Prime Rib Primer

Prime Rib has such an intim­i­dat­ing rep­u­ta­tion. It actu­ally couldn’t be sim­pler! In response to Nisha, a Secret Life of a Chefs Wife fol­lower, who asked for some point­ers on great prime rib, here is a bro­ken down Prime Rib Primer to boost your con­fi­dence. I can’t think of a more impres­sive meal to serve guests for any din­ner party than one that includes a deli­cious, per­fectly cooked prime rib.

If you are want­ing to pro­duce an excel­lent qual­ity roast for your spe­cial din­ner, you need to under­stand a few things about grades of beef.

The USDA grades of beef include:

1. Prime–This accounts for less than 2% of the beef pro­duced in the US.  The qual­ity is mea­sured by the amount of mar­bling which gives the fla­vor and ten­der­ness, and the age of the ani­mal, which accounts foe the tex­ture of the meat. It’s usu­ally pur­chased by upscale restau­rants and isn’t read­ily avail­able to the aver­age consumer.

2. Choice–This is the sec­ond high­est grade of beef. It will have lees mar­bling than Prime, but if taken from the more desir­able areas of the ani­mal, such as the loin and rib sec­tion, could very closely equal the qual­ity of Prime cuts.

3. Select–This accounts for most of the meat found in the gro­cery stores. It will have much less in the way of mar­bling and will come from older ani­mals. It is not nearly as ten­der as choice or above, and is there­fore much less desir­able as a meat cut.

As you shop for meat, you need to look for the USDA shield accom­pa­ny­ing the label on the meat. It will sig­nify the grade of the meat. Super­mar­kets will include the words “prime” and “choice” on their label to con­fuse you when in real­ity you are really buy­ing a select grade of beef. Unless the words “Prime” and “Choice” are com­bined with the USDA shield, they aren’t actu­ally refer­ring to the grade of beef.

I would assume you could order a USDA Choice piece of meat from the super­mar­ket if you talked to the meat counter man­ager, and I have always been able to find USDA Choice meats at Costco. It runs about $9–11 per pound, where a select cut from the super­mar­ket will be about $6–8. It’s worth the extra price for USDA Choice if you’re going to go to the trou­ble to cook a Prime Rib, which really isn’t all that much trouble.…you just don’t want to adver­tise Prime Rib on your menu and then serve your guests semi-yukky beef!

This is a sec­tion of USDA Choice prime rib. See the beau­ti­ful mar­bling? That equals YUM! Most prime rib roasts run about 13–15 pounds. This one was 15 pounds and wouldn’t fit into my roaster, so I cut it to fit. A 15 pound prime rib will feed about 25 peo­ple with a 1/2 inch cut each. Big­ger “prime-size” cuts will serve about 12.

 I sea­son my prime rib with a rub made from chopped, fresh rose­mary, thyme, gar­lic, and olive oil. There’s also kosher salt and ground black pep­per. It’s about 1/4 cup chopped up rose­mary and thyme com­bined, 10 cloves of gar­lic, 2–3 table­spoons kosher salt, 1 table­spoon black pep­per, and enough olive oil to make a paste when com­bined. Pulse the herbs, gar­lic, and salt and pep­per in a food proces­sor, and then add the oil.

 Instead of using my roast­ing rack, I lay down a bed of aro­mat­ics: car­rots, cel­ery, onions, and the stems left from the rose­mary and thyme. This lifts the roast up off the bot­tom of the roaster, and adds great fla­vor to the drip­pings. You don’t need to peel the carrots.

 Cover the prime rib with the rub, start­ing on the under­side, then plac­ing it on the bed of aro­mat­ics, and then con­tin­u­ing cov­er­ing the remain­ing surface.

If you are strapped for time, you can cook the prime rib for 25 min­utes at 400 degrees F., and then turn­ing down to 225–250 degrees F. for the remain­ing time. If you have the time though, just roast it at 225 degrees F. the entire time. The lower and slower you roast, the juicer and more ten­der the prime rib will end up. It’s worth the extra time.

Tent the prime rib with foil for the first hour and 30 min­utes, uncov­er­ing for the remain­der of the time.

Start check­ing the tem­per­a­ture after 2–2 1/2 hours. You’re look­ing for about 130 degrees in the cen­ter of the roast. You will need a reli­able meat ther­mome­ter to check the temp. I cal­i­brate mine reg­u­larly to make sure it’s behav­ing. The prime rib will rise a few degrees after you remove it from the oven, and 130–135 is a medium-rare tem­per­a­ture. This is the tem­per­a­ture that suits the cut of meat the best. Still very juicy, and red­dish in the cen­ter. An over-cooked prime rib defeats the pur­pose of the extra spe­cial cut of meat.

The ends of the roast will be cooked a lit­tle fur­ther along than the cen­ter, for those guests who insist on a more well-cooked slice.

Let the prime rib rest for 15–20 min­utes to allow the juices to dis­trib­ute through the roast.

Slice and serve with horse­rad­ish sauce and aus jus.

 Here is my prime rib rest­ing. See the beau­ti­ful crust that forms from the rub? Drool-worthy!! This roast will serve about 12–16 peo­ple depend­ing on how thick it’s cut. I like a nice 1″ slice myself!

 Prime Rib is fab­u­lous with a sour cream/horseradish sauce. I usu­ally use 1 part horse­rad­ish to 3 parts sour cream. Some of you might like it stronger, some creamier. Use your own judgement.

The aus jus is made using the drip­pings from the prime rib mixed with a lit­tle water and thick­ened slightly  (not like a gravy, just a lit­tler thicker than broth) with a cornstarch/cold water slurry. You will need to adjust the taste of your aus jus depend­ing on how strong your drip­pings end up being. You might add more water than me, you might need to add a lit­tle beef base to bump up the fla­vor, just be care­ful to watch the salt content.

**As a response to some com­ments from below, I want to add that you may pre­pare your prime rib with the bed of aro­mat­ics and the rub ahead of time to save time. Just be sure to pul the prime rib out of the refrig­er­a­tor at least a half-hour before plac­ing it into the oven to roast. Let­ting it sit at room tem­per­a­ture that long or even a lit­tle bit longer (as much as 1–2 hours) won’t be a food safety hazard. **

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