My Prime Rib plan for the weekend

[heinz]

Been browsing the forums for 'the perfect' recipe/procedure, even though I know it doesn't exist :-)

Here's my plan:
1) Rub with Lipton Onion Soup Wed and stick in fridge. ( I never did find the complete msg re the soup mix but since I've used it before on other stuff I'm assuming to use it as a rub).
2) take out several hours before smoker time on Friday
3) Preheat Smoker to 300
4) Load 3 hours worth of Oak in
5) Smoke/Cook to 130/135 internal
6) FTC 3-ish hours. Actual time will depend on how badly I screwed up to calculate time to 130/135 internal. Don't know how big the standing rib will be yet.

I like it pink throughout and I'm still debating whether I should go to a lower internal. Hard to undo a medium, perhaps easier to chase the cow accross a grill or through the oven if it's still kicking too much.

Should I go higher on the temp? Probably can't anyways, but should I try to? (Digital). Perhaps a higher pre-heat?

I plan to put a small drip pan on the first rack and the meat on second, or should I have the meat on the first, I.e. closest to heat?

You're welcome to shoot holes in my plan as this will be a more expensive 'experiment' when compared to previous smokes. My butts didn't turn out perfect last weekend but they got eaten nevertheless so there isn't really much danger of 'waste' but I like Prime Rib and would love to find an alternative to 20-25 bucks a slice at a Steakhouse.

[BigSmoker]

I'm thinking your internal temp is 2 high if you are gonna ftc for 3 hours or so.  Other than that sounds like a good plan.  I prefer (never tried the soup mix though) salt pepper garlic and some fresh rosemary for my prime rib but can't wait to hear your results :P :P :P.

[asa]

I agree that you might want to consider a lower final temp if you prefer it rare, rather than medium-well. When I've done beef tenderloins by a low and slow method, I found that something like 120-125 was enough, because if you are holding something at close to that temp it seems it will cook a little more than something heated to 350 on the outside and then warmed on the inside from the outside heat. Some cookbooks will say rare is 135 or higher, but my guess is that it depends on how you get there. I have seen the billboards for Ruth's Crisp Steakhouse, that purportedly show a perfect steak by their standards, but it looks to me pretty well done through the outer half and rare to raw in the middle. I prefer something just on the cusp of rare (but not raw) to medium-rare. I found my post from may 16th that describes this as follows: 

Then, after letting it sit for several hours with a salt and pepper rub and bourbon splashed onto the surface, I sear the meat on all sides, turning every 15-20 seconds so that I caramelize the outside to develop flavor, but don't cook the meat. Finally, it goes in a low and slow oven, say no higher than ~200 degrees, with a probe in the thickest part. I'll sometimes turn it down to 170 or so if it seems to be cooking too fast. When it reaches about 110 degrees internally, I'll turn the oven off and let it (the meat internal temp) come up to 120-125. What you get with this technique is a tasty outside and an inside that, from edge to edge, is uniformly cooked the way you want it (rare to medium-rare by the above technique).

While that was for whole tenderloins, I would guess the same might hold true for slow-cooking a standing rib roast. Of course, this will take a lot longer than the 2-3 hours I took with the tenderloins, because the rib roast is more than twice as thick.

One other thought. Somewhere I've read that the last ribs are the tastiest and tenderest. So I usually ask for ribs 9 through 12 when I get one for Christmas dinner. I'm interested in what others might say about the hindmost cuts of ribs vs. the ones farther forward.

Good luck . . .

[heinz]

Thanks for the input folks.

Have an almost 8 pounder, covered with onion soup mix in a plastic bag in the fridge.

Will be turning it now and then until friday AM.
Using the 30 min per pound guesstimate I'm planning a 2-3 hour warmup/stabilization and 4 hour smoke/cook to 120/130. (No firm plan yet)  Have amended my plan re the FTC, based on posts here and elsewhere and will now just plan a 30 min or so rest period in the cooler.

I figure I can serve the ends first if temp too low as I'd sure hate to overcook and I'm planning/hoping on left-overs

Haven't decided on puck flavor yet either. Decisions, decisions, decisions. Oh yeah, gotta remember a trip to the beer store too.

Heinz

[BigSmoker]

I like oak on beef but you could play it safe(unless you know your guests really well) with hickory and apple or pecan and apple.  Good Luck.

[heinz]

Well, I screwed up. The one time when I overcame the urge to peek I should have. Or at least I should have put my probe in sooner.

Just under 4 hours and it's at 150. Oh well. Of course no Yorkshire and Au Jaus yet. It's in the cooler, loosely. Hopefully it'll just stay warm and not cook much more.

I'm going to have a cut after 30 minutes of rest to see just how bad I screwed it up. Cheesh. Sure smells good though.

[heinz]

Thanks to the Bradley, it was still scrumdelioucious.

It peaked at 153 in the cooler. While not as rare as I was shooting for, it was absolutely tender and just great. The outside was good too.

What did I learn? To cook it a bit less in time. I think I'll leave the temps as I had them, I.e. to the max. 3:15/3:30 would have probably been a better time.

Definately a 'do it again'.

I used apple/hickory, alternating and kept the smoke for close to the whole time. It had a nice mellow smoky taste. I used 2 packages of onion soup mix and left it in the fridge for 2 days.

Brisket tomorrow.

Heinz