Maybe not a paper thin layer but a thinnish layer should be left. A lot of meat's flavour is in the fat so you'd lose that, plus it would be very dry, herb crust or no.

you can crisscross cut the fat and cook it fat side up in the oven.... take it out and let it 'rest' ....and then put it in the broiler briefly to crisp the fat, which is easier to remove cooked IMHO

I concur with both of the above. There are a lot of ways to deal with the fat, but I would leave up to a quarter inch of it, especially if it's not heavily marbled prime.

Fat is flavour ...it's why a a filet doesn't taste of much, but a rib of beef is wonderful. Make something to go with your beef with the herbs and leave the fat on to add flavour. What herbs do you like with the beef?

Untrimmed strips have a layer of very hard fat or gristle on the side opposite the bone that I would trim off but leave the softer layer under that for flavor.. You might also trim the fat off the pointed end of the roast.

Thanks all. I get that fat is flavor, but I’m thinking that’s the fat marbled within the meat, hence the grading. I also get the preventing drying out, but on a relatively quick roast I wonder if that’s needed. Or if a nice sear of the meat would be preferable.

The recipes I’ve looked at online unanimously agree with you all, saying to leave about a quarter inch. I just can’t help but wonder if that’s just because “they” have been telling us so for generations** or if there’s science behind it.

** or to be cynical, a ploy by butchers to justify selling you scrap, a la bone-in steak

Like I said the roasts (choice) are pretty cheap, so I think this calls for some experimentation. Will report back tonight.

And with that post, you’ve almost convinced me not to bother experimenting.

High five on the Prime Rib. Not a huge fan, either as a roast or a steak. Kind of the main reason why I’m excited to hopefully make this cut work out.

You need to leave the fat cap on for all those like me who will eat it.

:) yeah I suppose there’s that, too!

I wouldn't experiment and risk ruining a nice NYStrip!

LOL!! And I far prefer prime rib or rib eye steaks over a NY strip!! You get yours and I get mine :-) I too prefer to roast with the fat intact. In fact, I just ordered my rib roast for Christmas and specifically asked them NOT to trim it. IMO, grocery butcher shops tend to remove too much fat from their roasts and it does affect flavor and texture, not in a good way. I only do the prime rib once a year, like the extra drippings to make Yorkshire pudding and have no issues trimming excessive fat from my serving, should there be any. My dog will receive some with his Christmas dinner :-) But trimming only after cooking, not before!

I didn’t experiment, just cooked it all as one. Unfortunately I overcooked it though. I wanted 135 so I pulled it out of the oven at 130, but it carried on up to 140. It was pretty tough to chew. Now I’m left wondering if a combination of cooking less and upping from choice to prime will make for a good roast, or if I should $pring for prime rib.

Truth be told I’m suddenly not in the mood for any of this and have procrastinated thinking about the meal at all.

Does it have to be roast beef? Braise a point of brisket low and slow, with an hour at full temp at the beginning to start the fat melting. (That's what I'm planning.)

Is brisket idiot-proof? Because you know me...

Heading to the store now to see what’s left.

fwiw, I can get whole NY strips when I'm lucky, but I have never seen a strip roast so I'm not exactly sure what you had. We cut whole strips into nice thick steaks and grill them. :)

How about trimming off most of the fat, then studding the roast with pieces of the trimmed fat?

You could also try a variation on a method I use with pork belly. Wrap the roast in aluminum foil, with the trimmed fat. The fat will render and braise the roast. Open the top of the foil to let the fat cap brown, then completely unwrap the foil to finish browning.

Have to monitor temp (probe) as your roast will be much more vulnerable to overcooking than A pork belly.

Brisket is wonderful but takes a really long time. I never figured in the time correctly. Maybe 17 hours.

Brisket isn't perhaps foolproof, but it's pretty forgiving. There are lots of recipes, some of which are very fiddly and others which are dead easy. You need some sugar and some acid to break down the connective tissues, but if you're doing a long cook, you don't want to go full on pineapple. Most people do some kind of tomato sweet and sour kind of thing. There are recipes that call for a whole box of brown sugar. That's beyond excessive. I usually do the Coke as braising liquid method because people love it and it's dead easy. You can do it pot roast style, smoker style, or anything in between.

I thought you did sous vide? If yes, you can do your NY roast that way and just brown it in the oven a bit before serving. Or any other kind of roast. But get it started today. It takes a long time to get the center up to temperature.

A whole brisket takes as long as Bumblebeez said, but it's about an hour per pound and most people just do a flap. The whole brisket is three different muscles coming together in a wedge shape, with a big fat glob in the middle of the thick end. The flat gives you mostly a single muscle that's fairly consistent in thickness and easier to deal with if you're not feeding a mob. It can be easier to do two flats than one whole.

Good luck with the shopping!

PM - that whole strip that you cut into steaks - that’s what I’m calling a roast.

John - Not a bad idea. I’ll be trying that with something.

I caved; bumped my budget 100-fold and bought prime rib. Not happy about it but whatever.

ETA - plllog, I thought about SV but wife doesn’t like it for beef. I don’t either but her aversion is greater.

Yay! Good choice!

So the trick with SV beef is to use it only to get the center up to your desired temperature. I learned this from a recipe of Kenji's that I adapted. Once the center is cooked to your basic demand of cookedness, you can put it in the oven and finish the outside (for a roast) the way you like best. Or sear off steaks, or whatever, but it's really good for roasts.

ETA--this doesn't mean the nearly raw version of doneness that some enthusiasts love, but one's own definition of done. For a roast that means that the inside can be more done than usual, because the outer part doesn't turn to leather or ash in the process. Rather than butterflying or pounding to get an even cook, one can just SV at any thickness, though a big rosat takes three days.

OTOH, your guests will probably be happy with the prime rib, and it's easy to cook, and with everything else going on at this time of your the last thing you need to be focusing your efforts on is a hunk of beef! And if your guests love prime rib, it's worth the money to give them pleasure. If not, it's at least worth the money for making your life easier.