Reverse Finished Ribeye with all the Trimmings

[TomT]

     Chef Alton Brown has basically this same technique for a whole prime rib roast.  His instructions are to bake it in a 200* oven until the internal temp reaches 119*.  Then take it out of the oven and let it set "rest" covered with foil for 30 mins.  Then put it back into the oven at 500* until it is the desired shade of browning (crust).  Then it can be taken out of the oven and sliced immediately.  The whole roast will be rare to medium-rare.  I have done this for about 10+ years for our family Christmas dinner and the idea works great.  The downside to the recipe for the whole roast is there is no time frame to get the meat to the original 119*. Just do the original bake until the meat temp is 119*.    Last year, it took about 6 hours.  In the past it had been maybe 4 hours.  But last year was probably a larger roast and we had remodeled the kitchen and had a different oven.
This technique also reminds me of a technique called Sous-vide    Which is sealing your meat in a plastic bag and immersing it in water temp to whatever temp you desire you finished meat to be.  Since the water temp gets no higher than your desired meat temperature, the meat will come out of the sous-vide machine at the exact temp you want it to be.  Then you take it out and rest it for 10 minutes+- and then sear the outside at a very high temp for a very short time.  Same principle.  I have never done the sous-vide method but they are both the same idea and it should work. 
TomT

[jigmaster501]

The problem with Alton Brown's recipe is that you come no where close to a 7 log reduction of salmonella and no where close to any log reduction of any pathogenic microorganisms at 119F with a 30 minute rest.

The searing at 500F will not change the internal temps much.

For a prime rib roast, the lowest internal temperature needs to be 130F and needs to be held there for 121 minutes. That is rare.

For a roast of 10lbs or less use a 350F oven and for a roast larger than 10lbs go 250F.

Once the meat hits 125F, go to 500F for 10 minutes to sear and reach 130F. Once at 130F, lower the oven temp to the warming feature which should be around 140-150F. Leave it there for 2 hrs and 1 minute. The scale is sliding for holding time. As internal temps rise, holding time shortens but we all like rare to medium rare prime rib. It sucks any other way.

Prime rib has many areas where pathogens can harbor and is not like a regular steak that can be seared on the outer edges and cooked rare. A totally different ballgame.


The sous vide technique has a clostridium botulinum hazard and has to be done under proper temperatures. Once you kill the competing microorganisms, the CBOT spores can germinate and develop toxin if the temperatures are not high enough. You cannot destroy spores with sous vide.

If done right, sous vide is an incredible tool for making tasty and delicate flavored meats. It is also good for marinating (under 38F) for a few days or more and then sous viding in the bag. if you sear it after coming out of the bag, you can use the juices to make a gravy.

You guys are killing me, I want to make a prime rib now. Aren't we all supposed to be fishing??lol