I personally prefer my rib eyes with a short bone and cut no more than an inch thick. because I like the meat to cook Medium Rare. I like a nice char on the outsde and the meat on the inside to be warm and juicy. You cant achieve that on the grill with a steak thats an inch and a half thick.
In the big steak houses where the Tomahawk cut showed up they use a flame broiler that cooks em to 500 degrees on both sides... then the steak is put in the oven to finish off Its a very difficult thing to cook if you dont do it often.
I prefer that rib be left for Beef ribs there is alot to be said for beef ribs if they are cooked right.
Only one problem every rack of them I get in the grocery store has been very close to being rancid... it takes alot of garlic and pepper to mask that then you cant taste the beef.
IF I were to buy a side of beef I would want it cut to my specifications... These days what you get in the grocery store has has ALL of its fat cut off along with the flavor..... What I was used to as a kid was at least a half inch of fat around the edges of tbones and Porterhouses... I dont even think Ribeyes were being cut then.
Oh and we used to get something called a cattleman's steak... they were usually about two pounds and about the size of a Seven bone roast or bigger. It was well marbled and we threw them on the Barbeque just with salt pepper and garlic till the meat and fat carmelized a bit... Then went Chris N Pitts barbeque sauce... mixed with a little wine or beer... what ever was on hand...um er IN hand... LOL. Chris N Pitts is very lightly sweet and has a vinegar base in it. Baste and flip and Baste once the flip side has carmelized the sauce... and flip... a couple times each.
Then the steak was cut into two inch wide strips and served up on a platter for the whole family. There were five of us and between Corn on the cob and homemade potatoe salad it was all gone in about half an hour...
cant find Cattlemans steaks any more... I suspect the cut was absorbed by other cuts to make more money.
So If I ever buy a Beef or a side of beef I am going to want pretty primal cuts and do most of the recutting myself. Anything that requires a band saw will require a butcher... Like leg bones and spine .... But the rest I know I can do with just a little help. I am also wanting all of the fat as well as most of the organ meats.... Liver Heart Thymus Caulfat stommach tongue So that will mean the beef will have to be raised here because all that stuff is the first to come out and needs to be dealt with immediately so it doesnt go bad.
deb