cooking @ home

©2008 Harry Kenney

What do you get when you take Wolfgang Puck and Guy Fieri, put them into one person and say give me your best meal? In my opinion, what you get served is prime rib. It’s got the Puck big-time class with the Fieri big-time eats all in one. It’s elegant. Yet there’s no getting around it: It’s also one big ol’ slab of beef, baby. Quality and quantity.

Tyler Florence once likened this to that giant side of Brontosaurus Fred Flintstone has slapped on top of his car and eventually makes it fall over. LMAO! I couldn’t agree more. It really does look like a miniature version of that cartoon hallmark. (And that’s the last time I’ll use the word miniature referring to this dish.)

Now, the name itself, Prime Rib. It’s a misnomer in a way. Because, at least here in America, it suggests that it is a prime grade of meat. And, if you purchase it at the butcher or the supermarket, where just about all of us get our meats, well, they don’t sell “prime”. You’ve no doubt purchased either Choice or Select. So, for all intents and purposes, even though the most famous name of this meat is Prime Rib, it’s actually better labeled as a Standing Rib Roast.

Ok, because of this name game thing, this is an excellent place to look into exactly what is United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) grading, what these meat grades are, what beef falls into what category, and where can and can’t they be purchased from.

Here’s the deal. There are eight levels of beef grading. In order from the best on downward, they are: Prime, Choice, Select, Standard, Commercial, Utility, Cutter and Canner. Prime is rarely sold anywhere except for restaurants and hotels. Choice and Select are the best of the supermarket grades. Standard and Commercial are usually sold as “store-brand” or non-graded at markets. And the last three are rarely ever seen in retail, and go to industry to make fillers, processed products and we assume pet food.

Concerning ourselves with the three best grades … Prime: This is the ultimate for flavor and tenderness, produced from young, well-fed cattle. Contains the greatest amount of marbled fat and less than three percent of all beef can meet this criteria. Choice: Still very high quality though with less marbling than Prime has. This is the most popular as it has a high degree of tenderness and flavor while a lot less costly than Prime. Just over half of all beef are given the standard of Choice. Select: It is leaner than Choice or Prime and therefore the least amount of marbling and a degree down in terms of taste. It is still tasty though and fairly tender, generally, but it can vary from meat to meat. Roughly a third of all beef falls under this grade.

If you are desiring visual aids, and want to see photos of these — and at the same time play “can you be a meat grader” go here. And if you’re interested in further information on USDA grading, including how it grades other meats and poultry check out the USDA site.

Another thing I need to address here is this “thing” I’ve read on some websites that say your standing rib roast has to have a lot of ribs or forget it. One particular website snootily said (ok, it was actually the owner of the site not the site itself who said it, if you want to get technical) … “Don’t even bother with less than a three-rib roast, any less than that is not a roast but rather a thick steak and would be better treated as such.” Hah! I say. I could not disagree more! Sure a six-rib mass of roast looks impressive to the eye, but, dear sir, I am more concerned with taste than looks.

One of my guests when learned I had two one-ribbers in the oven (to serve four people), said what a great idea. I replied, yes, I think you get better cooking that way and put an outside coating on more steaks this way, making it tastier. She agreed adding that when she’s had it before “everyone wants the end cuts” — that is, let’s say you were serving six people with a three-ribber roast, two would get the end cuts and four people would get the one’s in between. If you instead made three one-ribbers, each steak would be an “end cut”. You see the ends get that exterior cook plus that exterior coating.

So unlike some folks’ thinking, if you have a three-rib roast, I’d do the opposite, and get the butcher to precut them down (or you could do yourself possibly) into three one-ribbers: better cooking, more flavorful with each serving getting a coating and the exterior heat, and six “ends” — the most desired cuts of the roast.

Now this is an impressive meal. And I served it over the holidays for that reason, to impress some folks, and to overall make them a very nice meal, part of my Christmas gift. Funny though, it is and it is not expensive. I ended up with two nearly-three pound roasts which together cost me about $25 at the market. Think about it though, do you really believe if the four of us had gone to a restaurant and ordered this that we could all have been fed for $25? Heck no. Even now knowing what we learned about grading and that the restaurant meal would have been up a grade to “real” Prime rib … we’re talking a $200 meal and that’s not including appetizers, dessert, wine and tip. Easily. (And I won’t even mention parking or gas!) So, expensive meal? In one way, yes; in another way — a steal.

So enjoy this ultimate beef dish and don’t overcook it. This puppy deserves to be served with a lot of pink. It’s just that good and that tender.

Prime Rib of Beef with Peppercorn-Horseradish Coating
©2008 Harry Kenney

Two 2.5 to 3 lb cuts of prime rib roast
1/4 cup whole peppercorns
4 heaping tblspns horseradish sauce
3-4 cloves garlic, sliced thin
olive oil

Preheat oven to 350°F Take the two roasts, stand them so the fat side is up (this will cover two sides). With a sharp paring knife make 8-12 insertions into the fat. Place thin slices of garlic deep into each incision.

Crush the peppercorns and place into small bowl. Add horseradish and enough olive oil so it’s about 2:1 ratio oil. Mix with a fork, then cover all sides (except bone side) of both roasts and rub in. Especially get the fat side and the two “steak” sides.

Place in roaster uncovered for roughly 1-1/2 hours. The rib should be on the bottom, almost like a natural plate or rack, with the fatty section on top so it can drip on down. If they won’t stand by themselves, let them lean on the side of the deep roasting pan if it’s sturdy enough.

Temperature is more important than time though. Continuallly test the inside temperature with a meat thermometer. You need to take a reading in multiple places as depending on where you place them, you may be hitting bone or marblized fat. Go with whatever turns out to be the lowest temperatures as your official “read”, and base off of that.

When you get a reading of 120-130°F at multiple points and at the previous lowest temperature points, take the roast out, cover, and let sit for 20-30 minutes, then cut off the rib from the back, slice exactly down the middle, and serve. Feeds four.

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