The Best Way To Tie Prime Rib So The Meat Stays Ultra-Juicy Until The Very Last Bite

Few cuts of meat stop a dinner table quite like prime rib. The moment it arrives — bones up, crust gleaming — conversations instantly pause and are replaced with "oohs" and "ahs". But looking impressive and actually tasting incredible are two different things, and the gap between them may sometimes come down to one step most home cooks skip entirely: tying the bones back onto the roast before it cooks. And it turns out there's a proper technique to this.

If you know how a prime rib looks, it's really easy to simply tie the rib bones back in their original, natural position beneath the roast. Instead of that, what you want to do is tie the bones over the fat cap — the thick layer of fat that runs across the top. You see, that fatty layer covers the ribeye cap. This bit, being deeply marbled and tender, is considered by most serious beef lovers to be the single best part of the whole roast. 

When the bones sit on top of it throughout the cook, they block the direct heat of the oven or grill from hammering the cap the entire time and turning it into an overdone, dry mess. What you end up getting is a roast that stays evenly pink from the center all the way out, with the most prized part of the cut staying exactly as it should be.

Before leaving the butcher counter with your fresh prime rib roast, ask them if they can remove the bones for you (most will be more than happy to do it). With the bones taken off, the cut surface where the bones once sat is now bare, giving you a shot at seasoning meat that would otherwise never get any. Rub it down for extra flavor, then tie the bones back over the cap with butcher's twine, one knot per inch, pulled firm but not enough to leave marks in the meat.

Then we get to the "boring" stage — leave the meat to dry brine for 24 hours. Essentially, just leave it in the fridge, trussed up, and uncovered. The salt you applied earlier will do its thing, drawing moisture to the surface, which then gets reabsorbed back into the meat, and seasoning it from the inside-out. The uncovered fridge time also dries the exterior, which pays off later when you go to develop a crust.

Once your thermometer hits 120 degrees Fahrenheit, remove the bones and set the roast aside to rest — the temperature will continue climbing as it sits. Finish with a quick sear in a screaming hot cast-iron pan to develop the crust. When the roast's finally ready, take a knife to the cap and steal a small piece for yourself — after spending the entire cook shielded from direct heat, it should be as juicy and tender as prime rib gets.