Veteran's Day PBC Prime Rib

One of my favorite things about cooking and barbecuing is doing it with my closest friends. I love the closeness and comradiere that is experienced in preparing a meal together. Also, when someone else volunteers to buy the Prime Rib!

Background

It’d been a while since Liz and I had spent time with our friends the Paulini’s. Even though we really enjoy spending time together, our schedules the past few weeks have been really busy. We’ve had to do a lot of family related travel and have been taking Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace University, which has somehow made our free time feel even more scarce than usual. We were very excited when the Paulini’s invited us over to cook a Prime Rib using my Pit Barrel Cooker, or PBC.

The Journey

At about 2 PM I started loading the PBC into the bed of my truck. One of the things I love the most about the PBC is how portable it is. I’ve noticed that Pit Barrel Cooker Co has finally started promoting this capability of their cooker and I think it is about time. I’ve been hauling mine all over now for a year and a half. I’ve joked about starting a small niche catering company where I just come out to your location, cook some meat on the PBC, and sit in a chase lounge chair and drink. Once it was finally loaded, Liz and I started the 20 minute drive to the Paulini’s.

We felt a little guilty about what we were about to do–just show up and eat someone else’s prime rib, so we stopped at Price Chopper on the way to pickup some accessories. We grabbed a variety of fresh vegetables, hummus, lemons, and sparkling water, and finished the drive there. I’ve never been a fan of sparkling water, but Liz insists on it.

The Setup

Once we arrived, Matthew Paulini and I got right to work setting up the PBC. We got it setup so quickly, it was immediately time for some refreshment/nourishment in the form of a Dogfish Head Namaste. While the coals in the PBC lit, we went inside to begin preparing the prime rib.

Matt made a custom rub, in situ on the roast, consisting of black pepper, garlic, salt, and rosemary. I’m not sure making the rub on the roast itself is the best technique in the world, but who am I to critcize? We wasted no time and got the rib hung–along with some spicy Italian sausage from Roma’s Italian Deli.

Waiting

While the food cooked, the Paulini’s put a movie on for all of us to watch. The movie they selected was about a U.S. Military Working Dog named Max. The movie, aptly titled Max, was actually surprisingly good. I usually have quite a hard time getting into a movie, but with this one, I had a hard time getting out of it–i.e., not showing too much emotion, or as the girls would say, not crying. I think the overall consensus was that the movie was a good one.

The Reward

Finally, the movie came to an end and the food was done! We cooked it to 135 degress farenheit, and although you’ll have to judge for yourself, it looked just beautiful. We plated it, along with some mashed cauliflower, and immediately got to chowing down, where we enjoyed some Saranac Disruption and Switchback Dooley’s Belated Porter. Despite my hesitations about the in situ rub, the prime rib tasted great with just the right amount of saltiness on the crust. The mashed cauliflower was an excellent side, complimenting the flavor of the rib but helping us maintain our paleo lifestyle (don’t ask if the beers were paleo).

Conclusion

I love how cooking can bring people together. It can be very hard in today’s day and age of constant distractions and commitments to maintain relationships with those closest to you. For Liz and I, using this day as an opportunity to catch up with some of our closest friends was just what the Doctor ordered. As usual, we were very grateful for the hospitality shown to us by the Paulini’s. I encourage you to invite some friends over and exercise a little relationship preventative maintence by preparing a meal together.

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