With the holiday season here, there’s a good chance we’ll have more prime rib in our lives. And it may be the only time of year that home cooks will attempt to make it themselves. So it’s best to look to restaurant chefs for some tips on how they create that show-stopping roast as the centerpiece of the holiday table.
Sangchul Shim, the chef behind Manhattan’s Gooey Steakhouse, along with Michelin-starred restaurants Mari and Kochi, gave Danny Kim a behind-the-scenes look at how he makes a great prime rib. And Kim also visits Wolfgang Burke at Cafe Riggs, where he roasts what he calls “prime rib with an American twist.”
Danny Kim, aka Danny Grubbs, first made a name for himself in the food world by creating Tektoks where chefs transform fast food into fine dining. He has since evolved into long-form videos that show chefs cooking signature dishes at his restaurants, like his Prime Rib video below.
Brick starts by dry-aging the roast for seven days before adding mayo, A1, confit garlic, thyme, Worcestershire sauce, black pepper, and kosher salt to the mayo, A1, confit garlic, thyme sauce, black pepper, and kosher salt. After the prime rib is thoroughly rubbed with the wet marinade, it goes in the fridge for at least 36 hours. When it’s time to cook, it goes into a 350-degree oven for about two hours until it reaches an internal temperature of 120 degrees. He then serves it made of roast trimmings and a garnish of fresh horseradish.
Meanwhile, at GUI, Seoul-born Shim makes a prime rib with an Asian influence. It begins by drying the roast in the fridge for two to three days before applying a marinade of koji, black garlic, mustard and water, which will then sit overnight. The second day it gets a dry rub with lots of black pepper, sugar, shave combo and then it’s back in the fridge for another night. When it comes time to cook, Shim takes it low and very slow, cooking for 10 hours to ensure the inside is pink from end to end. His method is similar to a reverse search for the stack, but he is not ending up in the pan. The key to its beautifully crispy crust may not be an ingredient in your home coffee supply: a VAT of beef fat. Using a technique you might have seen chefs employ to crisp pork belly or fish skin, he rips hot fat over the meat to expose the outside without further cooking the inside.
So no matter which method you choose, between the two chefs, there are some clear pointers you can take from exposing your meat to rest in the fridge for a few days to allowing excess moisture to evaporate to applying a wet marinade at least a day before roasting. So if you decide to get some prime rib this holiday season, you’ve got a good starting point to set you on your way.
