Irish Prime Rib Pie Recipe - Food.com (2024)

FAQs

Should you sear prime rib before baking? ›

Searing is an important part of roasting a prime rib. Searing the roast first will kill the surface bacteria, which is a nice touch, especially when you are roasting at lower temperatures.

Prime rib has a large “eye” of meat in the center, which is juicy, tender, and marbled with fat. This eye has a fat-marbled muscle around it, and the whole thing is surrounded by a thick cap of fat. This means that prime rib is tender, juicy, and extremely flavorful because the muscles aren't heavily used.

Butchery: Both rib roast and prime are primal cuts of beef; however, prime rib recipes call for the cut to remain whole, whereas a butcher typically divides a rib roast into individual ribeye steaks. The rib roast is generally a boneless cut of meat, while prime rib comes with the bone still in it.

It is thought that prime rib at Christmas first became popular during the Industrial Revolution. This was when meat butchering standards improved to the point where more families in the United Kingdom, Australia, Ireland, and the United States could enjoy high-quality beef dinners.

How do restaurants make prime rib so tender? The secret to restaurant-style prime rib is cooking the meat super slow at low temperatures. I recommend cooking prime rib at no higher than 200 degrees F. This cooks the meat very slowly, turning the fat into butter and rendering the proteins juicy and soft.

Prime Rib Roast, at room temperature (very important)

Sear the rib roast for 15 minutes at the higher oven temperature (450°F), and then turn the oven to the lower temperature (325° F) for the rest of the cooking time.

The Benefits of Slow Roasting

First, slow roasting produces a Prime Rib that is tender, juicy, and has evenly cooked meat.

A bone-in standing rib roast will feed about two people per bone. But if the roast is part of a bigger spread with plenty of other food, you can plan on 1/2 to 3/4 pound of prime rib per person. Here's a quick guide (so you don't have to do the math): 3-4 people: 4 pounds (2 bones)

But even if you managed the impossible and found a ribeye steak that was the same weight as a rib roast, you'd be paying more for the roast. That's because the price per pound for prime rib is almost always higher than the price per pound for a ribeye, thanks to limited supply and consistently high demand.

When you're shopping for prime rib, ask for a standing rib roast. That's the name you'll see at the butcher counter. The standing rib roast unsurprisingly comes from the rib section of the cow.

What animal does prime rib come from? ›

Prime ribs and ribeye steaks come from the exact same primal cut of beef. A section of the cow called the “primal rib section.” It's one of the nine primal cuts of beef.

However, the prime rib typically contains more bone and fat, which might give it a slight edge over the eye in terms of flavor. Bone-in ribeye, though, also benefits from the natural flavoring that comes from being cooked with the bone, so its flavor doesn't stray far from the prime rib.

This celebration commemorates the wait, the Vigilia di Natale, for the midnight birth of the baby Jesus. The long tradition of eating seafood on Christmas Eve dates from the Roman Catholic tradition of abstaining from eating meat on the eve of a feast day.

Prime Rib Tastes Better

However, every cut of prime rib has a generous marbling, making each cut tender, juicy, and delicious. Leaving the bone in the cut adds to the moisture and intense, rich beef flavor. Because of how indulgent this cut is, it's easy to see why the price tag matches its impressive taste.

At Christmas in particular, the magnetism of a rib roast is real, with about 33 million pounds sold during last year's holiday season. It may be a dish from the American past, but it is a past that many Americans are eager to revisit.

Let it sit on the counter for 4 hours before cooking. Bringing the roast to room temperature is especially important here because a cold roast will take much longer to cook.

Place the roast fat side up, bone side down, in a large roasting pan. Cook for 15 minutes, then reduce the oven temperature to 325°F. This allows the heat to sear the roast, trapping the juicy flavors inside while the rest of the meat cooks.

It's not really necessary to sear your roast before cooking, but caramelizing the surface gives the cut an incredible depth of flavor, enhanced with the complex layers of nutty caramel and coffee-like bitterness that meat-lovers find delicious.