What is Prime Rib and How to Make It

 

 

What is Prime Rib? It is a roast made from the popular Ribeye steak section or as some people call them, Delmonico steaks. It is usually prepared around the holidays. There are three grades of meat; Select, Choice and Prime. Choice is the most popular because of it's blend of fat and quality but also affordable. The Prime is by far the best for flavor, it is also very rare and there for cost nearly twice the amount of choice. Select is the lowest quality and of course the cheapest but it still graded by the USDA so you at least know what your getting when you buy it. Even though most people call it "Prime Rib", what you are really looking for is called a Beef Rib Roast or Standing Rib Roast. I imagine that the name Prime Rib just became popular from the restaurant business, which probably did start out selling it as Prime but it crossed over to more affordable restaurants and they just kept the name the same.  

Ingredients:

6 pound Beef Rib Roast- (1 rib bone will feed at least two people, a 1 rib Rib Roast usually weighs 2-3 pounds)

Seasoning- There are a million recipes for Rib Roasts to google. This is what I like. You will find a recipe for a marinade after the link, that is what I use for my Rib Roasts.

Savings: 10$ per person!



 The roast typically comes boneless but they tie the bone back on for flavor and the bone makes a great rack for the meat to stand on. Cook a 5-7 pound roast at 350 for one and a half hours, give or take 15 minutes depending on size. The internal temperature should be at 125 when you pull it out of the oven. Let it stand for at least 20 minutes. The meat should be very pink in the middle like in the pictures here. If you like it more done, take it out when the temp is closer to 145 degrees. It is important to let it cool because it continues cooking and the juices will remain in the roast instead of all over the pan.

 Once the roast has cooled cut vertically roughly one inch steak like shown above. Cut all the way down to the bone and it will come out a nice uniform steak like it came straight from a Steakhouse!

Serve the steaks with the drippings and or a horseradish sauce. This is the BEST roast you will ever have, even if you over cook it a little as most people do because they are scared of that pink center, it is still a very tender flavor full roast. Any guest would be very lucky to attend a dinner party with this as the main course!