A Prime Roast
Credit: Hugh Palmer
Most people think of prime rib of beef as the king of roasts—but at our English New Year's Eve dinner, a shell roast was the hero. Ask your butcher for a prime first-cut shell roast of about 8 lbs, with the bone on. (This is unusual, as the bone is nearly always removed.) Have him saw through the chine bone between the vertebrae, then tie the whole roast so that it retains its shape while cooking. After many tests, we settled on an oven temperature of 450° for 9 minutes per lb., or until the temperature in the center of the roast reaches 110°. The meat will continue to cook to 120° as it rests for about 20 minutes, and will be medium-rare on the ends and rare in the middle. Just carve it between the bones into thick slices and serve.








Low and slow is the best for rib roasts. Google it. This is wrong.
Relieving the meat from the bone and then tying back onto the ribs will not cause the meat to dry out. It will lead to a very easy carving time when the roast is served.
I personally like rubbing the whole "relieved" roast with salt, pepper, and granulated garlic. I actually prefer using fresh garlic mixed with salt and pepper, but some people just don't like to deal with fresh garlic especially at holiday time.
On a personal note, I have been in restaurant work (mostly in management positions) for better than 50 years. I learned this procedure as a young man and have always had my various staffs prepare Prime Rib in this fashion. In all those years, we literally went through tons and tons and tons of Prime Rib with very few complaints.
Robert Hayes Halfpenny