My Easter Prime Rib

[RutgersJetFan]

I'd prolly set the oven to 250.

 

Got it, thanks. My thoughts are that after I've smoked until it gets to 165 and go to foil, go to the oven to make some room. My concern isn't time so much as it is making room in the smoker for chicken and ribs.

[#27TheDominator]

IMO that is definitely lower than it needs to be. The bbq community seems to have realized things don't need to be that low. I am currently doing my ribs at 280 in my pellet smoker which has a convection fan so it is like being in 300, for about 3 hours. Most guys it seems are going to 275 or so for ribs.

 

 

I'd prolly set the oven to 250.

 

I checked and Alton Brown said 250, so that is what I probably cooked the ribs at. 

[Thor99]

IMO that is definitely lower than it needs to be. The bbq community seems to have realized things don't need to be that low. I am currently doing my ribs at 280 in my pellet smoker which has a convection fan so it is like being in 300, for about 3 hours. Most guys it seems are going to 275 or so for ribs.

Every chef I've ever worked with has said that temp doesn't really matter, it's time.

[joebabyny]

Every chef I've ever worked with has said that temp doesn't really matter, it's time.

 

Well, temp and time are directly related. You want to get to a sweet spot where all the connective tissues is broken down and rendered, giving that nice moist tender mouth feel from the muscle fibers covered in gelatin. That is the magic of bbq and turning tough cuts into tender eats. You don't want to overshoot that temp much as it goes from tough to perfect to mushy to dry. For briskets and butts, that is gonna be somewhere in the 195-205 internal temp range. Now, most seasoned pitmasters will use IT to see when they are getting close, but they will rely more on feel to know when the meat is truly done. A brisket should allow the temp probe to easily slide right in with no resistance at all. A pork butt the same, or if you wiggle the blade bone it will come loose.

 

Now I can cook those big meats at 325 and be done in 4-6 hours or I could cook them at 250 and make it 10-12 hours. Both can yield great results. I think the decision is what temp is your cooker best at. Some want to run at 250, some want to run at 280, some 300. You can beat yourself over the head trying to fight where the cooker wants to settle or you can just work with it. Also, I use mostly my pellet cooker, and I find that it burns the pellets to efficiently at 300+ and doesn't produce enough smoke. Some smokers will smolder too much at lower temps and the smoke will be thick billowy white instead of thin blue smoke, which is bad news bears.

[BP]

Yeah, if you can keep the heat low on the grill I don't see any problem with cooking them direct.  I just meant that if you were going to use foil you would use it first and then go to the grill, not vice versa.  In fact, this kind of jibes with what Tailgate Joe did with his roast in the OP - slow cook and then sear, rather than vice versa.

I see. The ribs are always on low to medium heat. But I sear the filet Mignon on really high heat and it comes out perfect. I'd like to try Joe's idea, but I dont have a grill with eleventy billion square ft of space.

 

I foiled for both the brisket and ribs on the smoker after a few hours. Worked very well to seal up the moisture.

Smoker is different. your stuff looked fantastic, so whatever you're doing keep doing it.

[Kleckineau]

Kudos to Joebaby's rib roast. It looks amazing. However, I cant endure the thought of a rib roast without the ribs tied onto it. I have made a rib roast for New Years eve for as long as I can remember and make sure I get one with the ribs still on it. I use the 500 degrees for first ten minutes method and then cook with a thermometer into the center of the roast and take it out at 160 deg. (usually about 18-20 minutes per lb) It is perfect and juicy every time. Also a kosher salt and black pepper rub before roasting seals in a lot of juice.

[RutgersJetFan]

BBQ'ing and smoking for a party tomorrow. 5 racks of ribs, an 8 pound brisket, and 2 beer can chickens. Looking forward to the challenge, but waking up at 3 to put the brisket on and then finding enough room on the smoker throughout the day is probably not going to be fun. God help me.

 

[joebabyny]

Kudos to Joebaby's rib roast. It looks amazing. However, I cant endure the thought of a rib roast without the ribs tied onto it. I have made a rib roast for New Years eve for as long as I can remember and make sure I get one with the ribs still on it. I use the 500 degrees for first ten minutes method and then cook with a thermometer into the center of the roast and take it out at 160 deg. (usually about 18-20 minutes per lb) It is perfect and juicy every time. Also a kosher salt and black pepper rub before roasting seals in a lot of juice.

 

It cooked with the ribs on. If you look at one pic you can see the ribs that I had just cut off in the background.

 

160 degrees IT, yikes, that is well done territory.

 

I know people get attatched to their way of doing things, but I am telling everyone, try the technique I used, it will change you.

 

Easy steps.

 

• Salt/Pepper rub
• Into 200 degree oven with a thermometer on a rack in pan
• Remove from oven when roast hits 120-135 internal temp depending on how rare you like it.
• Tightly tent in fool for 1-4 hours depending on when you want to serve
• Crank oven to highest setting and heat it up, 5-550 degrees.
• remove foil from roast and put into blazing oven for 8-10 minutes.
• Remove and let it rest for 15 minutes.

 

Everyone likes their beef how they like it. But if your goal is classic prime rib, which may or may not be your favorite prime rib, the goal is a nice exterior char and as little gray meat as possible. You want as much medium rare pink as possible from edge to edge. You do NOT want color gradient from gray to pink. Also, 125 degrees internal temp is medium rare, the ideal prime rib temp. Keep in mind when cooking big hunks of meat that there is carryover cooking of about 5 degrees that continues when you pull the roast out of the oven, and build that into when you pull your meat out of the heat.

[joebabyny]

BBQ'ing and smoking for a party tomorrow. 5 racks of ribs, an 8 pound brisket, and 2 beer can chickens. Looking forward to the challenge, but waking up at 3 to put the brisket on and then finding enough room on the smoker throughout the day is probably not going to be fun. God help me.

 

 

Good luck! Let us know how it goes.

[RutgersJetFan]

Good luck! Let us know how it goes.

Thanks Joe. It should be an interesting endeavor.

Keep in mind when cooking big hunks of meat that there is carryover cooking of about 5 degrees that continues when you pull the roast out of the oven, and build that into when you pull your meat out of the heat.

Does this hold for large briskets too? If so it seems to me the smart play might be to pull at 185, leave it in the foil, then wrap it in towels and put it in an insulated cooler.

Or not. Then again briskets are so wacky with reaching temps. Lol

[joebabyny]

Thanks Joe. It should be an interesting endeavor.

Does this hold for large briskets too? If so it seems to me the smart play might be to pull at 185, leave it in the foil, then wrap it in towels and put it in an insulated cooler.

Or not. Then again briskets are so wacky with reaching temps. Lol

 

Carryover heat applies really to all meat, from steaks up to big roasts. With the bigger hunks like brisket and pork butts, the thermal mass means the meat can really keep cooking if it is kept wrapped.

 

But, with regard to your question on brisket, you do NOT want to pull it before it is ready. Also, brisket, along with ribs, are the meats that I don't really hold hard and fast to internal temp when determining to pull it from the smoker. I do have my remote probe thermometer in the brisket while it cooks, which i leave in the flat portion of the whole packer brisket. When the flat gets to 193-195 I start testing for doneness about every 20-30 minutes. What you are looking for is to probe the brisket by poking into it and feeling no resistance, it just glides right through. I use my thermapen to probe for tenderness. IF you are planning on wrapping the brisket or going into a cooler with it once it is done, you first want to vent the brisket for 15 minutes or so to kill that carryover from really further cooking that brisket into mush.

 

Briskets really are the toughest thing to master. Actually, I think I prefer chuck roast cooked like a pork butt to be shredded. I served that with some onions, peppers, and beer as a sandwich at a tailgate last year and people lost their sh#t.

[RutgersJetFan]

First, let me preface that I fully expected to **** up at least one of the 3 meats yesterday, because I've never cooked on that large of a scale before. It was literally enough meat for 30 people, and we fed about 15 throughout the day.

 

But wow, what an undertaking. Of course I overslept through my alarm and didn't get the brisket on until 4:45. After about 7 hours I was really struggling to get it up to temp, and I started worrying because I did not have enough room in the smoker to get done what I needed to if the brisket wasn't up to 165 by noon. So I made a judgement call and foiled early at about 140 and switched it to the oven at 250. At the same time I put half my ribs which I had been marinading in apple cider vin (thanks BP) for a few hours, and let those cook for about 2 hours. I put the other half of the ribs on the smoker and used a 3-2-1 method with a dry rub, and during the foil process I sealed them with honey and apple juice. The ribs from the oven went from the oven to the grill for about 20 minutes, and I flipped them regularly brushing with some Sweet Baby Ray's. The grilled wet ribs came out really great, and I'd give the smoked ribs a B+/A-. I'm still working on getting the timing right with smoking ribs, it's tough.

 

The beer can chickens were simple enough. I put a light coat of rub under the skin and then on the beer. In my opinion, the chickens were the highlight of the cook. I had a very tough time getting those to temp, so I had to bring those in after about 4 hours of smoking because they simply were not getting above 135 degrees. But they came out fantastic in the end.

 

The brisket came out very well, perhaps a little dryer in the flat than I would have liked, but this was a tough cut with an insanely big point, so I had a feeling that would happen. The meat from the point was perfect, and a little sauce on the meat from the flat fixed things right up.

 

Joe's cole slaw recipe was also a big hit. Some of that with the shredded chicken on a sesame bun was my favorite thing I ate all day.

 

All in all a very successful cook. I'm happy I did a couple practice cooks prior to this one, because I hit a bunch of speed bumps along the way and was able to handle them well. Smoking is an interesting and stimulating process, some cooks can present so much problem solving and I find it engaging to figure it all out. Regrettably, I didn't get a ton of pictures because I was so busy with everything, but here's a few I managed to snap along the way. The last photo does not do the brisket justice.

 

[joebabyny]

First, let me preface that I fully expected to **** up at least one of the 3 meats yesterday, because I've never cooked on that large of a scale before. It was literally enough meat for 30 people, and we fed about 15 throughout the day.

 

But wow, what an undertaking. Of course I overslept through my alarm and didn't get the brisket on until 4:45. After about 7 hours I was really struggling to get it up to temp, and I started worrying because I did not have enough room in the smoker to get done what I needed to if the brisket wasn't up to 165 by noon. So I made a judgement call and foiled early at about 140 and switched it to the oven at 250. At the same time I put half my ribs which I had been marinading in apple cider vin (thanks BP) for a few hours, and let those cook for about 2 hours. I put the other half of the ribs on the smoker and used a 3-2-1 method with a dry rub, and during the foil process I sealed them with honey and apple juice. The ribs from the oven went from the oven to the grill for about 20 minutes, and I flipped them regularly brushing with some Sweet Baby Ray's. The grilled wet ribs came out really great, and I'd give the smoked ribs a B+/A-. I'm still working on getting the timing right with smoking ribs, it's tough.

 

The beer can chickens were simple enough. I put a light coat of rub under the skin and then on the beer. In my opinion, the chickens were the highlight of the cook. I had a very tough time getting those to temp, so I had to bring those in after about 4 hours of smoking because they simply were not getting above 135 degrees. But they came out fantastic in the end.

 

The brisket came out very well, perhaps a little dryer in the flat than I would have liked, but this was a tough cut with an insanely big point, so I had a feeling that would happen. The meat from the point was perfect, and a little sauce on the meat from the flat fixed things right up.

 

Joe's cole slaw recipe was also a big hit. Some of that with the shredded chicken on a sesame bun was my favorite thing I ate all day.

 

All in all a very successful cook. I'm happy I did a couple practice cooks prior to this one, because I hit a bunch of speed bumps along the way and was able to handle them well. Smoking is an interesting and stimulating process, some cooks can present so much problem solving and I find it engaging to figure it all out. Regrettably, I didn't get a ton of pictures because I was so busy with everything, but here's a few I managed to snap along the way. The last photo does not do the brisket justice.

 

 

Sounds like a pretty good first big cook. And yeah, juggling multiple meats can be tricky, I think you handled it pretty well.

 

Now you just gotta move to a better place that will let you have a real smoker with a bit of capacity!

[RutgersJetFan]

Sounds like a pretty good first big cook. And yeah, juggling multiple meats can be tricky, I think you handled it pretty well.

 

Now you just gotta move to a better place that will let you have a real smoker with a bit of capacity!

 

Haha, in due time. I'll be honest, I think electric is the way to go if you're entirely new to the process. It lets me focus a lot more on prep, types of wood, time, meat temp...etc. Every single cut of different meat is so unique, so it's a lot to learn. I can even make a few mistakes here and there taking the lid off because it gets back up to temp in 30 seconds. There's certainly a trade-off, but it's also a lot more forgiving.

 

That said I have been humbled big time and have a lot more respect for guys like yourself who do competitions. The amount of time and effort that goes into this is some serious work. Fun and totally worth it, but very time consuming.

[joebabyny]

Haha, in due time. I'll be honest, I think electric is the way to go if you're entirely new to the process. It lets me focus a lot more on prep, types of wood, time, meat temp...etc. Every single cut of different meat is so unique, so it's a lot to learn. I can even make a few mistakes here and there taking the lid off because it gets back up to temp in 30 seconds. There's certainly a trade-off, but it's also a lot more forgiving.

That said I have been humbled big time and have a lot more respect for guys like yourself who do competitions. The amount of time and effort that goes into this is some serious work. Fun and totally worth it, but very time consuming.

Yeah, comp cooking gets pretty intense. You have to juggle everything so it is ready for turn-ins precisely on time, a half hour apart for each of the 4 categories. I am in the process of researching a second pit so I have a little more freedom to cook at different temps. For a typical comp cook I am juggling 4 racks of ribs, 2 boston butts, 2 full briskets, and 16 chicken thighs. It is a lot of work, but the beers help!