The Elusive Rolled Steak Costco Shoppers Will Pay The Extra Price For

To the apathetic carnivore — and even more so to lifelong vegans and vegetarians — steak is a reddish-brown slab of meat that comes from a cow. But if you attend a steak dinner at the house of a butcher or a meat-eating gastronome, they'll rarely introduce it in such simple terms. Instead, they'll refer to steak by its cut. 

Perhaps it's a small, round filet mignon from the tenderloin, a flavorful hangar steak from the plate section, a top sirloin from the mid-back, or a prime rib from, well, the rib. Just like the parts of a chicken, whose thighs may be better suited to slow-cooking than the breasts (per America's Test Kitchen), each cut of steak lends itself to certain applications better than others. 

Steak aficionados looking to impress guests with an extra-special treat might seek out a cap of ribeye, a rare cut found in the center of the rib section. And according to a Reddit post, a quality cap of boneless rolled ribeye could be hiding in plain sight at your local Costco. If you find it, you might get sticker shock when you look at the price tag, but shoppers say it's worth the extra cash. 

When Reddit user @lookie4dacookie scooped up a package of boneless ribeye cap steaks from Costco, they weren't aware that the cut is usually "hard to find." Its elusive nature may account for the fact that the shopper paid $41.84 for less than a pound and a half. "Bit pricey but best steak I've had in a long time," they wrote. Several others jumped to the comments to celebrate the cut, calling it "the best part of the ribeye" and "much better trimmed than a boneless ribeye."

Another user shared their favorite way to prepare the coveted Costco item. "I unroll them, char them to medium well, slice, and use them to make the tastiest and most expensive tacos ever," they wrote. "Some may think me a psychopath." We don't think they're a psychopath, but they're right in suggesting the cut strays from taco tradition. According to Mexican-American food blog Isabel Eats, most carne asada tacos feature a more humble cut, such as skirt or flank steak. 

If it were us, we'd sear the ribeye cap in butter over high heat and let it be the star of the plate. 

Family-owned Idaho beef supplier Snake River Farms lauds the ribeye cap steak as "the single most delectable and flavorful steak available," adding that it's "highly prized by top chefs, beef aficionados, and butchers alike." Likewise, the Costco Food Database Beef Guide calls the ribeye cap "the most tender piece of the rib roast" and goes so far as to say it "may change the way you think about steak." 

In 2019, Mark Puente lamented in the Los Angeles Times that his local Costco on Los Feliz Boulevard stopped selling the prized marbled cut. "It was my go-to cut for when I wanted to wow guests at my Sunday cookouts," he wrote. 

Indeed, the Costco Beef Guide mentions that the cut isn't available at every outpost of Costco. However, it notes that butchers will usually oblige if you ask them to sell you a ribeye cap. So it's worth scouring your local beef purveyors if you can't find the steaks at the members-only retailer.