Beef lovers really go for a slab of Prime Rib or a thick ribeye steak. But if you have a sharp knife and some freezer space, you can divide your ribeye roast into three cuts—and each is delicious.
Start with a standing ribeye roast—or go for the gusto and buy a whole 7-rib primal and save a few dollars a pound. Take a good look at the image below and see that there are really three separate muscles: The actual center of the ribeye in the middle, the ribeye cap that is outside of it separated by some unctuous, delicious fat, and the actual ribs with their own meat and to which both the other pieces are attached.
The three parts of this rib-eye roast are easy to see because each cut is separated by fat. The left C-shaped part is the cap; the center part is the eye of the ribeye, and the ribs on the right are removed with the meat attached.
It’s easy to break down a primal or a roast into these sections because each is clearly delineated and easy to cut. A seven-rib primal can be big—up to fourteen pounds and sixteen inches long, so it is best to start by cutting it into two three- or four-rib pieces.
Start by removing the ribs and their surrounding meat. There is a clear difference in the meat clinging to the rib. Cut along the line of fat and they will come away easily.
This is where short ribs come from. Trim off the meat from the top of the bones to get chewy-but-beefy boneless short ribs. Cut these across the rib-length and grill them or cut them into cubes and braise them. Or grill the whole piece over a low fire and smoke them as a Flintstone-sized rack, although it might be better to break them into individual ribs for the best char.
Once the bones removed, what’s left is the ribeye center and the ribeye cap—a boneless ribeye roast. Cut the roast into eight 1 1/2 inch thick pieces for a traditional ribeye that looks like a piece of Prime Rib. But there is more that can be done breaking down the meat.
Divide the roast into two other cuts. Some people regard the ribeye cap as the most delicious part of the ribeye—so why consign it to a mere rim around the center? Separate the cap from the center. It is as simple as cutting through the fat and carefully peeling the cap off. Trim the excess fat from around the two cuts but be sure to leave some—fat is flavor after all.
The cap can be cut into two-inch widths and then rolled and tied into pieces that can be roasted or grilled, or it can be left flat and grilled like a flank steak. The cap on an entire ribeye primal would be about 5 pounds.
The center round can be close trimmed into a roast that is a like a filet mignon—only tastier. Or, it can be cut into eight or so ribeye center steaks—a premium cut that can be trimmed into a perfectly oval steak with very little fat around it.
Perhaps this seems like a lot of work and a lot of meat—twelve big steaks and 7 big beefy ribs. Wrap them up—or even better, vacuum-seal them—and put them in your freezer for months of delicious eating. Or buy a four-pound two-bone standing rib roast for practice and see how exciting four people having a three-way with a rib eye roast can be.
