The Food Almanac: April 27, 2011
In The Food Almanac, Tom Fitzmorris of the online newsletter, The New Orleans Menu notes food facts and sayings.
Food Calendar
Today is National Prime Rib Day. Prime rib is, speaking strictly, the three rearmost ribs from the primal rib roast. However, most restaurants and butchers consider all seven ribs in the standard rib roast as being prime rib. The ones in the back have a bigger "eye" in the center and smaller islands of lean around the perimeter of fat. It's the same cut used for rib eye steaks, but before the bone is removed.
The big difference between prime rib and rib eye is the cooking method. Most prime rib roasts are roasted whole for hours at low temperatures — 300 degrees, give or take. That's what gives prime rib its soft, juicy texture, so different from the firmer texture of the same cut if meat grilled one steak at a time. Prime rib is usually not carved until serving time.
One more confusion: the word "prime" in the expression "prime rib" is not the same as in "USDA Prime grade" for beef. A prime rib can be choice or worse grade. USDA Prime prime rib is rarely seen; the amount of fat in it is fantastic, but fans of the cut love it for that.
Prime rib was much more popular in the 1960s and 1970s than it is now. Back then, restaurant chains all over America specialized in it.
Deft Dining Rule #712
If you ask for the end cut in a prime rib place, the only acceptable answers are "Of course!" or "I'm sorry... we've already sold them tonight."
Deft Dining Rule #713
Never order the end cut of prime rib, unless you want to be identified as a the kind of person who eats well-done steak.
The Old Kitchen Sage Sez
A prime rib roast with two bones is one bone short. Three bones is routine. When you have four bones, you really have something worth inviting friends over for.
Gourmet Gazetteer
Rib Lake is a town of 900 people in central Wisconsin, about midway from Minneapolis to Green Bay. It's on the western shore of Rib Lake, which from the air looks like a healthy slice of prime rib (boneless), with an island where the fat triangle would be. The town has been a timber milling community since the 1880s. The people of Rib Lake apparently like their restaurants unusually named. In the center of town you have your choice of Mann Made, Ultimate Illusion, the Pot Belly Grill, and Camp 28 Saloon and Bunkhouse.
Food Through History
Today in 1773, the British Parliament passed the Tea Act, which levied yet another tax that the American colonists found outrageous. It ultimately incited the Boston Tea Party, which got the attention of the British government.
Edible Dictionary
spinalis, [SPIN-eh-liss], n. — The layer of lean meat that covers the side of a rib roast opposite the bones. It's also known as the rib cap is separated from the ribeye by a thick layer of fat. When removed, it has a convex shape, like a beanie. The spinalis is about three quarters of an inch thick, and is extravagantly marbled with fat, even when the grade of the beef is low. Spinalis was almost unheard of outside of anatomy classes until around 2006, when some meat purveyors began selling it as a separate cut. It's extraordinarily tender, and can be grilled or roasted.
The Saints
Today is the feast day of St. Zita. As a young servant girl, she gathered her own food as well as what other food she could find in the household of her employers and gave it to the poor in the streets of Lucca, Italy. She is the patron saint of waitresses. Her name is also the singular form of ziti, the tubular pasta a lot like penne. But there is no connection.
Annals Of The Cocktail
Today in 1957, Mario A. Gianini passed away. (I can't find his birth date.) He was the inventor of the maraschino cherry, so common in our drinks and baking. A maraschino cherry is a light-colored cherry preserved in a brine or alcohol solution, then marinated in a colored, flavored syrup that gives it (usually) an almond flavor. The flavor is in imitation of maraschino liqueur, made from the marasco cherry and containing real almond extract. Maraschino liqueur is rarely used now. Now, we turn to a long-running and absurd argument my wife and I have. I say — and dictionaries and speakers of Italian do too — that the preferred pronunciation is "maras-kee-no." I learned that from the cartoon character Snagglepuss, who was the first person (?) I ever heard pronounce the word. My wife says that it should be "mara-shee-no," because, she claims, that's how most people say it. Sheesh.
Food Namesakes
Former Louisiana Senator Lloyd Wheat was born today in 1922. A movie called The Dish opened today in 2001. Disappointingly, it was not about food, but a satellite antenna. Punk rock artist David Peel was born today in 1947.
Words To Eat By
"Any of us would kill a cow rather than not have beef." — Samuel Johnson
Words To Drink By
"Beer is made by men, wine by God." — Martin Luther