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mame11

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How hard is Prime Rib to make? I want to use Lawry's Restaurant's recipe for a birthday dinner later this week. Also, should I preorder the meat from WF or other butcher?

(note: I have never made Prime Rib, never made a brisket and never made a pot roast... I am a complete novice... is Prime Rib Mt. Everst?)

Thanks in advance...

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How hard is Prime Rib to make? I want to use Lawry's Restaurant's recipe for a birthday dinner later this week. Also, should I preorder the meat from WF or other butcher?

(note: I have never made Prime Rib, never made a brisket and never made a pot roast... I am a complete novice... is Prime Rib Mt. Everst?)

Thanks in advance...

Your name suggests that you live in DC so my suggestion of the Springfield Butcher won't be all that useful to you, others may chime in.

But I do want to tell you that prime rib is NOT hard to make -- ask the butcher to cut the roast from the bone and then tie them back together. The Springfield Butcher calls this "cracked and cradled."

We roast at 250F until 100F internal, then crank the heat to 400F and roast to 130F internal. This roast will be browned on the outside and rare on the inside (very rare!). Salt first, I would not pepper first as pepper will burn.

Roast on a rack in a shallow pan. Let it rest before cutting. It's much easier to cut if you remember to remove the meat from the bone rack before slicing. Roasting on the bone is tasty, cutting on the bone is hard.

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How hard is Prime Rib to make? I want to use Lawry's Restaurant's recipe for a birthday dinner later this week. Also, should I preorder the meat from WF or other butcher?

(note: I have never made Prime Rib, never made a brisket and never made a pot roast... I am a complete novice... is Prime Rib Mt. Everst?)

Thanks in advance...

My mom often made prime rib for Christmas dinner and other special meals and she wasn't a fancy cook at all. I make it periodically. I noticed that WF (at least Old Town) has a pre-Christmas special on it for $9.99/lb. I'm not sure if that runs to the 23rd or 24th.

There was just an episode on Food Network with Bobby Flay making one, so that recipe might be online, but it's a pretty basic roast.

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This is that Bobby Flay recipe. He goes with the moderate oven (350) for the whole time. I sometimes experiment with the start low/go high and v.v. methods of cooking meat and poultry, but my mom always went with the moderate temperature and things came out fine. I'm sure there are advantages to the temperature adjustment, but I think of it as being analogous to taking the shortcut you don't know vs. longer route you know that might take 10 minutes longer--but you won't get lost.

I'd go with 5-6 ribs for 12 people, depending on how much other food there is and how hearty the appetites are.

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How hard is Prime Rib to make? I want to use Lawry's Restaurant's recipe for a birthday dinner later this week. Also, should I preorder the meat from WF or other butcher?

(note: I have never made Prime Rib, never made a brisket and never made a pot roast... I am a complete novice... is Prime Rib Mt. Everst?)

Thanks in advance...

Agreed that it's actually very straightforward to make.

I'd recommend Union Meat at Eastern Market, or Let's Meat on the Avenue (if you don't mind going to Del Ray). The latter got me the greatest brisket I've ever eaten for Rosh Hashanah -- and I have eaten a lot of brisket in my life, from top butchers in St. Louis (?). And I get consistently awesome meat at EM. Although if you do call ahead, WF will do a pretty good job for you.

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We roast at 250F until 100F internal, then crank the heat to 400F and roast to 130F internal. This roast will be browned on the outside and rare on the inside (very rare!). Salt first, I would not pepper first as pepper will burn.

Roast on a rack in a shallow pan. Let it rest before cutting. It's much easier to cut if you remember to remove the meat from the bone rack before slicing. Roasting on the bone is tasty, cutting on the bone is hard.

I did it like this last year--but opposite, according to my mom's tradition (high heat first, then low for the remainder). It ended up a bit overcooked, but that had more to do with an extended happy hour than a faulty recipe. I used salt and pepper, with garlic cloves inserted into slits in the meat (they're so nice and buttery when it's done).

My mom often made prime rib for Christmas dinner and other special meals and she wasn't a fancy cook at all. I make it periodically. I noticed that WF (at least Old Town) has a pre-Christmas special on it for $9.99/lb. I'm not sure if that runs to the 23rd or 24th.

I got mine today at the Adams Morgan Harris Teeter for $5.99 a pound! I didn't realize how cheap it was until checkout, and was so glad I didn't have them take that third rib off. Sure, it's WAY too much for two people, but who's ever regretted having extra prime rib in the house? And I think I'll try to make that amazing leftover chili I did last year with some of the scraps...

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Union Meats in Eastern Market sold me my Thanksgiving prime rib and it was nothing short of spectacular.

I won't add to the confusion that the other recipe-donors may be inspiring, but I will say this: Take the meat out of the fridge several hours before cooking. Starting with a room-temperature roast makes finishing with a medium-rare center and crusty exterior without inches of gray matter in between much easier.

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Union Meats in Eastern Market sold me my Thanksgiving prime rib and it was nothing short of spectacular.

I can honestly say that the short ribs I got from them for my parents' arrival in town pre-Thanksgiving were eye-openingly good. Made me wonder why I've bought short ribs anywhere else, since I'm only a few blocks away from them.

I won't add to the confusion that the other recipe-donors may be inspiring, but I will say this: Take the meat out of the fridge several hours before cooking. Starting with a room-temperature roast makes finishing with a medium-rare center and crusty exterior without inches of gray matter in between much easier.

That's a very different use of "gray matter" ... and I think I like it!

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I won't add to the confusion that the other recipe-donors may be inspiring, but I will say this: Take the meat out of the fridge several hours before cooking. Starting with a room-temperature roast makes finishing with a medium-rare center and crusty exterior without inches of gray matter in between much easier.

Agreed, you need to let the meat come up to room temperature to get the best results.

The Food Police will disagree, however. They also will insist that you cook your roast beef to an internal temperature of 145F (medium rare) at a minimum.

I generally follow the dictats of the Food Police but this is one where we deviate.

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Wow. Thanks team. Great advice. My sister who is charged with dinner is not enthused I want to try a new recipe that evening. I will have other evenings to try it while visiting the fam so I will another evening. I will consult your notes to get a clue and confidence!

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Agreed, you need to let the meat come up to room temperature to get the best results.

The Food Police will disagree, however. They also will insist that you cook your roast beef to an internal temperature of 145F (medium rare) at a minimum.

I generally follow the dictats of the Food Police but this is one where we deviate.

I think it might have been another thread here, but their recommendation re: internal temperature was 120 degrees, with the idea that it would rise to 125 while resting.

The food police and I don't son't talk much.

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My mom often made prime rib for Christmas dinner and other special meals and she wasn't a fancy cook at all. I make it periodically. I noticed that WF (at least Old Town) has a pre-Christmas special on it for $9.99/lb. I'm not sure if that runs to the 23rd or 24th.

There was just an episode on Food Network with Bobby Flay making one, so that recipe might be online, but it's a pretty basic roast.

This is a superb recipe: http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/printerfriendly/Rib-Roast-with-Roasted-Garlic-Thyme-Sauce-15824 It is also something of a "standard" on Epicurious with 95% saying they will make it again. Use demi glace instead of beef stock unless you make that from scratch.

Prime rib by the way is now $22.95/pound at Wegman's. Last year Wegman's matched Costco's price on Choice which is what Whole Foods must have their sale on. Fair Lakes WF sells prime also.

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Far be it from me to disagree with the food police either.. but a Tuscan grandmom might do the following:

Rub the outside of the meat with minced garlic, cracked pepper, rosemary, olive oil & salt. Rub more heavliy on the fat portions {which you should not trim as this basted the meat and results in delicious cracklings}than on the cut portions. Bring the roast to room temperature and you can salt it either just before cooking or ahead f time, my hypothetical Tuscan grandmother doesn't read cooks illustrated and follow the debate on salting, a roast only absorbs salt to a minimal degree of penetration.

She would roast it on the bones {making sure that the butcher cut off the Chine Bone and then she would rest the beats for 30 minutes or so after cooking to 125 internal temperature at the large end of the roast {this gives you rare to medium rare at the large end and meduim at the small end}.

While the meat is resting, take the accumulated juices in the roasting pan and put in a large heatproof container and skim off the fat {leaving however much your cardiologist and cholesterol levels allow}. Put the roasting pan over high heat till it is sizzling and add some red wine and deglaze the pan. Scrape up all the crusty bits. When the wine is much reduced {by 2/3} then add some beef or veal stock {chicken or duck would do as well} and reduce till the jus has a nice density. This ain't gravy. Adjust the salt & pepper, add a spritz of lemon juice or lemon zest if it needs brightness and keep warm till about to serve the meat. Then put it through a fine mesh sieve and place in a gravy boat.

When the roast it properly rested, place it with the large end down and the ribs running vertically. Then use a sharp knife to cut the bones from the roast using a gently sawing motion with the blade almost parallel to the boned but at about a 10 degree angle. By waiting to this point to cut off the bones, you get better bone flavor and less juice loss. Now place the boneless meat on a carving board and cut into thick or thin slices as you prefer. The bones should be sliced apart and served separately to the wisest of guests who know that "the closer to the bone, the sweeter is the meat".

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We've always done choice from either Giant or Costco, and we've been happy. We've considered buying prime, but our theory was that since we're slow roasting the meat anyway it didn't make a huge difference. I'm not sure if that's a valid theory or not. I'm sure prime is "better," but we didn't think it was worth the extra cost in this case.

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