer. I place the thermo-couple into the center of the roast and plug it into the read out, thus allowing me to watch the temperature throughout the entire cooking process. That said, I see no reason you couldn't cook it on a grill or Asado cross over an open fire like the Gauchos do in Argentina. You'd just need to have a supply of good wood (not pine) and a sense of adventure. (and patience)
> 
> 
> 
> I am planning to build an Asado Cross as my project in my first welding class. Not sure how I would take it on the river but it will be fun to play with at home. Especially if I can convince my wife to let me do a whole lamb.



Wouldn't this be cool on a river trip?


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## Pine (Aug 15, 2017)

MT4Runner said:


> Or precook with a sous vide, reheat in a 120° bath in camp, then sear/serve?


This is a great idea. This x-mas I pre-cooked one in the regular oven to rare, then that evening, took it to x-mas dinner and finished it. It turned out great.


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## MNichols (Nov 20, 2015)

John_in_Loveland said:


> Wouldn't this be cool on a river trip?
> View attachment 41617



Indeed it would, and tasty too !!


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## MNichols (Nov 20, 2015)

John_in_Loveland said:


> I have to call BS on this. Sous Vide is no different than braising, which is a moist heat cooking method.
> 
> 
> 
> And in case you are wondering, I have a degree in Meat Science so know a little something about this.



Ok, so you are furthering the idea that the vacuum seal doesn't make any difference ? I would think, that especially with a marinade that it would help the meat stay in contact with the juice. And doesn't Braising generally occur at a higher temperature than in a sous vide tank ? 



I don't have a degree in anything other than Engineering, and that rarely interfaces with cooking


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## [email protected] (Jun 1, 2010)

*Warning about boiling bag cooking*

A important thing to know is if you do not boil your food bags in a pot with a strainer in it and the pot gets too hot, the bag can stick and melt. 
Dinner ruined!!!

I'm not talking about Sous Vide style cooking but reheating pre cooked frozen meals.


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## rtsideup (Mar 29, 2009)

I think I dated a girl with a degree in meat science.
She was nice.


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## okieboater (Oct 19, 2004)

To back up bighorn's warning.

Many years ago I went on a Buffalo River canoe float where every one brought along their favorite dish for a pot luck gravel bar dinner.

Mine was a big ziploc bag full of black beans and ham. Really good comfort food. I froze the ziploc and took the ziploc in my canoe's little cooler. We were short on pans and burners so I stuck my ziploc in an available back pack style boiler filled with water and left the stove area to do a chore. 

Some minutes later one of my river buds yelled out Dave, your ziploc is melting. The bottom had melted thru. Fast action by one of the at the stoves cooks rescued my black beans and ham before much got out. I finished up the defrost with a make shift double boiler.

Lesson learned: The seal a meal bags are much better if you use boiling water to defrost. I think ziploc's can work but you have to be very careful that no part of the ziploc touches hot metal. Bighorn's method is good advice.

If space / weight available, I take my double boiler. When not defrosting boil in bags it makes a great warming oven for bacon, sausage or anything else that needs to be served warm.


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## okieboater (Oct 19, 2004)

For the record, I hold an Engineering Degree as well. Not sure it helped or hindered my cooking skill set. Most of what I know about cooking came from my Mom and various experiments that went good or bad. I learned from both.

Any way all you real or imagined engineers can have some fun at:

Cooking For Engineers - Step by Step Recipes and Food for the Analytically Minded

or
The Engineer's Cookbook Kindle Edition 
by Kari Ojala (Author) from Amazon web site more fun stuff for a cold winter’s day

or my favorite

The Secrets of Cooking Revealed by Shirley O Corriher 

I got my hard copy long time ago but I think there is a paper back version on Amazon.

Shirley is a ChE and tells more than most of us want to know, however if you want to know why things cook, and some decent recipes as well, she has the goods.


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## Pine (Aug 15, 2017)

[email protected] said:


> A important thing to know is if you do not boil your food bags in a pot with a strainer in it and the pot gets too hot, the bag can stick and melt.
> Dinner ruined!!!
> 
> I'm not talking about Sous Vide style cooking but reheating pre cooked frozen meals.


I'm not an export on sous vide, but if I'm not mistaken it cooks at a pretty low temperature. Some guys at work have one set up they use to pre-cook steak before grilling, and I think the thing only gets up to around 135 degrees. They actually put the vac sealed bags into a plastic tub, and have a sort wand type device that hangs down into the water and heats it up.


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## MNichols (Nov 20, 2015)

okieboater said:


> For the record, I hold an Engineering Degree as well. Not sure it helped or hindered my cooking skill set. Most of what I know about cooking came from my Mom and various experiments that went good or bad. I learned from both.
> 
> Any way all you real or imagined engineers can have some fun at:
> 
> ...



Cooking for engineers, who would have thunk it.. Priceless, am going to share this with some of my more anal engineering buddies. Thanks !!


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## raymo (Aug 10, 2008)

*Not recommended!*



raymo said:


> That would smart a little I'm sure. That did give me an idea thought. I have rosted turkeys in Reynolds Roasting bags and the Turkey was moist and browned. Why can't you roast a prime rib, cornish game hens, beef or pork ribs, corn beef brisket, chuck roasts, etc. in these bags at home and place them in a second bag, leaving them in the first bag with all the juices and freeze, than when you get to camp just boil them in water to thaw and serve. I'm going to try this tomorrow with some pork spair ribs I have. Put a tea spoon of flour in the bottom of the cooking bag, rub some dry rub on the ribs and bake for about 90 minutes at 350°, serve with home made barbecue sauce, potato salad and asparagus. These posts always make me hungry. I had a strong cup of coffee around 10:00 pm and it is keeping me up.


Ok, so I used the Reynolds Roasting Bags on a slab of pork spare ribs, it turned out to be very, very tender and the whole thing fell apart into a big pile of pork and did not brown. I pick the bones out and mixed in some home made barbecue sauce into the pile and had great pork sandwiches. It was a completely different animal than your basic barbecued ribs on the grill, over coals like you would get at Dave's Barbecue Shack. I don't recommend doing this to a nice prime rib roast. PS. I have an AerE degree also.


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## MT4Runner (Apr 6, 2012)

John_in_Loveland said:


> I have to call BS on this. Sous Vide is no different than braising, which is a moist heat cooking method. Collagen breaks down in the presence of moisture which is why things like pot roast, short ribs, etc are typically braised like this. Sous Vide takes it a step further by extending the cooking time significantly. Is as MNichols says, you can't over cook things. I cook individual chicken breasts at 150 degree for 70 minutes so they stay juicy.





MNichols said:


> Ok, so you are furthering the idea that the vacuum seal doesn't make any difference ? I would think, that especially with a marinade that it would help the meat stay in contact with the juice.



Just reading the SV instruction manual (I'm no expert, just got it for Christmas and my experience is nil) the vacuum is more necessary to get all the meat in contact with the hot water. Because it occurs at such a low temperature, the Delta-T is low and you need that full contact for thermal transfer.


you're correct that vacuums will help with contact for marinades, but that's not as much a function of braising.





John_in_Loveland said:


> Granted you don't get the Maillard reaction that browns the meat so you either prebrown it or hit it hot and very fast after cooking.



Talk nerdy to me! Beginning to understand the Maillard reaction (it doesn't "seal the juices in", it caramelizes the sugars in the meat and creates a flavor you don't get by braising/roasting alone) changed the way I cook meat.




Pine said:


> This is a great idea. This x-mas I pre-cooked one in the regular oven to rare, then that evening, took it to x-mas dinner and finished it. It turned out great.


Reverse sear. I did that last Christmas. LOVED it!




okieboater said:


> For the record, I hold an Engineering Degree as well. Not sure it helped or hindered my cooking skill set. Most of what I know about cooking came from my Mom and various experiments that went good or bad. I learned from both.


Probably both helped and hindered!!


BS Construction Eng Tech, MS Construction Eng Mgmt.


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## John_in_Loveland (Jun 9, 2011)

MT4Runner said:


> Just reading the SV instruction manual (I'm no expert, just got it for Christmas and my experience is nil) the vacuum is more necessary to get all the meat in contact with the hot water. Because it occurs at such a low temperature, the Delta-T is low and you need that full contact for thermal transfer.
> 
> 
> you're correct that vacuums will help with contact for marinades, but that's not as much a function of braising.
> ...





The Vacuum sealer does keep the meat in contact with the water, but you can sour vide in a zip lock. Its just harder to remove the air and keep the product submerged.


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## Beer Waggin (Jul 8, 2016)

We brought a Prime Rib Roast with us on one of our trips last summer. 
Cooked it at home to 105-110, pulled it off, let it cool, vacuum packed it and re-froze it. 
It was planned as one of our last meals on a Snake trip, so night 4 or 5. 
Pulled it out of the cooler, sliced it up, threw the steaks on the grill for a couple minutes, perfection! 
We always take Ribeyes on our other river trips, which is the same piece of meat. 
I think the frozen Ribeye is a whole lot less work.


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## zbaird (Oct 11, 2003)

John_in_Loveland said:


> The Vacuum sealer does keep the meat in contact with the water, but you can sour vide in a zip lock. Its just harder to remove the air and keep the product submerged.


That and ziplocks seem to leak more often than not when submerged.


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## Fly By Night (Oct 31, 2018)

I bought a vaccumn sealer for $40 this spring it's a no brainier for prepping/ pre cooking food at home and making sure it doesn't "swim" in the cooler. The shape of the bags is also very efficient for packing in the cooler.


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## MT4Runner (Apr 6, 2012)

vacuum sealing is also great for pulling food out the night before or the morning of and putting it in your drink cooler..and then you don't get spills of food in your drink cooler either. 

Last trip I froze my vacuum bags in ice blocks and put the blocks in the cooler. 7 days later I had to chip ice to get to them..so probably a better solution for day 10-15 than day 5-7! The big block was so cold that it refroze the adjacent cube ice we added before launching.


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## Uncle Steve (May 2, 2013)

Anyone tried just using aluminum foil? Sear 10 minutes (both sides) over just-ready coals on grille. Remove some coals and slow cook (turning) until meat thermometer hits 140. Works well on pork tenderloins, and I'm sure a small prime rib could be made to work. Gotta have a feel for the heat though.


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## dport (May 10, 2006)

*Smoked*

We smoked a prime to rare, froze and wrapped it. We used the pans of Oju to heat up the sliced up rib, easy and was great!


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## raymo (Aug 10, 2008)

The prime rib recipes sound tasty. The way I roast prime rib, is to take rock salt and put down about half an inch of rock salt on the bottom of a duch oven, place roast on top of the salt, than cover roast, sides and top of roast in rock salt. Cover and cook with as many coals as you can get on the top, bottom and sides. Roast for 45 min to 60 minutes. Than remove the roast from the duch oven and throw it in the trash, cut up the DO and serve with bake potatoes and sweet corn on the cob, or keep the prime roast and let it rest for about 20 minutes. It comes out rare, but you can take the slices and put them on the grill and cook to your preference, medium rare, medium or well done. If you over cook a prime rib you can't uncook it to make it rare. At home everyone likes it cook to medium to medium rare, they drive me nuts cause I like mine rare but I get out voted.


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## mrkyak (Jul 11, 2005)

We done blackened prime rib roast for 16 , four , four pound roasts in a Dutch oven at least 8 times on the grand and yampa. Veggies in the second DO with pie cooking on the top DO. To cap off the meal, moist, steamed towelettes are provided for proper hand and face freshening. Have a good meat thermometer and you can’t go wrong. Also expect people begging to do the dishes out of their complete and utter gratefulness for such a fine meal.


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