Salt-encrusted prime rib roast

[andiesenji]

I am posting this at the urging of a friend who was hanging over my shoulder today at the office. She is a neophyte with computers and is wary of going online by herself but likes to read some of the things in which I am interested.

I prepared this roast for her parents wedding anniversary last January and she says they are still talking about it.

Lawry's, The Prime Rib, an L.A. landmark restaurant, does a roast in salt but I think mine is easier to do and it turns out lovely.

This is my "secret" method of doing the salt-encrusted prime rib.

It is so much easier that even people who have never before done anything like this can be successful the first time.

Have your butcher saw the ribs off so they do not extend more than 1/4 inch from the meat.

You can do this with any size roast from 3 ribs to 6. If you are doing the entire rib roast get it cut in half and wrap the two halves separately but roast them (not touching) in the same pan

First, it is important to use coarse kosher salt. Get two 3-pound boxes.

(do not use rock salt, it is not the same thing, no matter what your friend says)

Anyway, here is what you do to make life a little easier when prepping this roast.

On a sheet of heavy duty foil spread out a piece of doubled cheese cloth that is long enough to go all the way around the roast. -first rinse the cheesecloth for several minutes in hot water and wring it out well to get the sizing out of it but leave it quite damp.

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. WEIGH THE ROAST, WRITE DOWN THE WEIGHT!

Spread the dampened cloth on the foil. If the weave is very loose you may need 3 layers.

Spread the salt over the entire cheese cloth so you have a layer about 1 inch thick.

Spritz with water and press with your hands until it clumps. (I use thin latex or vinyl gloves)

Place the roast near one end of the salt and roll it up, foil and all.

Place the roast on a flat rack on a sheet pan or shallow roasting pan, if you have a rack, otherwise just crumple some foil to make a support- just enough to hold it up out of the liquid which will extrude from the roast.

Cut the foil away from the top and sides - leave the cheesecloth.

Spritz lightly with water and press to make sure it adheres to the meat.

Place in oven and roast for 12 minutes per pound or until an instant read thermometer reads 135 degrees.

When you remove it from the oven be sure and let the roast "coast" for a minimum of 20 minutes before you crack the salt crust. Use the back of a wooden spoon and it is a good idea to set the pan on some newspaper to catch all the flying bits of salt.

Use a scissors to cut the cheesecloth away if needed. It may be charred but that is o.k. it will just fall apart.

Crack the salt crust completely away from the roast and allow the roast to coast for another 10 to 15 minutes before carving.

(It should coast for at least 30 minutes before you cut into it.)

Edited August 3, 2004 by andiesenji (log)

[elion_84]

I remember Alton Brown doing a show on salt crusted tenderloin that was very similar to your method. Also, the latest issue of Cook's Illustrated has an article on making grill-roasted tenderloin that involves salting the whole thing and letting it sit for about an hour on the counter. According to the article it makes for very tender and perfectly seasoned roast.

[phaelon56]

I've been intrigued by this process since seeing an Iron Chef rerun last week where the theme ingredient was Guinea fowl. The challenger made a paste in a food processor that consisted of lots of coarse black pepper, salt and water or some other liquid (lots of pepper - the paste looked speckled). The bird was place in a casserole dish and the top surface entirely encrusted with about a 1 inch thick layer - it was then chipped away after roasting.

Does the meat get especially salty or does it form a crust of some sort and only the surface gets salty? Very curious.

She is a neophyte with computers and is wary of going online by herself

Sounds like walking down a dark alley late at night Have you explained to her that this is a very safe neighborhood here at eGullet with a great neighborhood watch program?

[andiesenji]

The salt doesn't exactly season the meat, its purpose is to form a shell in which the meat cooks and it slows down the loss of moisture from the roast. It is very juicy. I really don't season the meat much before cooking, I occasionally insert slivers of garlic just under the surface if I know the people for whom I am preparing it like garlic. Otherwise I make an au jus but not from these pan drippings, which are too salty, and this is seasoned, it is generally enough. If someone wants to add more salt and pepper, that is an individual preference.

I don't advise inexperienced cooks to do the entire rack of ribs but I often do but I have a very large oven and roast it on a full-sized sheet pan.

Then when I am ready to serve, I cut the roast in half and stand one half on end with the center up for those who like rare and the other half with the end up for those who like well done roast beef (and a fair number do and the end cuts are always very popular).

Several years ago I bought 6 of the ham or roast stands which are great for positioning large cuts of meat for carving.

It also makes a great presentation, carving off a serving horizontally then sliding it straight onto a plate.

I have a beautiful custom made knife with a 14-inch blade that I use for slicing.

[CtznCane]

I remember doing a salt encrusted sirloin tip roast about 20 years ago from a San Francisco (perhaps great chefs series) cookbook that called for the roast to be browned first before being encrusted. I believe (my ex-wife wound up with the book) it called for both regular/kosher Salt and for a certain amount of Rock salt, with there being roughly about 5-6 lbs of salt in all.

I've been interested in doing one again, I like the cheese cloth aspect of it. Whether I'd use the same recipe again I don't know but I wish I could find a copy of it. (The recipe I used 20 years ago.)

[andiesenji]

I don't brown the roast first. The salt crust gets very hot.

Try it with a very small roast first.

I buy the coarse kosher salt in 3 pound boxes at Smart & Final.

[FoodZealot]

Andie,

thanks for this recipe. Just one clarification - your procedure doesn't mention any change in oven temperature - do you normally roast at 450° the entire time?

~Tad

[andiesenji]

Andie,

thanks for this recipe.  Just one clarification - your procedure doesn't mention any change in oven temperature - do you normally roast at 450° the entire time?

~Tad

←

Yes, 12 minutes per pound.

If it is a fairly thin roast do 10 minutes per pound.

First the salt heats up then transmits the heat to the roast and the crust it forms hold the moisture in the meat.

Be sure to allow the roast to coast for a minimum of 20 minutes before cracking the crust.

[little ms foodie]

Next time you do this maybe you can post some photos of your prep here. I would love to see the step by step. sounds great!!! have you done this with fish?

[andiesenji]

Haven't tried it with fish. I only eat freshwater fish, which are usually too small for this type of thing.

The next time I get a big catfish I will give it a try.

The reason I started doing it this way was that the salt kept sliding off and I didn't get good coverage which is essential. Binding it with the cheesecloth worked beautifully.

[CtznCane]

About 20 years ago, I had what to this day is the best fish I've ever had. It was Cod (not typically a favorite of mine) cooked in a salt crust at Amelio's in S.F. when Jacky Robert owned it. To me the fish in the salt coat sounds very tempting.

I agree too that it would nice to see photos of the prep next time you do it. That would certainly help in the visualization for putting it together.

Darn, now I'm hungry!

[andiesenji]

The "classic" way of doing it is this way.

However I never could get the darn salt to stick all over the way it is supposed to, so it will creat a shell around the entire roast. I tried it dozens of times, it was always okay, just not the way I thought it should be. There would be spots that cooked too much and were dry where the coating was too thin or absent.

Then I watched a show on "great chefs", when one of the chefs used a stretch net to wrap something with leaves of some kind and the netting would hold the leaves in place.

Bingo! I immediately thought of my problems with the roast.

Since the netting would not work, because of the large holes I thought of using the cheesecloth. After all, I have used it many times on very large turkeys, to keep the breast and legs from browning too quickly, just butter it and slap it on and remove it near the end to let the skin brown and crisp.

At first I tried it with just the cheesecloth and it works with the real cheesecloth, which is tightly woven (also known as butter muslin), however if I had none available and had to use the gauzy stuff, the finer grains of salt fell though the mesh before I could get it in place.

So came my idea to use the foil as a holder temporarily until it was wrapped.

Voila! It worked and worked great. Other people watched me and started using the technique and love it. One buddy, who lives in a boat at Marina del Rey, makes it every year for a Christmas boat parade party. He says he never fails to get raves over the way the meat turns out.

When they publish these recipes on the net, they always make it sound so easy to "pat the salt into place with wet hands" but it isn't easy, and it falls off if you just breath on it, or close the oven door normally...............

here

or this one.

might work, but I think my method is better, particularly for a large roast.

This last method would probably work better for a flatter item, such as a fish.

[CtznCane]

Dredging up an old subject with a new question. Super Bowl Sunday, one dish I fixed was a Red Snapper cooked in a salt crust. The week before there had been a couple of shows on Food Network dealing with the topic of salt crusted fish. One of the shows was Tyler Florence's Food 911 and the other was Cookworks. Both of the recipes called for lightly frothed egg whites mixed in with the salt. This brings up the question of whether or not the egg whites would be a good idea for helping with the salt coat on a Roast? I know I'm tempted to try this route , perhaps even in conjunction with cheese cloth..

[andiesenji]

It works okay. Lawry's uses this method. I have tried it and gotten pretty good results but it still slips and occasionally you have less than optimal coverage because it slumps early in the roasting period.

I like the wrap the way I do it because it works, especially on a large prime rib. It is difficult to keep the salt covering on the bones, even with the egg whites.