Why Cooking Prime Rib Is So Much Easier Than Cooking a Steak (2024)

FAQs

Is prime rib better than steak? ›

If you compare prime rib vs sirloin, T-bone, or porterhouse steaks, the rib roast often wins. Steak lovers obsess over a tasty ribeye or rib roast cut because they're not only tender, but also deliver the rich steak flavor that steak enthusiasts love.

Why Is Prime Rib So Special? Prime rib has a large "eye" of meat in the center, which is juicy, tender, and marbled with fat. Surrounded by a thick cap of fat, fat-marbled muscle encircles the "eye." The prime rib, a muscle not heavily used, is tender, juicy, and extremely flavorful.

Since prime ribs and ribeye steaks come from the same primal cut of beef, the difference in their flavors comes from the way they are cooked. Prime ribs are seared and then roasted slowly under low heat, making them more tender, while ribeyes are grilled quickly over high heat, making them more charred.

It's actually very simple to prepare. Prime Rib Roast can be intimidating because it is an expensive cut of beef and is usually made for important life events or holidays, but really, this is not hard to make. The secrets to a great prime rib are: Use an in-oven meat thermometer.

Cooking Techniques for Prime Rib Steaks

Here are a few popular techniques: Grilling: Preheat your grill to medium-high heat. Place the steaks directly over the heat source and cook for about 4-5 minutes per side for medium-rare doneness. For a medium steak, increase the cooking time by a few minutes per side.

Prime ribs often cost more due to the fact that they have more marbling and flavor. If you have intentions on cooking the meat yourself, you may find it a bit difficult to get prime rib.

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.

Succulent Flavor: Prime Rib is cherished for its succulent and tender texture. When cooked to perfection, the meat practically melts in your mouth, leaving behind a rich, meaty flavor that lingers on the palate.

The prime rib is well-marbled throughout its meat, meaning that it has a decent amount of fat content that renders down as it cooks to keep the beef tender.

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 is another name for prime rib? ›

At the store, “Prime Rib Roast” can go by different names including Rib Roast, or Standing Rib Roast (because it is positioned standing on the rib bones as it roasts). It can be found in the meat case with both boneless and bone-in options.

It's no secret that roasts need to cook slow and slow, but for that killer crust on a prime rib the secret is to hit it with a lot of heat first. Like our other prime rib recipes, this rosemary-rubbed prime rib cooks at 450F for 20 minutes before cooking for another 60 to 90 minutes at 350F.

Prime rib is at its best cooked rare or medium rare — it should not be cooked past medium (140°F) or all the fat will melt out of the meat, leaving it tough, dry, and chewy. After the prime rib is cooked, make sure to let it rest for 30 minutes for the meat to reabsorb all the delicious juices before carving.

Start by cooking your prime rib at 500°F for 15 minutes and then lower the oven temperature to 325° F and cook for 10-12 min per pound for rare, or 13-14 min per pound for medium rare, or 14-15 min per pound for medium well. A meat thermometer is essential to ensure you cook it perfectly!

Three ounces of roast prime rib contains 19.2 grams of protein or about a third of the recommended daily amount of protein. Prime rib contains all nine essential amino acids and is high in the essential amino acid threonine, which is important for healthy liver function, and is also high in zinc.

There are three official grades on this scale: Prime, Choice, and Select. USDA Prime: Produced from well-fed, young cattle, Prime is the USDA's highest grade, featuring abundant marbling (flecks of fat within the meat that makes it more flavorful).

Go for the sirloin or filet mignon as your “best and healthiest” cuts. You will probably save yourself about 200 to 1200 calories, depending on the portion size. Fattier cuts include rib eye, New York strip, T-bone, prime rib and Porterhouse cuts of steak.

Prime rib comes from the rib primal cut, which is the second-most tender of all the cuts of beef (after the tenderloin). That's why prime rib is so expensive: it's a huge piece of extremely good beef.