I'm smoking boneless prime rib for 25 in a couple weeks. Anybody have any suggestions on how to calculate how much I'll need to buy? Most of the comments I've read refer to bone in prime rib. These will be boneless and I plan on trimming the fat cap off, but leaving the rest of the roast intact.
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Dr ROK I have always gone with a pound per person, but I like to have leftovers. You could probably get away with 12 oz. per person and still have plenty for leftovers. -
@Dr. ROK - when you say 25, do you mean 25 adults or a mix of adults and kids?
Whenever I've done prime rib for parties, I set and adults' table with the prime rib and then a kids' table of significantly most cost effective food like hamburger steak. Kids tend to waste a HUGE amount of food at parties. Prime rib is expensive and hamburger is cheap.
I also let the kids cook their own entree ... they LOVE this and gets them involved. Of course kids only cook with adult supervision.Comment
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Dr ROK I bought a 13lb boneless from costco. Fat cap is a lot of the weight! I would say about 1/3. So a 13 lb roast probably ended up with 8-9 lbs of meat. It's basically ribeye steaks at that point so you can probably estimate from there?
If prime rib is the only meat you're having, For 25 people i would probably buy 25lbs, trim the fat cap off and estimate weight. After that if i had a little too much i'd slice a nice ribeye off for a pre-run taster! It's hard to say how much my 13lb one fed because we had other meat like turkey etc.Comment
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smokinfatties Yes, it'll be the only meat, but we'll have baked potatoes, smoked beans, a tossed salad, and dessert.Last edited by Dr ROK; December 7, 2015, 09:28 PM.
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Dr ROK I would factor in how many men are eating as well. Men eat a lot more meat than women usually. I would go at least 20 lbs. of raw weight (with bones) but if you like leftovers, go 25 lbs. Better having leftovers than someone not getting fed. It does shrink a bit tooComment
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Dr ROK - I'd look at averaging something like 12 ounces per head. The reasoning behind this is the same most restaurants offer a "ladies" or petite cut. Many women won't/can't eat more than about 8-10 ounces of a really rich food like prime rib. Men, well, you know that guys will eat their weight I prime rib. plus, it sounds as if you've got quite the spread being served with the entre, so an average 12 ounces portion seems reasonable.
Based on those assumptions, I'd order something in the neighborhood of a 20 pound prime rib. That allows for some trim and a little left over.
Good luck, enjoy your party, and have some fun!Comment
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Dr Rok I would go with 2- 12 to 14, you'll have plenty of leftovers and a little more flexibility with those ones that freak when they see red
easier to handle for reverse sear and all plus very impressive side by side on a serving platter for presentation 
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Originally posted by Papa Bob View PostDr Rok I would go with 2- 12 to 14, you'll have plenty of leftovers and a little more flexibility with those ones that freak when they see red easier to handle for reverse sear and all plus very impressive side by side on a serving platter for presentation
Took the words right outta my mouth... Get 2 & your good-to-go! Have fun!Comment
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Well for those of you interested, by the time the meal took place the number of rguests went from 25 up to 36. I went with a 21 lb and 18 lb HOM for a total of 39 pounds of untrimmed prime rib. I trimmed the fat cap and also removed the rib cap. After dry brining overnight, I used a triple batch of Oleary's Cow Crust mixed with water as the rub. Used BBQ Delight hickory pellets in my rectec mini and set at 230 degrees for two hours. The mini is in extreme smoke mode unless the temp goes above 250, so after two hours I rotated the rolls front to back and bumped the temp to 255 since I didn't want these to be overly smoked. It took one just under 4 hours and the other just over 4 hours to hit 130 degrees. At that point I removed them from the rectec, wrapped them in a sheet of foil (wasn't sealed at top, just used to catch juices) and put them on a rack in an electric roaster set for 135 degrees. They sat in the roaster for about 4 1/2 hours before serving. I didn't get any pics of the final product, but almost everybody that ate it commented on how it was the best prime rib they'd eaten, it was delicious, I forgot what good prime rib tasted like, or a comment similar to that. When all was said and done, I was one slice short, but since I was one of the participants in the meal, I just ate some of my wife's and daughter's slices. I would have had enough had I been a bit more frugal with my slicing, but I wanted everybody that was there to have a great slab of prime rib.
Rubbed and ready to go in the smoker.
Ready to be pulled off smoker.
Last edited by Dr ROK; December 18, 2015, 04:16 PM.Comment
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Those look freaking awesome!!! Great job!Comment
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Excellent follow-up! The common average is 1/2 lb raw weight of meat per person, not counting bone weight. Did you by chance weigh your bones & trimmings to know what your meat-only weight was?
In Meathead's Prime Rib article, he lists his details as starting with a bone-in 14.5 lber. He had 2.5 lbs bones, and a total of 3.25 lbs of fat & trimming, not counting the rib cap. I assume you left the rib cap on? Meathead's totals were about 40% loss after trimming bones & fat. If you had the same loss after trimming, you were down to around 23lbs meat, which would be about .6lbs per person. So you were right there in the range, if not a pinch heavy. Kudos to you for having such a great product that you still ran out! (Next time, more sides! Lol)Last edited by Huskee; December 18, 2015, 09:01 PM.Comment
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Huskee, These were boneless, so the weight I mentioned did not include bones, just meat and fat. I did remove the rib cap. At least I think it was the rib cap. It separated from the rest of the roll pretty easily by pulling it as I cut along the line of separation. The cap had a lot of large veins of fat interspersed through out and i trimmed as much as I could out of it. One cap I cut into chunks and the other I just kinda folded it over on itself and tied it into a log. Both were dry brined and then vacuum sealed and in the freezer. I did not weigh my trimmings to see how much end weight I actually had after trimming everything down to the final rolls in the pics.
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Well done sir, well done! (medium rare done actually
) Great job anyway!
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OK, so if your loss from rib cap removal (instead of bones) and fat trimmings was the same percentages as Meathead, you still had from .6-.7lbs per person raw weight. Still an impressive dinner and some full & happy guests!Comment
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