Sticker Shock - My Story & Yours!

I am sure you have all had a moment of "Sticker Shock" when you first laid eyes on the pricetag of an item you were about to purchase. Well I sure had mine yesterday, it happened at the grocery store! Not that should be surprising with the price of milk these days, but this one about took my breath away.

Years ago I had fixed a prime rib for dinner that I baked in rock salt. It was the best my family ever tasted (and it was actually cooked in the rock salt you throw on the ice in your driveway). I could not find regular cooking rock salt. But it was good and we lived to tell about it.

The kids are coming for the weekend so I thought it would be fun to have it again after all these years. We went to the Giant and I ordered an 8# angus prime rib while Steve picked up some milk, bread, pancake mix and fresh veggies. The meat cutter handed me the roast and it looked fabulous. We went to the express check out and the clerk rang up the items and the total came to $101.33!!!!!!!!!!!!! for less than 7 items. I thought the woman behind me was going to faint. The clerk asked if I had any coupons, of course not, so she graciously gave me one worth $8 which brought the total down to $93 and change! We then decided for the first time to check the price of the roast.... it was $10.99 a pound which for 8# came to $84.29! I had never seen such a huge price tag in the grocery store!

I will be cooking it tomorrow, keep your fingers crossed that I don't ruin it!

We have prime rib for Christmas dinner every year. Usually about 14 people. If you come to dinner you contribute to the meal. We plan it at Thanksgiving and we all put money into a pot. It used to be $5 a person but we upped it to $10 about four years ago and we buy a 10 pound roast. The leftover money stays with the hostess that year for all the rest of the meal. And, no, we don't take any back. If there is some left it is for her to have. Sticker shock it is and the other thing that got to me (I don't shop for food but once in a blue moon-hubby does it) is the price of cereals and milk!!! I was astounded......

Sounds like a good idea Quilter especially with the cost of those holiday meals these days!

Here it is finished!

looks great especially the outside!! (I love the browned bits)

we get ours at Costco --- still expensive ---- but not that much. I don't think it is 8 pounds...I usually shoot for a 5-6 pound and it is ~ 40. The salt method sounds interesting.

My sticker shock a few months ago was a 5 dollar head of cabbage --it wasn't that big either. I said 'no way' (fresh market) and went to walmart ---where it was $4!!! wow.

$5 cabbage??? wow!

I will get a 5 lb. next time, 8 was just too pricey and too much meat for the 4 of us LOL! We got the boneless angus cut and it was $10.99 a pound.

Here it is when it came out of the oven before we hammered the rock salt coating off it.



This message was edited Jan 23, 2012 10:23 AM

I make a paste of flour, rock salt and water and make a 1/2 inch coating encasing the entire roast. It has to be broken with a hammer when done and peeled back. But it is fab!
Here it is going in the oven.

If you buy anything that says "Certified Angus Beef" you will pay through the nose. You apparantly did. And the real kicker is that is doesn't have to be "Angus" beef, it can be any beef that has a black hide. And that could be a crossbred.

Learn something new every day! Yes it was extra for the"angus"!

Could you possibly give the proportions of that "granite covering"??? LOL

Could it be used on just a plain old beef roast so I could see what it does to the meat or does it have to be Prime Rib?? (with a cost like that, I guess it should be capitalized???..........)

I just amazes me how we humans come up with things. We had fish growing up as kids...salted and preserved.
Stiff. And here is fresh meat, packed and cooked in the stuff and not at all intending to be dried out but moist! Who woulda thunk it!

Oh, gads............you had lutefisk??? Soaked in lye, to boot. LOLOL Makes me glad I'm Swiss and not Norweigan. :>)

I used 8 cups of rock salt and 8 cups of flour and water to make a paste. Just use equal parts of rock salt and flour until you have enough to cover all over including the bottom.

Does it take longer to bake? Oven temp the same as if not covered in the salty goo??

Not lute --- I think it was cod. Italian 'bacala' (that is how it was pronounced anyway)

I did the prime rib at 450 to 500 degrees for about 2 hours. I stuck a meat thermometer in it before putting in oven. The higher temp works because of the rock salt cover.

Here is my recipe:
PRIME RIB IN ROCK SALT


6-8 lb Boneless prime rib roast
Paste Coating
6 cup rock salt
6 cups flour
1 cup water or enough to make paste
Rub
Pepper
1 TLBS Worstershire sauce
Garlic
Serving sauce
1 cup cream
2 TLBS prepared horseradish



Meat Preparation
1 Rub meat worstershire, pepper and garlic. Let set at room temp for 30 mins.
2 Make paste with flour, rock salt and water and put 1/2" layer in bottom of aluminum pan. Then pack rest of paste around meat.
Baking Temps
1 Bake at 450 for 20 mins. per pound or to an internal temp of 130 degrees. Let meat rest in paste for 30 mins to increase internal temp to 140 for medium.
To Serve
1 Whip the cream and add horseradish for serving or substitute with Au Jus.

Would you change anything for the bone in cut?

I think it would be ok with that high temp also - is that correct?

I went to Walmart for a pair of reading glasses (the generic kind - not prescription) a big display of all kinds of strengths. $27.00. What happened???? Used to be dirt cheap!
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And not so much the price - although it is high at $4.99 (but that was a CVS drugstore --maybe Walmart would be less expensive) but those jumbo sized Hershey kisses---sold one to a box and wrapped in silver foil.......we buy these for the kids for Valentines Day - a family tradition. I went to pick up a few boxes last week and the "Kiss" has shrunk by 2/3. It is a mini 'jumbo' kiss but not at a mini jumbo price!

I don't know about the bone in cut. Likely would cook faster??? Perhaps ask on the recipe forum for a definitive correct answer as I am just guessing.

Reading glasses for $27??? What happened to the cheap ones?

I was wondering about the bone conducting the heat internally too.


i am sure I can find cheaper ones -- like Costco-- perhaps not much less $. But 3 to a pack.

I was just sure that Walmart would be reasonable. The rate I lose ( and sit on) reading glasses....I will go broke

Well, I, for one, do not like my meat bleeding and cold. Medium well is what I prefer.

Get reading glasses at the 99 cent store. I buy half a dzen pairs at a time as I am forever misplacing them. katie

I never even thought of that and the 99 cent stores are springing up everywhere --displacing walmart as king of the road I think.

I don't like my meat rare at all - no blood- no pink even. But for an expensive piece of meat like that --- I do want it to be moist. Once it comes out of the oven it continues to cook (as well as reabsorb the juices) and so it is important that the bone not assist in the cooking process.

Here is a hmmmmm: Announcer on the radio "So consider giving $100/year to the cause...... and if you can't afford that ...well you can give as little as $10-15 dollars a month!"

(edited to say I thought I was posting the above on the "Things that make you go hmmmmmm" thread!)



This message was edited Feb 8, 2012 8:47 PM

Even the boneless continued to cook out of the oven that is why we removed it at 130 degrees and then it went to 160 for medium.
LOL at that radio announcement!