Place the roast in a roasting pan (or large casserole dish) and sprinkle liberally with sea salt. Use your hands to pat the salt into the meat. If you'd like, you can refrigerate the meat for a few hours or overnight to dry brine it, but this step is not mandatory.

A few hours before you want to roast the prime rib, bring it to room temperature by allowing it to sit on the counter in the roasting pan. If you're in a hurry, preheat the oven to 200 degrees and allow the prime rib to sit in the oven for 10 minutes to bring the temperature up.

When you're ready to cook, preheat the oven to 500 degrees F.

Bake the roast for 8 to 15 minutes (depending on the size of the roast), until the outside is deeply golden-brown.

Lower the oven temperature to 300 degrees F. Bake for 11 to 14 minutes per pound for rare prime rib (or until it reaches an internal temperature of 120 to 125 degrees F), 15 to 18 minutes for medium-rare (or until it reaches an internal temperature of 130 to 135 degrees F), or 18 to 21 minutes per pound for medium (or until it reaches an internal temperature of 138 to 140 degrees F). For example, if you have a 6-pound prime rib and you want to cook it to medium, bake it for just under 2 hours.

Remove meat from the oven and allow it to sit 20 to 30 minutes before slicing and serving.