Rest of the prime rib: best bet for spinalis?

[DaveD]

Hey folks, a while back I got some great advice to separate a 3-bone prime rib roast into the "eye" of the roast, the spinalis, and the back ribs. Did that, and the "eye" portion was just fantastic. It was part of the "Staycation" series of cooks I did back in August, and the part dealing with that roast can be found right cheer.

Tomorrow I'm going to cook the rest, which I'd vac sealed and frozen. It's the three bones of back ribs and the spinalis. Game plan for the ribs is just smoke 'em low and slow all day until they're probe tender like any other beef ribs. But I haven't cooked just a spinalis before. I've read that one should treat it as a flank steak or skirt steak. I've not done a skirt, but for flank I prefer a sous vide que approach with a long time in the SV, like 6-8 hours. But I know that a hot & fast approach works for those as well.

But with spinalis being some of the most tender meat on the animal, I doubt I need that much time in the SV. I'm thinking more like what I'd do for a filet or ribeye, 90 minutes or so? Input welcome

Here's tomorrow's starting material:



Trimmed off the fat & silverskin from the spinalis & salted 'em up.

[STEbbq]

Yeah, treating it like you would a ribeye is the right approach. That is what I did with mine.

[bmillin]

Never heard of this before, but it sure is interesting. Here is a video from Jess Pryles on the topic - How to butcher, cut and grill a Ribeye Cap Steak | Jess Pryles - YouTube

Also seeing some recipes where you roll it into what almost looks like a Filet and then grill it. Hmmmmm

[jfmorris]

I cooked mine like any other steak, to medium-rare.

[McFlyfi]

I pinwheel it. Take the spinalis, roll it up, the it, cut it into 1.5" steaks, s & p, screaming hot cast iron, and flip, flip, flip.

[Stuey1515]

All of the above

[DaveD]

Here are the cuts doused with granulated garlic and coarse black pepper after dry brining overnight:



Got the ribs on the SnS kettle with a couple of hickory chunks, reached stable temp of about 260F/127C by 8:40am. Lesson learned from last cook: not going to worry about extending the life of this fire, just going to ride it out until it starts to naturally wane, which ought to be a solid six to eight hours away. Then I'll transfer to the Pit Boss vertical pellet smoker for the rest of the way, which is when I'll either wrap or foil-boat, depending on how things look. Although these ribs are pretty meaty (advantage of cutting it myself! Not so closely trimmed), it's not meaty enough to leave a temp probe in there, so it'll have to be instant-read when the time comes.

[DaveD]

Two hours in, all nominal.

[Red Man]

Beef back ribs don’t usually take very long to cook. I’d expect them to be done pretty soon. I wouldn’t bother with SV for the spinalis. It’ll cook really quickly, I’d cook it direct heat over charcoal.

[DaveD]

Red Man nailed it! They indeed have cooked much quicker than I expected, much faster than the back ribs I did many months ago, which took all day. Temps are already in the low 190sF/90ish C, and tender in places. Once it probes tender I'll boat 'em and move them into the pellet smoker at 175F/80C so they don't cook anymore, then rest them in the Cambro for a couple of hours before dinner.

I do intend to stick to the SVQ plan for the spinalis though, because that's been our SOP for steaks for a long time, and I want to prepare this the way I prepare all of those so that the meat is the only intended variable. I'll doubtless experiment with another approach next time.

[Jfrosty27]

Those are looking mighty tasty Dave. 😋

[DaveD]

At 4.5 hours in, probing very tender and near or above 200F/93C. Deployed the foil boat and moved it into the Pit Boss set to 175F/80C. Then into the Cambro for a couple hours' rest. Got the spinalis vac-bagged for the SV later.

[DaveD]

Alrighty, this turned out really well. The spinalis was melt in mouth tender, and the ribs were smoky and fantastic. The Jess Pryles taters were the best I've made yet, using about 1/3 vs 2/3 smoked wagyu tallow to olive oil to roast them in. Perfectly crunchy and crispy exteriors with totally creamy interiors, and amazing smoky beefy flavor. Broke out a Maipo Valley Chilean cabernet to go with. Yum! Oh, and steamed broccoli

[Jfrosty27]

Beef heaven right there. 👏👏👏

[FireMan]

Man yer pics just got better n’ better. Glad ya run out of film. 🕶

[rlozinak]

Yep, they look delicious