My family is filled with passionate people. At many gatherings, you will find us ramping each other up, and disagreeing, seemingly just for the fun of it. The traditional holiday prime rib roast is the ultimate expression of this passion.

An expensive cut, even for the most wealthy among us – but even so, we splurge. 

Christmas comes but once a year!

All that being said, “The Meat,” which is what my family has decided to call it, is expensive. This makes my dad anxious, which leads to raucous opinions thrown across the room – which in turn, makes the room anxious.

Then, my mother in all her sweet joy appears to be seemingly too calm about the meat, which ramps the situation up further.

In the middle of this, I, the head chef, operate under the direction of my mother, defending her odd way of cooking the roast she probably got from a magazine in 1997. My brother takes whatever “side” is the opposite of the opinions I have, because that’s just what siblings do.

"Every year this tradition remains the same, but in a way that’s kind of special. While the meal itself is decadent, so is the stress."

In steps my sister-in-law: calm, cool, collected and relatively new to the family. Every year she reminds us of the same, simple truth. “The Meat” comes out perfect and we all end the meal saying “that’s the best thing we’ve eaten in a long time.”

She also (with care) reminds us that we’re all acting crazy!

Every year this tradition remains the same, but in a way that’s kind of special. While the meal itself is decadent, so is the stress. Our personality quirks can be expressed amongst a loving family in that special safe place called home, where you sometimes say things you would never normally say.

And, because you’ve known these people your whole life, you know exactly what to say to “pull someone’s chain.”

So in this special section I bestow upon you, my mothers recipe for “The Meat,” in all its vague and simple glory. I’ve never heard of another recipe where you blast something with heat and then promptly shut the oven off, but it must be “a thing.” 

In closing, I want to remind you that stress can be a seasoning too and it somehow makes everything delicious when it all “cools” down.

“The MEAT”

• Preheat the oven to 500 degrees.
• Measure with your heart, coarse salt and cracked pepper liberally on all sides and bring prime rib to room temperature.
• Multiply the weight of the prime rib x5. These are the minutes per pound to use while roasting at 500 degrees.
• After it has roasted for the time per pound, shut the oven off and let it sit in the oven (NO

  PEEKING) for 2 hours.

• Remove prime rib from the oven. Cover with foil and let sit for 10min before carving.

• Enjoy!

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Check out Volume One’s annual special section, “Meat!” online and in print starting on page 50.