what's with the US and prime ribs?

[chef koo]

i just got back from a road trip with some boddueis of mine. we drovedown the west coast to san fransico and then to vegas. so i tried all the major food stop of the Us. "in and out burger", "jack in the box", "izzy's. i had a choice between the french laundry and gambling in vegas and i went with the gambling which i kind of regret becasue with the money i won (i was up $200) i could've gone for dinner but no big deal. anyways. the one big theme my friends and i saw was the super cheap prime rib dinners. the cheapest being $5.99 for a prime rib and lobster dinner. it was every where. i was happy to have purchased it of course but i've never seen this meal so widely served and marketed in canada before. maybe i jsut missed it or something. but other than the fact that it's a good deal is there a reason prime rib dinners are all over?

[porkpa]

Probably like with most things that are popular. It tastes good and people want it.

Porkpa

Edited February 20, 2005 by porkpa (log)

[NulloModo]

The super cheap prime rib and lobster is a Vegas thing. Vegas in an incredible town to vacation in because everything is super cheap compared to what it would be for similar quality elsewhere, hotels, food, airfare, etc. The casinos make so much from the gambling that they can afford to subsidize the other stuff to draw people in.

Keep in mind that prime rib doesn't actually denote prime grade beef, especially at many of these 5.99 places, and that the quality of prime rib from restaurant to restaurant can vary dramatically.

Hopefully you took some time to enjoy dinner at the buffet at the Bellagio or Paris, two buffets that will forever change what you think about buffets.

[chef koo]

well the thing about the buffet was that i've always heard about them. i know they're famous and all but my mind was somewhere else when i looked at a sign that said $10 all yopu can eat and thought to myself, "why would i spend $25 for a bufet when i can spend $10. after i finished eating and realized what i did i realized the regret i felt of my decision

[Fat Guy]

The American prime rib dinner, which is taken to the most abusurd extreme of over-representation in Las Vegas but is prevalent throughout many regions of the country, is a very close relative of the British classic meal of roast beef with Yorkshire pudding.

[rjwong]

i just got back from a road trip with some boddueis of mine. we drovedown the west coast to san fransico and then to vegas. so i tried all the major food stop of the Us. "in and out burger", "jack in the box", "izzy's. i had a choice between the french laundry and gambling in vegas and i went with the gambling which i kind of regret becasue with the money i won (i was up $200) i could've gone for dinner but no big deal. anyways. the one big theme my friends and i saw was the super cheap prime rib dinners. the cheapest being $5.99 for a prime rib and lobster dinner. it was every where. i was happy to have purchased it of course but i've never seen this meal so widely served and marketed in canada before. maybe i jsut missed it or something. but other than the fact that it's a good deal is there a reason prime rib dinners are all over?

←

Las Vegas is definitely a unique city. They want your business. They want your money. People who go to Vegas can lose hundreds & thousands of dollar in gambling, or "gaming." Because of that, cheap prime rib dinners are all over the casinos. It's all part of the casinos' plan to "comfort" the person after his losses with some decent (not great) but inexpensive food (good old meat & potatoes does the trick, ehh??). Hey, the casinos may even "comp" you with free food & hotel room. That's done by a tracking card to keep track of how much money you spend at their gambling tables. The cheap dinners make people feel that they "won" something after losing their money playing the slots & the tables.

As the advertisement goes, "It's Las Vegas, mon."

[NulloModo]

well the thing about the buffet was that i've always heard about them. i know they're famous and all but my mind was somewhere else when i looked at a sign that said $10 all yopu can eat and thought to myself, "why would i spend $25 for a bufet when i can spend $10. after i finished eating and realized what i did i realized the regret i felt of my decision

←

If anyone can understand being struck by low prices, it is me. And honestly, I find low-brow buffets very enjoyable in their own right. The $25 buffets in Vegas (or the Buffet at the Borgata in Atlantic City, which IMO is the only one in AC on par with vegas) are just as fine as fine dining IMO, plus the selection just can't be beat.

[budrichard]

The '$5.99' Prime Rib dinner is a completely artificial product. It is Select Grade beef at best that has been tenderized by needles, soaked in a tenderizing solution(Au Jus) and lastly packaged in CryoVac for preservation. All that's need is to reheat. -Dick

[Lone Star]

The best Vegas food: Bloody Marys and 99 cent shrimp cocktails from the Four Queens!

[markk]

The American prime rib dinner, which is taken to the most abusurd extreme of over-representation in Las Vegas but is prevalent throughout many regions of the country, is a very close relative of the British classic meal of roast beef with Yorkshire pudding.

←

Indeed. But does anybody put a Jewish interpretation on this? Well, I'm sure I started this wrong and phrased that incorrectly, but similar to the fascinating discussions on Jews and Chinese Food, does anybody (besides me) associate Prime Rib with Jewish people? I say this because growing up (in New York City) in the 1950's, I think I ate more Prime Rib at Bar Mitzvahs than I ever thought there were cattle in this world. As Bar Mitzvah (and wedding) food is how I got to know the dish, and was surprised when I got out in the world and found other people eating it as well.

Many years later, I was distressed to find that people actually roasted a Prime Rib without the bones! My dad was a lover of Prime Rib end cuts, served on-the-bone, and taught me that when you went to a Bar Mitzvah or wedding, you could actually request this, and talk the waiter into bringing you said cut. (Man oh man...)

[Fat Guy]

The thing about prime rib, with respect to Jewish cuisine, is that the rib is the best steak- or roast-like cut of meat that Jews who keep kosher will typically eat. Because the sciatic nerve runs through the short loin (which is the source of all the "steakhouse steaks" other than the rib: the New York strip, the filet mignon and the porterhouse) none of the cuts from the short loin are kosher unless the nerve is painstakingly removed (the nerve has many, many branches and requires a lot of careful work to remove entirely). This is virtually never done in North America or Europe, where the most economically viable move is just to sell the short loin to non-kosher purveyors. In Israel, where that option is not as available, it is worth investing the labor in removing the sciatic nerve, so you will find kosher porterhouse, filet mignon and New York strip-type cuts in Israel.

[markk]

The thing about prime rib, with respect to Jewish cuisine, is that the rib is the best steak- or roast-like cut of meat that Jews who keep kosher will typically eat. Because the sciatic nerve runs through the short loin (which is the source of all the "steakhouse steaks" other than the rib: the New York strip, the filet mignon and the porterhouse) none of the cuts from the short loin are kosher unless the nerve is painstakingly removed (the nerve has many, many branches and requires a lot of careful work to remove entirely). This is virtually never done in North America or Europe, where the most economically viable move is just to sell the short loin to non-kosher purveyors. In Israel, where that option is not as available, it is worth investing the labor in removing the sciatic nerve, so you will find kosher porterhouse, filet mignon and New York strip-type cuts in Israel.

←

That's a fascinating observation. While I guess I always knew about the sciatic nerve making the hind portion off-limits for Jews, I never thought of it in terms of increasing the popularity of the "rib" as the best cut left. And now that I think of it, on the nights we didn't go to Bar Mitzvahs we used to drive to Delancey St. to eat at a place that featured "Mush Steak" - at least that's what my parents called it and ordered it as - and of course, it was a boneless rib-eye, from the chuck, or fatty end of the rib, and it was delicious. (It's what's now called a boneless club, or Delmonico steak, I suppose.) I never realized that (although we weren't kosher ourselves) steaks from the short loin were not an option in these places.

[Msk]

Good Eats Transcript

AB: True. Tell me, what do you roast when you want to roast something really

special.

CC: Ah, that's easy. That'd have to be a standing rib roast.

AB: Ah, you must mean a prime rib.

CC: Not necessarily. There's a difference there. Prime rib must come from prime

beef. Otherwise it's just a standing rib roast.

So is the butcher wrong by saying this? Can a prime rib be made from other grade meat?

Msk

[Tonyy13]

i had a choice between the french laundry and gambling in vegas and i went with the gambling

Doh (in Homer Simpson voice...)

I guess hindsight is 20/20...

My dad is a sucker for Prime Rib, and therefore, as an Adams, I guess I am too. Something about it was untouchable when I was a kid, forced to order from the kids menu, and my dad was getting this huge chunk of steak that always smelled so good compared to my chicken fingers that oddly tasted like fish. To the meat and potatoes people of the northeast and mid west, prime rib sounds like the best, particularly becuase of the word Prime. I can remember the kid who called it prime rib in meatcutting class at JWU, Vallaincourt had his ass!!!!!

[Toliver]

Growing up, Prime Rib was always something you ordered in a nice restaurant mainly because you didn't make it/get it at home. Times change, don't they? Now we make it at home every Christmas Eve.

It is (or was) perceived as the Cadillac of Beef/Steak dinners. Prime Rib for $5.95 in Las Vegas sounds like an incredible deal...until you order it. One year, while staying in Las Vegas for a convention, I ordered it at a casino (that I won't name). It looked like a nice slab of Prime Rib when served, but was one of toughest pieces of meat I've ever encountered. A deal isn't such a deal if you can't eat it.