Good save and genius idea! As I recall my mother went through a stage prior to microwave ovens where she had "special" large nails that went into each potato to speed up the baking.

Glad you saved it. Yes, I love rare prime rib. It's hard to get when one eats out (my guess is everyone else does too, so it's "rarer" to find)!

This post was edited by rob333 on Wed, Dec 26, 12 at 8:48

Brilliant! It looks wonderful. Perfect way to celebrate the birth of the son of a carpenter.

We had prime rib, too. My mother made it using the "do not open the oven door" high heat method. It was perfect.

Compumom, I remember those potato nails.

Good thinking on using the nails, I also remember the potato nails from before microwaves.

We had prime rib too, cooked the slow oven method with a hi high heat finish. Turned out great.

Nancy

Nails in potatoes - now that you mention it, I do vaguely remember that trick.

I haven't done a big hunk of roast beast for a few years now. Almost all of my beef cooking nowadays is braising, slow-cooking, and saucing the cheaper cuts - oxtails, shanks, chucks. When I do grill or sear beef, I seldom get a ribeye or other classic grilling cut. My preference is a skirt or flank cut or, when I can find it, a bavette.

Thus the price of the prime rib gave me sticker shock - over $100 at Costco! That's more than I remember paying, more than an entire wet-packed tenderloin used to cost, although those have gone up too. So the incentive to salvage the roast was substantial . . .

I also got sticker shock when I purchase a prime rib for company dinner. I usually only buy on sale. Then the guest didn't eat the prime rib after professing to loving it prior to their visit (I had a cold and they are germaphobic even though I took precautions).

Great ingenuity John. While didn't have to do creative cooking like, it did turn out beautifully crusted and perfectly rare. Like Pam's mother, I used the "do not open the oven door" method too.

I also remember potato nails.

I don't think I would use Galvanized nails in anything I wanted to eat, I would just defrost it in the microwave on very low and have Christmas dinner at 5pm if need be.

We bought a Kamado grill last spring and after smoking the Prime Rib on that I can not imagine cooking one any other way.
Came out the best prime rib I have ever eaten, great flavor and so tender that I honestly did not even need a knife.

I cover it completely in Walkerswood Jamaican Jerk seasoning.

http://www.amazon.com/Walkerswood-Jamaican-Jerk-Seasoning-10/dp/B0001CVDZI

Use a quality lump charcoal with several chunks of cherry and hickory wood.
Cook it at 225 degrees until thermometer reads 125 degrees in the center, take it off and wrap in heavy foil and a thick towel for about 15 minutes and it will finish off to about 134-135 degrees which is a perfect medium rare all the way through even out to the edges.

I agree about the galvanized nails. Brilliant idea, but would only use stainless nails (if they make those). I've always heard that galvanized metal is toxic, not to heat it or use in contact with food, or it releases something bad...don't remember what. Hopefully, you will check in here and let us know you are still standing.

We had the Costco rib roast also, but the price did not shock when I compared it to the price at my butchers. What shocked me was that the grocery stores were near the Costco/butcher prices. Past years I could pick up and freeze some very nice ones for about $3.99. Nowhere to be found this year.

Mine also turned out perfect per the guest, and the Potato parsnip mashed was a hit. And I have leftovers for
tonight.
As for the nails and baking, I still do that for bakers on the grill.

John, I think you have nailed the science of applied thermal dynamics of overcoming challenging static non-uniform initial cooking conditions.

Good job!

dcarch

I'm unconcerned about using galvanized nails in roasting meat - at least, doing in occasionally. Here is why:

Zinc is an essential nutrient, in small quantities. Recommended daily intake is about 11 mg/day for adults. There are zinc supplement pills, if you don't get enough. Upper limit for sustained intake is about 40 milligrams/day. For one-time exposure to zinc, toxic effects start around 100 mg.

Each galvanized nail has around 0.6 gram of zinc. So about 15% of the zinc on the nail would have to dissolve into one serving of meat, to get into the range of toxicity.

But the zinc coating on a nail won't start melting until around 800 F. This temperature is never reached inside the meat. It never gets above 120 F in there. That is a temperature similar to hot tap water.

So I conclude that roughly "no" zinc got into the meat.

Nails can have oil and grease on them too, but hopefully I cleaned that off by scrubbing with detergent and hot water.

Whew!

What Oly said.