A Smoked Prime Rib for the Ages

Good morning. My colleague Gabriel Sanchez brought us a fantastic recipe for Father’s Day this year: the smoked prime rib (above) that his father makes, a homage to the one he used to prepare when he was cooking at Kreuz Market in Lockhart, Texas, where Gabe’s great-grandfather tended the coals before him.

Gabe wrote all about this for The New York Times this week. You dry-brine the roast overnight (do that on Saturday so you’re good to go on Sunday), then cook it low and slow next to a smoldering fire for a couple of hours to bring its interior temperature to around 120 degrees, a fraction of the time that you’d cook a tougher cut like brisket. Then you slather the thing in molasses, hit it with a lot of coarse salt and freshly cracked black pepper, and sear it over high heat so that it develops a thick, mahogany bark over the tender, juicy meat.

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Smoked Prime Rib

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Let that rest for a half-hour, and you’ll be left with a sweet, peppery smoke signal from Texas Hill Country: puro Sanchez food for all dads and those who love them. You might serve it with mac and cheese, coleslaw, pickled jalapeños and potato salad, but if your tastes don’t fly Texas forever you’d be fine with salt-and-vinegar roasted potatoes and a mess of grilled asparagus.

Other deliciousness for the pop culture crowd: a sausage and egg tater tot casserole for Sunday breakfast (alternatively, a minty fruit salad with yogurt); peanut butter sandwiches with sriracha and pickles for lunch; lovely grilled pork chops with pineapple salsa for dinner.

I like these miso leeks with white beans as well, and this vegetable tofu curry. French toast is always appropriate on a weekend, especially one honoring dads. And boy howdy are these baked Buffalo wings a winner. Rake a pound of those into a bowl, and put the old man in front of the Mets game for the afternoon. I may be misremembering the scripture, but I think this is why you were sent into the world.

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Now, it’s nothing to do with fresh cherries or salted cod, but today is Flag Day, honoring the adoption of the flag of the United States in 1777, by resolution of the Second Continental Congress. Here’s the flag code: There are more rules than you’d think.

I’m kind of digging “Mr Inbetween,” on Hulu.

Please read C.J. Chivers in The New York Times Magazine, on the opioid crisis in New England’s fishing fleet, and how one man’s death is leading to change.

Finally, Soccer Mommy’s back, with “Lost.” Listen to that while you’re cooking, and I’ll see you on Sunday.