Dry Aged Beef Rib Eye, Part 3-Smoked Prime Rib

This is the third installment in a four part series on aged, bone-in beef rib eye using the UMAi membrane. In part 1 we talked about utilizing the primal roast to create a steak. In part 2, we discussed creating the iconic restaurant “Prime Rib” one order at a time. In this installment, we will show how to hot smoke a sous vide processed section of the 45 day aged bone-in rib eye.

BTW, the rib eye does not have to be aged for this recipe to work. All the parameters remain the same, regardless of which section of the rib eye is utilized.

Which end is up?

The rib eye starts at the chuck/shoulder and proceeds towards the rear of the animal. Half way down the carcass, as pictured above, it proceeds to resemble/become the strip loin/New York–much leaner than the shoulder end. A bit tougher too.

We cut two bones worth from the strip loin end.

That flap that curves around from the left end towards the top is the spinalis dorsi muscle. Highly prized for its texture/tenderness, it is much more prominent at the chuck end of the primal. After having removed the 4 oz/115 g “heel,” this roast weighed 71 oz/2 Kg.

Fully trimmed, the roast weighed 66 oz/1.9 Kg. Preheat the bath to 130 F/54 C.

Above: **Lipavi C10** container, **N10 polycarbonate** racks. **Lipavi C10L-UNIR** lid.
Process for a minimum of 6 hours to pasteurize. Shock the package to 70 F/21 C in iced water and then refrigerate overnight at 40 F/4 C.

The aging process removes a considerable amount of moisture. There were almost no juices at all in the bag after processing.

‘Tis the seasoning…

Raw meats shed small amounts of albumins, a muscular protein similar to egg whites. These are the reason that raw meat is a little “sticky” to the touch. Sous vide (and other forms of cooking) denature the albumins. We use powdered egg whites to recreate that clingy surface so that seasonings have something to cling to.