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Two tricks with the spinalis

Remove the spinalis. Rib roasts have two major muscle groups that lie side by side on top of the rib cage along the backbone. The spinalis muscle, sometimes called the deckle or the rib cap, that wraps around the side opposite the bones (that's it on the left of the fat layer, above), and the eye of the ribeye called the longissimus, which is a long, tender tube about 4" in diameter. The spinalis has a bit more fat woven through it and it is very tender and juicy, a lot like the super expensive kobe or wagyu beef.

Because the roast is so thick and because heat takes so long to penetrate the fat layer separating the muscles, the spinalis tends to overcook while waiting for the center of the eye to get to temp. So here's a trick I've used: Carefully remove the spinalis and set it aside for another meal. Rib cap makes incredible steaks and it is showing up on more and more restaurant menus.

Make burnt ends. Another trick popularized by Adam Perry Lang of Daisy May's BBQ in NYC is to deeply score the spinalis muscle in two directions making 1" squares on the surface that he deliberately overcooks to get crunchy, like burnt ends on brisket. Video from Ozersky.TV on Vimeo.

Other beef roasts

Chuck roast can be almost as good as a rib roast, but there is more fat and gristle in the chuck. There is also a shoulder blade bone in the middle and getting it out is tricky. Just leave it in.

Rump, sirloin, bottom, and round roasts are cut from the muscles of the hind legs and they get a lot of work so they are usually chewier and less fatty. This reverse sear method is perfect for these tough cuts.

Pot roasts are meant for braising, not roasting.

For those who insist on overcooked meat

There is a high likelihood that some people will want their meat medium to well done. If you know there will be exactly 2 people who like their meat medium well or well done, then they can have the ends. Because they get more heat they will be a good 10°F warmer, maybe more. Yes, they'll get all the good crust, but you'll get the juicy center. Heck, if you really love the crust so much, then skip the roast and just slice this baby into 1.5" thick ribeye steaks and grill them so you can have 2 crusts! Click here for more on grilling steakhouse steaks.

If there are more than 2 who want overcooked meat you may want to lop off a hunk of the roast just for them and essentially cook 2 roasts. Another option is, if you have 4 who want medium well beef, roast the whole hunk of meat and when you bring it in, crank the grill to high, lop off 4 steaks, and throw them on the grill so they can have killer ribeyes.

Enzyme tenderizing?

Beef contains enzymes that tenderize the meat. In fact, these enzymes are present in living cattle but they are inhibited by other compounds in the muscles. Soon after the animal dies it goes through rigor mortis. The muscles get rigid for a day or two. Then they relax and the enzymes start tenderizing. During the process of dry aging, they can make a significant difference, and a little less during wet aging. Click here for more on the subject of aging in my article on beef grades.

The science oriented folks at Cook's Illustrated, a magazine I admire very much, often refer to the enzymes calpains and cathepsins as being factors in the tenderizing of beef as the meat warms through the 95°F to 122°F zone. I have taken their statements to be gospel and came to think that this was one of the reasons that reverse searing beef produced more tender meat. My experiments with reverse searing steaks showed that low and slow cooking for even steaks made them more tender and I took that to mean the enzymes were at work. Perhaps, but perhaps not.

I asked my beef consultant, Dr. Antonio Mata, a meat scientist known as The Meat Geek about this. He is also a Consulting Technical Coordinator to the National Cattlemen's Beef Association. He replied "I looked at two meat science books (Aberle et al., 2010 and Warris, 2010). Neither one mentions capitalizing on calpain activity to improve tenderness within the 95°F to 122°F range. However, according to Harold McGee's book Food and Cooking, page 144, 'some accelerated aging can take place during cooking if meat is quickly seared or blanched and then heated up slowly during cooking... then the aging enzymes within the meat can be very active for several hours before they denature.'"

Mata says "Harold’s statement is very puzzling to me. First, calpains act very slowly. Secondly, the acidity in the muscle increases several times fold during rigor mortis. pH declines from 7 to 5.5. Calpains like neutral pH (7) not acid environments."

Dr. Jacob Nelson of Oklahoma State University cites a paper by Dr. Mohammad Koohmaraie of USDA. It indicates that "calpains exhibit increased self-destruction at room temperature. If this is true, then it seems that trying to enhance the tenderization effect from calpains through increased temps could also contribute to the self-destruct mechanism, which may hinder tenderization. My opinion is that tenderness from slow cooking is not due to increased calpain activity, but rather the changes in protein structure due to temperature effects on the muscle protein."

Looks like I have more digging to do.

About cooking on a rotisserie

Rotisserie cooking has a lot going for it. This ancient method does a great job of cooking the meat because all sides are alternatively exposed to heat and (relative) cool which allows food to cook very evenly and because the heat is especially intense on the surface it creates a fine crustwithout the need for a sear in the rear of the cook.

The problem is that it is hard to predict how long it will take to cook since the meat surface is going sinusoidal (hot, cool, hot, cool). Many new grills have "infrared" radiant burners, something of a misnomer since all heat is infrared. They are really just intense radiant cookers (see my article on the Thermodynamics of Cooking). Another problem is that these radiant burners vary in power, with some being very large and long, and others being small and short. Not only that, but the distance of the food from the heat can impact the cooking time. The intensity of heat drops off rapidly, by the inverse square law, which says that if the burner is 6" away the meat is getting 1/4 the heat that it would get 3" away, not half.

Another problem with rotisseries is that, if you put a rotisserie spear through the center of the meat, the metal rod will get hot and cook the meat in the center of the roast. Bad idea. These spears are fine for chicken where the spear goes through the cavity, but I much prefer the basket type rotisserie for roasts. There used to be a company that made adjustable basket rotisseries but they are now out of business. I have one and I love it. There's a businees opportunity out there for someone...

So my recommendation for a beef roast is to just use a standard 2-Zone Indirect Heat setup.

Secrets Of Cooking Beef Prime Rib And Other Beef Roasts On The Grill (And This Method Works Indoors If It's Too Cold For You, Wimp)

NOTE. Although this procedure and recipe is primarily for Prime Rib, the method holds true for all beef roasts, chuck, shoulder, sirloin, and round.


Is there anything more impressive and luxurious than a big juicy prime rib roast? Well it's easy to make outdoors and it definitely tastes better (but these techniques work fine indoors).

Our goals

1) Maximum tenderness and juiciness. This cut is at is best when cooked to 125 to 145°F internal temp, and my preference is medium rare, when it is not longer purple but deep red, but not yet pink, at 130 to 135F.

2) Crust. We want a deep dark crunchy crust enriched by salt, herbs, and spices mixing with beef juices, and driet to a bark by the roasting process.

3) Even color. We want red color bumper to bumper with no gray or tan meat beyond 1/4" deep. We don't want a rainbow of colors starting with a band of gray meat below the crust, then tan, then pink, and finally, in the center, just a bit of properly cooked red meat.

4) Easy carving. We don't want a struggle, we don't want juice all over the table cloth, and we don't want to look like more foolish than usual.

The methods

1) Go boneless. We will remove the bones from a prime rib roast so it browns on all sides because everybody loves the brown bits. The bones cover almost 1/3 of the surface reducing the amount of crust significantly. Contrary to myth, bones do not add flavor to dry cooked meats. We'll save the bones for another great meal or use them to make a great gravy. More on this below.

2) A wet rub. We will coat the meat with a paste of oil, herbs, spices, and salt that will create a flavorful crust.

3) Let it sit at room temp. Don't worry, it is safe. But sitting at room temp is like getting a head start. If we are cooking 38°F meat to 130°F, it has to travel 92°F. If we let it come to room temp of 72°F, it only has 58°F to travel. We have cut cooking time in half and we have taken a giant leap towards uniform color.

4) A great gravy. We will make great a gravy from the ribs and amp up the flavor by letting it sit in a drip pan below the roast.

5) Just a kiss of smoke. If we are cooking outdoors, we will add wood chips to the fire, just a few, to give it an exotic smoky undertone in the background.

6) Reverse sear. We will cook the interior with indirect convection heat with the lid closed at first and sear it with the lid open at the end of the cook with direct radiant heat to create the best crust.

Let's get the name right

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Let's start by getting the terminology right. Chances are that gorgeous hunk-o-meat in the butcher case is not technically a "prime rib".

"USDA Prime" grade meat, with web-like threads of fat running through the muscles for added taste and texture, is an expensive grade that is sold primarily to restaurants. Most of what we see in stores is USDA Choice or USDA Select.

We call it "prime rib" because it comes from a section called the rib primal and that's what it was called before the USDA grading system was created. What your grocer has is more properly called a rib roast than prime rib if you want to be technically correct, but you can call it prime rib if you want. Everybody else does.

Choice grade is going to make you a pretty darn good dinner because the longissimus and spinalis muscles, located along the back of the steer, are tender and juicy on all but the oldest, crankiest bulls. If it is not labeled USDA Choice, get Certified Angus Beef (CAB). CAB members promise that it is choice or above.

You can order USDA Prime grade meat if you wish, and it's a real treat, but bring a wheelbarrow full of cash. Otherwise ask your butcher for "top choice" which is the best looking most marbled choice grade roast in the house. This is one of those moments when knowing your butcher's name comes in handy.

Rib roasts are usually available in two forms, with the ribs still attached, or boneless. I like to get mine with the bone on, and then I remove the bones so I can season the meat on all sides and then I can cook the ribs separately or use them for the gravy.

Click here to learn more about the different grades of beef.

Why go boneless?

I know you've heard that the bones add flavor. The fact is they don't. Not in a dry cooked roast. It's a myth based on the fact that the bones add flavor to stews and braises. But not roasts.

Think about it. Beef ribs are a honeycomb of marrow inside a casing of hard calcium wrapped in a sheath of leathery connective tissue. The marrow is full of flavor but it is not getting through that wall of calcium, and the calcium is just not getting through the connective tissue, not that we want it to. A small amount of the connective tissue will gelatinize, but not much, and it is not going far, not more than 1/16" into the muscle tissue.

If you leave the bones on, they make an effective base upon which to stand the roast (hence the name standing rib roast), but they act like a heat shield at first blocking heat until they get fully hot and then they conduct heat and continue to cook the meat after you take it out of the oven. We don't want one part of the meat lagging behind the rest and then continuing to cook when the rest has stopped. We want the meat to cook evenly throughout. No surprises.

Most importantly, the bones keep 1/3 of the surface from browning and developing that wonderful rich crust. The crust is made of brown flavors, created by the Maillard reaction and caramelization, and it isa real taste treat. I know that gnawing on the bones is fun and tasty, but I submit that if you remove them and make an second meal of them, roating both sides of the bones, they will taste better. Barbecue beef ribs are a blast.

Another reason to remove the ribs before cooking is because they are a pain to remove at the dinner table when you are carving. Unlike a pork roast, you just cannot cut a slice of roast that is one bone wide. One beef bone wide is too much for a normal person. It's enough for two. To avoid this some people remove the rib slab before cooking and put seasoning on the meat and then tie the bones back on. Fine. But those seasonings and the surface under the bones still don't brown. So you get intense raw spices and herbs.

On the other hand, if you submerge the bones under water, much of the goodness is dissolved and they produce immense pleasure, especially as the marrow dissolves into the liquid. Bones are the secret to memorable stews and braises.

So there are two ways to go with the bones. (1) If they have enough meat on them you can get two meals from your rib roast by saving the bones so they can be smoke roasted Texas or Chicago style or braised. Or (2) you can use them to make the gravy for the rib roast! That's what I do.

Your butcher should be willing to remove the bones for you. If you get a roast with ribs on, you can remove them easily yourself. Just run your knife on or above the bones leaving on as much or as little meat as you wish. If you plan to use them for gravy, cut close to the bone. If you plan to make barbecue beef ribs, leave on a bit of beef. Some butchers routinely remove the ribs and then tie them back on because they assume you want to cook with them on, as most people do. By tieng them back on the butcher is making it easier to carve the roast. If that's your situation, I recommend you remove the string and the bones will come right off.

If you insist on cooking with the ribs actually attached, you should make sure the butcher removes the chine for you. That's the end of the rib bone that was connected to the spine. Most of the time is has already been removed, but if it hasn't it can be a pain to cut through when you try to separate the bones. Having the butcher do this makes carving a lot easier.

Even if you are cooking a boneless roast, I recommend you tie it every inch to hold it together and to help make it round which helps it cook more evenly. Your butcher might do this for you.

Prime Rib Recipe

Makes. A typical rib roast weighs about two pounds per bone widthwith the bone on, depending on the size and age of the steer. Allowing for fat and bone waste and shrinkage, about 20%, you should buy 1 pound per person, or 1 bone width for two people. That will be more than enough and guarantee leftovers for superb roast beef sandwiches (most roast beef is made from sirloin, a tougher cut).

Preparation time. 20 minutes to make and apply the dry rub, 1 to 24 hours to marinate, and 2 to 3 hours to come to room temp before cooking.

Cooking time. It is important to understand that there is no easy rule for the timing of a prime rib, but there are some guidelines here. The most important determinant of cooking time is the thickness of the meat, not the weight, and cooking time can vary significantly depending on a number of other variables: Bone on or bone off, how cold the meat is when you put it in the heat, the ambient temp outside, how well your grill holds temp, how long you leave the hood open when you check the drip pan, and how often you show it to your wife, neighbor, and guests.

Remember, you cook with a thermometer, not a clock, and your grill's thermometer is not reliable. Many are off as much as 50°F, even on fancy grills! You really need a good digital oven thermometer and another good digital meat thermometer. Please read my article on thermometers.

The cooking times below are highly approximate and assume you have a good oven thermometer, a good meat thermometer, the bone has been removed, and the meat has been at room temp for 2 to 3 hours before cooking. As insurance, I strongly recommend that you start earlier than you think you will need and that you have on hand a faux cambro, a plastic beer cooler in which you can hold the meat and keep it warm if it finishes early. Click the link to read more about how to set up a faux cambro.

Target temps
Most rib roasts are served rare to medium rare in the center. Scientists have measured the force it takes to shear the meat, in other words how tough it is, and it is at its most tender in the medium rare range. They have also measured moisture, and beyond medium rare it begins to dry out. Now a lot of people are squeamish about the red liquid. They need to know it is not blood! It is a protein liquid from within the cells called myoglobin. All the blood was drained long ago. So stop calling it blood! I cook mine to 130°F. Click here for more about ideal meat serving temps and a handy clip-out chart.

Rare (bright purple red). 120 to 130°F in the deepest part of the center
Medium Rare (bright red). 130 to 135°F
Medium (rich pink). 135 to 145°F

In order to reach 130°F in the deepest part of the meat, if the roast has been at room temp for 3 hours, if it is roasting at 325°F, if it is hovering above the roasting pan at least 2", and if you sear at the end of the cook, here's the approximate timing. If you must start at fridge temp, then add about 20% to the roasting time.

3 ribs, 7 to 8 pounds: 1.25 to 1.5 hours, plus 20 minutes searing over direct heat, plus 20 minutes resting
4 ribs, 9 to 10 pounds: 1.5 to 2 hours, then 20 minutes browning over direct heat, plus 20 minutes resting
5 ribs, 11 to 13 pounds: 2 to 2.5 hours, then 20 minutes browning over direct heat, plus 20 minutes resting
6 ribs, 14 to 16 pounds: 2.75 to 3 hours, then 20 minutes browning over direct heat, plus 20 minutes resting
7 ribs, 16 to 18 pounds: 3 to 3.75 hours, then 20 minutes browning over direct heat, plus 20 minutes resting

Ingredients
1 beef rib roast bones on, about 3 bones wide, 6-8 pounds before trimming
Table salt

Rub
1 teaspoon dry Mrs. O'Leary's Cow Crust per pound of meat
1 teaspoon olive oil or other cooking oil per pound of meat

Gravy
3 beef ribs
2 medium onions, root end removed, skin left on, and cut into quarters
2 carrots, peeled and chopped into 1" lengths
1 stalk celery, leaves left on, cleaned, and chopped into 1" lengths
3 tablespoons soy sauce
2 dried mushrooms
1 cup dry red wine
1 teaspoon leftover rub
1 bay leaf
32 ounces of low sodium beef stock

About the mushrooms. Any dried mushroom will do. If you have morels, they'd be my first choice, but their pricey, so porcini, wood ears, whatever. They will add umami, a savory flavor amplifier.

Serve with. A big red wine.

Do this
grilled prime rib roast1) 48 to 72 hours hours before cooking. Remove the rib bones and use them for the gravy. The bones do not add any flavor to the meat.

Trim off excess fat. Go ahead and trim right down to the meat. You don't need a fat cap. Melting fat cannot penetrate muscle fiber so it does not add flavor. The meat is not cooking for a long time nor at a high temp so you don't need the dripping fat to baste the meat. If you leave too much on, people will trim it off when you serve it and they will not get to taste the crust. After the fat is trimmed, set it aside for use in making the gravy.

Now sprinkle the meat liberally with table salt and place the roast on a wire rack above a big roasting pan. Leave it uncovered. This will simulate dry aging a bit by allowing some moisture to evaporate and concentrate flavor. Don't worry, there's plenty of moisture remaining in the meat.

2) About 24 hours before cooking. Make a spice paste like my recipe for Mrs. O'Leary's Cow Crust, a blend of herbs, spices, and mixed 1:1 with oil. The oil releases the flavors in the herbs and spices, helps it penetrate the meat's surface, and helps with browning and forming a crust. Let it sit for about 1 hour before applying it to the meat. Do not use Meathead's Memphis Dust or any rub with sugar in it.

Pat the meat dry with paper towels and pour most of the paste on top of the roast. Spread it around all visible surfaces working it into the meat. Turn the roast over and pour the rest on the bottom and work it around.

3) Make it as round as possible. After the bones are removed, the roast is sort of tear-drop shaped. Tie it with string every 1" to make it rounder. This will help it cook more evenly. Put it back in the fridge.

4) Make the gravy. You really won't need the gravy for the meat, but you will for my Garlic Mashed Potatoes, and you should make my Garlic Mashed Potatoes. Yes you really should. And you just might like the gravy on the meat. If nothing else, you can use it later for Italian Beef Sangwitches or for rice or soup. There is no end of uses for a good rich home made beef stock. But if you want to skip the gravy, nobody will want it unless you overcook the meat.

If you have a bandsaw, cut the bones in half so more marrow is exposed. Throw the bones on a hot grill until they are brown on both sides. Get a big pot and put all the bones in it. Add the fat. Don't worry, we'll discard it later, we just want to extract flavor from it. Add everything else. If there is no leftover rub, add some of thyme, rosemary, and garlic powder. Turn it on low and let it simmer for about 3 hours, lid off. Occasionally skim off any foamy scum. Don't worry about skimmimg the fat yet. And don't worry about alcohol, almost all of it boils off. Nobody will get tipsy.

After about 3 hours fish out the bones and any other large solids and discard them. Then run the stock through a mesh strainer. Refrigerate it. After several hours the fat will rise to the top and form a thick hard layer. Peel it off and discard it. Back in the fridge it goes for now. What remains is a fine beef stock.

5) About 3 hours before cooking bring the roast out of the fridge. Take the meat out and let it sit at room temp. Letting it sit at room temp warms it and gives the meat a running start on cooking. If you are going to heat a large mass of meat from 70°F in the center to 130°F it will go a lot faster than if you start it at 38°F, and the interior color will be a lot more even. Any microbes living on the surface will be killed during cooking.

6) Prepare the grill. Set up your grill or smoker for 2-Zone or Indirect heating and preheat the indirect zone to 325°F. You don't want to cook so hot that the meat burns on the outside before it is done on the inside. Clean the grates thoroughly before the gravy/drip pan goes on.

Place the pan at least 2" below the place where the meat will go in the indirect zone. You not want to put the roast in the pan with the liquid. We are roasting this meat with dry heat not boiling or braising it. Do not use a roasting rack that puts the meat into the pan. We want warm air circulating around all sides of this meat. On a gas grill place the empty gravy pan below the cooking grate on top of the deflector bars that cover the burners. On a charcoal grill place it on the grate that the charcoal will go on, and push all the coals off to the other side. On a pellet grill put the pan on top of the heat deflector. On a Weber Smokey Mountain or other bullet smokers, you can use the built-in water pan as the drip and gravy pan. Just make sure it is scrubbed clean on the inside. If you can't get it clean use a disposable aluminum pan on the lower shelf.

Now put the beef broth in the drip pan and add hot water until it is about 1" deep.

For more info on setting up your cooker, read my articles on how to setup a gas grill, a charcoal grill, a bullet smoker, and an offset smoker.

7) Put the meat on the grill. Oil the meat surface by scooping any drippings from the pan, and if you wish, take your pepper grinder and give it a fresh dusting of freshly ground black pepper. If you have a meat thermometer with a probe on a cable, insert it now so the tip is dead center in the thickest part of the meat. If you don't have a probe you can leave in the meat, you absolutely must have a good instant read meat thermometer, preferably a digital, to get this meat off properly cooked. Dial thermometers are notoriously inaccurate and slow reading. Read my Thermometer Buying Guide to learn how they work and which are the best.

Place the meat in the indirect zone about 2" above the drip pan where it is surrounded by 325°F air. You don't want to read the air temp in the dome, you need to read the air temp on the grate next to the meat.

Unlike conventional roasting recipes, we will not sear the meat at this time. Be patient. We do not want high heat on the outside yet. We want to gently heat the roast all over so the inside warms gently and evenly. It is a myth that searing at the beginning of a cook seals in moisture. It does no such thing and, in fact, it may make the meat drier. But darkening the exterior generates deep rich flavors from a chemical reaction called the maillard effect and caramelization of sugars. Darken it too much and you can carbonize the surface and burn all the good stuff in the paste. So we will roast the meat first slowly with convection heat and then sear it just before taking it off with high radiant heat, a technique called reverse sear.

8) Smoke. If you want a smoke flavor in the background add just a little bit of hardwood or fruitwood to the hot part of the cooker, about 2 to 4 ounces max. Don't overdo the smoke. A little bit is nice, but too much can ruin it. I cannot overemphasize this. What kind of wood? I don't think it makes a huge difference since you are using so little. Pick your favorite. I usually grab a fruitwood like apple.

9) Monitoring your meat. You will want to look under the hood occasionally during the cook, but make it infrequently and quickly. During the cook check the meat temp after 60 minutes and then every 15 minutes. Check the drip pan, keeping at least 1/2" of liquid in the pan. Add water if necessary. Do not let it dry out and burn. Look at the meat and if one side is getting too dark, rotate or turn the meat, otherwise there is no need to touch it. If you have a problem with your cooker, perhaps the gas runs out or the temp just won't stay at 325°F, or it is really cold outside, you can bring it inside after about an hour and finish it in the oven. By then all the smoke flavor is already in the meat.

10) Searing. When the temp in the deepest part of the interior reaches 115°F, remove the probe (it just gets in the way when you are rolling the meat around), and place the roast over the hottest part of the grill. If necessary, remove the drip pan and bring it inside. Raise the lid and stand by your grill, as Tammy Wynette once sang (click the link for my version of her song). Get the surface a deep dark brown by leaving it on the hot part for about 3 to 5 minutes. Roll it a quarter turn and repeat on all four sides. We leave the lid up because we no longer want to roast the interior. We are focusing the heat on the exterior now. During this process, the interior will rise another 5 to 10°F anyway. Check the temp again and take it off at 5°F lower than your target temp, preferably 125°F.

If you are cooking indoors or on a pellet grill, you can sear under the broiler indoors. If you have a small gas grill just crank it all the way. On a gas smoker, remove the water pan and the wood pan and put the meat down close to the flame.

carryover cooking11) Resting. Let it rest 20 minutes before cutting. The temp will rise about 5°F in that 20 minutes, a phenomenon called carryover. In this illustration, on the left we have a piece of meat while it is being cooked at 325°F. It is absorbing heat from all sides, the outer edges are hottest and the heat is passed to the center by conduction. In the center the meat has been removed from the oven. Heat continues to be passed towards the center slowly warming it even though it is sitting at room temp, say 70°F, and some of the heat is escaping into the surrounding air. On the right, the meat has come close to an even temp throughout and now it is cooling as more heat escapes.

In addition, the water pressure inside the muscle cells will go down a bit and less juice will come gushing out when you slice. Remember, if you have not cooked it past well done (and why would you do that?) then you should serve it within an hour. At temps like medium rare, microbes can grow rapidly.

12) Finishing the gravy. While the meat is resting, pour the liquid through a strainer and taste it. It should be thin and rich. If it is wimpy, dump it into a frying pan, turn the heat to high, and reduce it. It will reduce faster in a wide frying pan than in a narrow sauce pan. Taste and add salt if needed only after it is the proper consistency, but it shouldn't need it because of the drippings.

13) Serving. Remove the string. Use a really sharp knife and cut servings about 3/4" thick. Pour any drippings from the cutting board into the gravy. If you want to amp it up to 11, serve my Secretariat Horseradish Cream Sauce on the side.

This page was revised 12/23/2011


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1) If you are looking for info, please use the table of contents or the search box, at the top of every page before you ask for help.

2) Please don't ask any questions that involve temperature unless you tell us that you are using a digital thermometer! Dial thermometers are often off by as much as 50°F! If you are not using a good digital you have no idea what the temp really is so I can't help you. If you are still using a dial thermometer, please read this article about thermometers, then buy a good digital, and then, if the problem persists (chances are it won't), hit us with your questions. Please tell us everything we need to know to answer your question like the type of cooker you are using.

3) Please don't ask "What grill (or smoker) should I buy?" Read our Buyer's Guides and the buying checklists and follow the links. We've shared just about everything we know. Pay attention to the awards I have given my faves. We cannot pick the right cooker for your needs any more than we could pick the right car or spouse for you.


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Meathead the Barbecue & Grilling Lover Cartoon

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This link takes you to Amazon and tags anything you buy with a code so we get a referral fee. It works on anything from grills to diapers and it has zero impact on the price you pay. The best reasons to buy from Amazon are low prices, fast often free delivery, fair return policies, and often there is no sales tax. But clicking on that link before you shop helps us devote more time and money to you. Thanks!


Hot Stuff Barbecue & Grilling Award
Look At These AmazingRibs.com Best Value Gold Medal Winners

Here are some great products that have earned The AmazingRibs.com Best in BBQ Gold Medals. These are not ads!

Award Winning Meat Temp Fridge Magnet

National Barbecue Association AwardThe prize for Best BBQ Tool at the 2012 The National Barbecue Association conference went to a simple inexpensive fridge magnet by Meathead. It includes the latest USDA recommendations as well as chef recommendations (and they often differ) as well as color photos of the different stages of doneness for red meats. The temperatures are the same for both indoor and outdoor cooks. Click here for more info and how to order it.

meat temperature magnet for grilling

GrillGrates Take You To The Infrared Zone

GrillGrates are the best new product I have tested in years and the best thing to happen to beef since salt and pepper. The base superheats, eliminates hot spots, and blocks flareups. This is the concept behind the expensive new infrared grills. A must for gas grills. Click here for more about GrillGrates.

barbecue grill grates

The Smokenator: A Necessity For All Weber Kettles

If you have a Weber Kettle, you need the amazing Smokenator and Hovergrill. The Smokenator turns your grill into a first class smoker, and the Hovergrill can add capacity or be used to create steakhouse steaks. Click here to read more.

Weber Barbecue Smokenator

ThermoWorks Pocket Thermometer - No More Guessing

A good thermometer is why I never serve overcooked or undercooked food. This one has a very thin tip with a tiny thermocouple so it gives an accurate reading in just six seconds. I cannot recommend it more highly. It will improve your cooking overnight and pay for itself in a hurry. And it is inexpensive. Click here for more about thermometers.

barbecue & grilling thermometer


Steakhouse Knives

These are the same knives used at the best steakhouses (Peter Luger, Smith & Wollensky, Morton's and others). Machine washable, temper-ground, serrated, high-carbon stainless-steel, full-tang blades with excellent cutting edge retention, beefy hardwood handle, rust and stain resistant, and they stay shiny without polishing. And now they have the AmazingRibs.com imprimatur. Click here for more info on these wonderful knives.

steak knife set for barbecue


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