Page 5 - Barbecue News DEC 2020 Digital Issue

holiday treat
Prime Rib Roast For The Holidays
Meathead, AmazingRibs.com
Is there anything more festive, impressive, and luxurious than a big juicy prime rib roast? Best of all, it’s easy to make outdoors and tastes better cooked with smoke and flame. If you can afford it, buy a prime rib or strip loin for the best combination of tenderness, juiciness, and tasti- ness. Alternatively, a chuck eye roast comes darn close and is a lot cheaper. Top sirloin butt can also be superb and cheaper still. Or if it's tenderness you crave, nothing rivals the tenderloin, but tri-tip is a close second.
Ordering Your Rib Roast
Here's why prime rib is so expensive and so worth it. The most desirable part of the steer is the long muscle group that lies on either side of the backbone and above the curved back ribs. The primary muscle here is longissimus dorsi, the eye of the ribeye. It
is tender, juicy, and woven
with thin, lacy lines of fat
that melt during cooking,
creating deep, beefy flavor
and rich, silky texture. The
front half of this section is
the rib roast, with 7 bones
from ribs 6 through 12 (that's
a whole rib roast in the
photo above). The rear is
called the strip loin. If you
carve the rib roast into
steaks, you have ribeyes.
Carve the strip loin into steaks, and you have strip steaks.
Prime rib is so named because it comes from a section called the rib primal, one of several big sections of the steer called primals. It is not necessarily USDA Prime grade, as you might think. What your grocer is probably selling is USDA Choice, and technically it should be called a “beef rib roast” rather than “prime rib.” You can order USDA Prime-grade rib roast if you wish, and it’s a real treat, but bring a wheelbarrow full of cash. Or simply ask your butcher for the best-looking, most marbled rib roast in the house. Better yet, order ahead. Prime rib is not something all butchers keep in stock. Order it fresh, not frozen, well in advance and take delivery 2 or 3 days before you plan to serve it. If you can get 28-day wet aged prime
DECEMBER 2020
BarbecueNews.com - 5
Bones Off!
A bone-in rib roast is often called a “standing rib roast” be- cause the curved back ribs make a great stand for roasting the meat. I like to get bone-in if it is cheaper per pound. If it is the same price as boneless, you are paying the same price for bone as for meat. Ask your butcher to remove the bones for you, or remove them yourself—a rack of beef back ribs makes a delicious second meal. Here’s why you want the bones off:
Bones don’t add flavor. Calcium coated bones have no fla- vor on their exterior. There is flavor in the marrow, but it
rib, go for it. If you like dry aged meat you can ask your butcher if it can be ordered. Not likely.
A typical bone-in prime rib roast weighs about 2 pounds per bone, depending on the size and age of the steer, and in recent years, that weight has gone up. Allowing for fat and bone waste and 20 per- cent shrinkage during cook- ing, you should buy at least 1 pound per person, or one bone width for two people.