Choice rib roast (not exactly prime rib)

[wilburpan]

Last week our local grocery store had a sale on "prime" rib roast. I used quotes because it really wasn't prime rib. The label said "choice".

This isn't the greatest angle, but if you look at the center portion of the cut side, you'll see that there's really no marbling going on. Still, this was $0.77/lb. That's less than $5.00 for the whole roast.

I made a rub from salt, black pepper, cayenne, rosemary, thyme, and minced garlic.

I mixed up the rub ingredients well, smashing the minced garlic as much as possible, and applied it to the outside.

I reverse seared this thing. Smaug decided to settle in at 250ºF. After about 4 hours, the IT was 130ºF (a little higher than I had planned). Here's what it looked like when I took the rib roast off at this point.

I took out the main grate, drip pan, and deflector stone, put the main grate back in, and opened up the vents. I seared the rib roast long enough to put a little crust on the outside. I know that some folks like split set ups where one side is indirect, and the other is direct, but honestly, at low and slow temperatures, taking out the deflector is pretty trivial.

It turned out a little more done than I like, but not too much so.

Overall, this was a relatively easy cook. My main lesson from this cook was how much the initial quality of the meat can matter for your meal. The outside part of the prime rib roast was great, but the center part was not nearly as tender as real prime rib from real prime quality meat. I know I overshot my intended IT, but there was a distinct difference that I really can't attribute to the higher IT.

Some might say that the price can't be beat, and it's hard to argue with $0.77/lb. vs. $15-20/lb. for real prime quality prime rib that my local specialty butcher would charge. On the other hand, I still had to put the time into the cook, and one could argue that if you're going to put the sweat equity in, you might as well spend the money on quality ingredients.

For me, I think I'll go for the quality in the future. I actually learned this lesson a while back, when another local grocery store had ridiculously cheap prices on beef tenderloin. I thought I could buy a whole one and cut it up into filet mignons. What happened was that the filet mignons I cut out had this weird chemical taste that I didn't get with higher quality meat. You think I would have remembered.

[cschaaf]

Thanks for posting this. My family requested a prime rib for our Christmas dinner. 

I was thinking about putting in the lower grate and doing the reverse sear way down near the coals. 

I learned a while back that the 'prime' in 'prime rib' was the name of the cut first - before the USDA came up with the grading designations. The cut comes from the rib primal. Now, restaurants and stores can only call it prime rib if it's prime grade. Otherwise, they will typically call it standing rib roast or rib roast. 

[ckreef]

Very interesting post. I  learned this lesson this summer. The local grocery store had cheap ribeye steaks. But I knew they were a cheap cut for the price. Twice I bought some, twice I got burned with crappy tough steaks even when cooking to a perfect md rare - fool me twice shame on me. 

Earlier today I paid sale price $8.99 per lb for a choice graded  Publix GreenWise Angus Beef ribeye primal. That was compared to the sale price of $6.99 per lb for the normal choice graded primal ribeye. 

Supposedly the GreenWise Angus is a much better primal. We'll see on Christmas. 

 

[skreef]

Great cook wilburpan. Looking forward to ours for Christmas Day. 

[Pequod]

I'll be doing a reverse sear on mine after smoking at 250. Haven't decided which way I'll go yet. Two possibilities:

1. Upper grate inverted directly over the coals, which is how I sear steaks
2. Lower grate with inverted grill grates as in Baby Back Maniac's video

[cschaaf]

#1 is what I meant... the top grate, but on the bottom. I never know what to call that thing.

[Aussie Ora]

Nice cook Wilbur quality does make a difference not to sure what they and puting in your beef over there but weird chemical taste does not sound good. I'm lucky to have some great butchers around me. We don't call it choice or prime down here more like crap, pretty good or top of the range lol




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[Aussie Ora]

I'll be doing a reverse sear on mine after smoking at 250. Haven't decided which way I'll go yet. Two possibilities:

1. Upper grate inverted directly over the coals, which is how I sear steaks
2. Lower grate with inverted grill grates as in Baby Back Maniac's video

Dee's sister and her other half rocked up a while ago to visit from Canberra on the east coast. This was before I had a KK and was using the Kj classic I slow cooked a 4 bone rib roast then sliced it into individual pieces and seared them that way

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[tinyfish]

Sometimes you do get lucky and find a nice marbled roast on sale.

[MacKenzie]

The roast does look tasty but I'm a fan of buying the best you can.

[Shuley]

That price is a bargain.... but I tend to agree with you. My dad bought a rib roast that had almost no marbling for me to cook. The leanness meant I really felt something was lacking, but others enjoyed it. I should also not complain because it was not my money lol.


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[tony b]

While always looking for a bargain, was wondering if anyone has tried to inject a roast with a solution with Accent overnight to tenderize it?