"Reclaiming Homemade in a Small Space"

Thursday, April 12, 2012

What we did with a prime rib roast

We had a bit of money left over in our food budget so I found myself perusing the meat section of our local grocery store.  Since it was a few days after Easter, there were a few high end cuts of meats on sale, like lamb.  I'm the only one in my family that likes lamb, so I headed over to where the expensive cuts of beef are.  I nearly never buy t-bones or strip steak, I try to keep the meat I buy under $3 a pound.  (That is harder and harder to do...that is why I'm trying to eat more vegetarian meals) I couldn't believe what I saw there....a USDA Prime Rib Roast.  It was a semi-boneless roast, which simply meant they'd taken two bones out of this four bone roast.  It was originally over $92 but was half off for $47.45.  That is still a lot of clams for 5 pounds of meat!
I'm not really sure about the grocery store's math skills.....

Since the extra cash in my wallet and the sale lined up, I bought it.  I was so excited.  One of my favorite things to get out-to-eat is a nice, rare piece of prime rib.  I really didn't have a plan on what to do with it when I got home.  Matt and I both researched recipes and Matt found this recipe for  herb crusted prime rib.  I made some adjustments...it called for fresh herbs and I only had dried.   Since dried herbs are more potent than fresh, I cut the quantities for the herbs in half.  I rubbed the roast all over with the paste and left it on the counter at room temperature for two hours.
Matt put it on the smoker until it reached 120 inside...nice and rare!  It took about 2 hours to reach the goal temperature.
After Matt pulled it off the smoker, it rested for 30 minutes, covered in aluminum foil on the counter.  If you cut a piece of meat before it has time to properly rest, it will release all its juices and be dry.  That was a very, very long 30 minutes.  The internal temperature of the meat rose another 10 degrees.  It was time for slicing.  Matt sliced four steaks from this roast and then cut those steaks in half.  I mean, it is 100 calories an ounce for prime rib. 
This was before Matt cut the steaks in half.
The steaks were delicious!  Though probably not as tender as a restaurant because I didn't dry age the roast.  It was still quite the treat for us on a Wednesday night.  The best part is that we only ate half of the roast......can you say leftovers?????  YUM!

2 comments:

  1. It is worth pointing out that the temperature in the smoker was 350 degrees - a full 100 degrees hotter than the typical smoking temperature. This was done because it's a fairly tender cut of beef that doesn't require the breakdown of tough connective tissue like many meats that are typically smoked.

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