Smoking a Prime Rib

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mjdaniel

Newbie
Original poster
Aug 13, 2010
6
10
Last week I smoked a 4 bone approx. 8 pound prime rib in my electric smoker using cherry wood. The point of this thread is not the prep but the cooking time. Needless to say, it turned out delicious and was a practice session for a Christmas Dinner. I used a wireless thermometer so I would not have to open the lid. The meat smoked for 5 hours, then reached an internal temp of 135 when I removed it, and tented it in foil for another 30 minutes. There are 2 racks in my smoker, and for this session, I used the bottom rack. Now for the question: For my Christmas dinner I am going to double the amount of meat, putting each 4 bone prime rib on each rack. Can I expect the approximate amount of time to reach 135 to be the same or will the time it takes to reach 135 increase because of the two prime ribs?
 
The cook time is never the same with different pieces of meat. That being said, the fact that there are 4 pieces in there won't really slow the cook time down though (i.e. cooking a 10lb piece takes longer than 2 5lb pieces). If I were you, I wouldn't want to guess on temps with such an expensive cut and on such a great occasion. I'd either start to check all of them at the 125/130 mark, or go get 3 more themos!

Edit: BTW 
th_What_NO_QVIEW.gif
 

Edit #2: I miss read and thought you meant 4 pieces instead of 2. My notes still apply though.
 
Last edited:
It will take about the same amount of time if each roast weighs approx 8 pounds. You will want to probe both roasts as one may finish ahead of the other.
 
Once your smoker is up to temp the cook time will be the same. However that extra 8lbs is a lot of thermal mass for the element to overcome, so it might add some time at the front end while the smoker recovers after you add the meat.
 
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Oh yeah put a pan of this in the smoker if there's room:

Chef Jimmy's Au Jus

1- Lg Onion,

4-5 Carrots,

3-4 Ribs Celery

3-4 Peeled Cloves of Garlic

Toss them in a pan under the Beef, and let the whole deal Smoke for one hour, 

THEN  add 4-6 Cups Beef Broth,

2 Tbs Tomato Paste,

1/2 tsp Dry Thyme (4-5 sprigs Fresh)

1-2 ea Bay leaf

Finish the Smoking process to the IT you want.

While the Roast is resting, dump the pan juices veggies and all into a 2-3Qt Sauce pot and add 1Cup Red Wine, something you like to drink, and bring the Jus to a boil, lower the heat and simmer 20-30 minutes. Strain out the veggies and let the Jus rest a minute or so for the Fat to rise. Skim off the bulk of the fat then using strips of paper towel laid on top of the Jus then quickly removed, take off the last little bit of fat.

The purpose of Smoking the Vegetable for 1 hour before adding the Broth and Herbs is...The Smoked vegetables Roast in the Dry heat concentrating their Flavors and Sweetness giving the finished Jus a Richer, Deeper, Full Flavor. 

Serve the sliced Beef Au Jus or thicken the Jus to make Gravy
 
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Since my last update I have purchased an ET-733 with two probes and tested it with a 7 lb. bone in turkey breast and a pot roast. The setup was a little confusing at first, but I got the hang of it. Once setup, it worked great and told me that in the past I have been overcooking my meats. Here is my questions for my Christmas Prime Rib hitting the smoker this coming Saturday:

After sitting in the fridge overnight with a dry rub applied, I plan on putting kosher salt and cracked black pepper all over the roast while it is coming down in temperature on its way to the smoker.

1) Will the application of salt draw moisture out and result in dryer meat than if the salt was not used. I used salt on my first attempt and it was juicy and delicious, just looking for expert opinion.

2) To help the salt and pepper stick, should I rub the roast with some kind of oil, like Canola? I want to keep flavors simple, so I don't want to get too exotic with bastings, etc. Thanks for any suggestions. Mike
 
 
Since my last update I have purchased an ET-733 with two probes and tested it with a 7 lb. bone in turkey breast and a pot roast. The setup was a little confusing at first, but I got the hang of it. Once setup, it worked great and told me that in the past I have been overcooking my meats. Here is my questions for my Christmas Prime Rib hitting the smoker this coming Saturday:

2) To help the salt and pepper stick, should I rub the roast with some kind of oil, like Canola? I want to keep flavors simple, so I don't want to get too exotic with bastings, etc. Thanks for any suggestions. Mike
Don't worry about the salt drying your meat.  The moisture it draws will aid in the smoke adhering to the roast.  The following should help assure you.

"Ugly Duckling" Dry Aged - Salt Crusted - Prime Rib Roast - Q/View

Enjoy your roast,

Tom
 
 
Since my last update I have purchased an ET-733 with two probes and tested it with a 7 lb. bone in turkey breast and a pot roast. The setup was a little confusing at first, but I got the hang of it. Once setup, it worked great and told me that in the past I have been overcooking my meats. Here is my questions for my Christmas Prime Rib hitting the smoker this coming Saturday:

After sitting in the fridge overnight with a dry rub applied, I plan on putting kosher salt and cracked black pepper all over the roast while it is coming down in temperature on its way to the smoker.

1) Will the application of salt draw moisture out and result in dryer meat than if the salt was not used. I used salt on my first attempt and it was juicy and delicious, just looking for expert opinion.

2) To help the salt and pepper stick, should I rub the roast with some kind of oil, like Canola? I want to keep flavors simple, so I don't want to get too exotic with bastings, etc. Thanks for any suggestions. Mike
Here's some easy to follow Step by Steps. The first one is my favorite, but they were all Awesome!!  Nothing quite like a Slow Smoked Prime Rib:
Bear
 
Just a heads up, but don't trust the preset temps for "taste" or whatever on the Maverick's as they are too high.  IIRC, their mid-rare preset shows as 140 or 145?  Should be 130ish at most.
 
Had my prime rib dinner Saturday, and it was a big success. Here is what happened. Based on what I read, I assumed approx. 40 minutes a pound to smoke. I originally thought I was going to process 2 4-5 pounds roasts, but it turned out that it was an 11 pound choice roast from Costco. So 11X40=440/60=7.3 hours so my plan was to start it at 9AM, monitor it till it reached an internal temp of 135, then tent it for 30 minutes and serve. Guests were coming at 2, wife want to eat at 5. By noon the internal temp was 111, so I got nervous, took the roast out of the smoker and covered it. I then put it into a 225 oven at 4PM and used an instant read thermometer every 30 minutes. It was going slow, so I raised the oven temp to 250 and at 6:30 the internal temp was 137. I removed it, tented it, got the side dishes going, and sliced and served at 7. Although it was a little nerve racking earlier in the afternoon, the result was fantastic. Everyone, including myself enjoyed a fine cut of meat, perfectly cooked. So this 11 pound roast took slightly longer than the previous roast which was several pounds lighter. Is there a benefit to splitting the cooking time between the smoker and the oven? I did have a nice crust on the outside.
 
 
Had my prime rib dinner Saturday, and it was a big success. Here is what happened. Based on what I read, I assumed approx. 40 minutes a pound to smoke. I originally thought I was going to process 2 4-5 pounds roasts, but it turned out that it was an 11 pound choice roast from Costco. So 11X40=440/60=7.3 hours so my plan was to start it at 9AM, monitor it till it reached an internal temp of 135, then tent it for 30 minutes and serve. Guests were coming at 2, wife want to eat at 5. By noon the internal temp was 111, so I got nervous, took the roast out of the smoker and covered it. I then put it into a 225 oven at 4PM and used an instant read thermometer every 30 minutes. It was going slow, so I raised the oven temp to 250 and at 6:30 the internal temp was 137. I removed it, tented it, got the side dishes going, and sliced and served at 7. Although it was a little nerve racking earlier in the afternoon, the result was fantastic. Everyone, including myself enjoyed a fine cut of meat, perfectly cooked. So this 11 pound roast took slightly longer than the previous roast which was several pounds lighter. Is there a benefit to splitting the cooking time between the smoker and the oven? I did have a nice crust on the outside.
Glad it worked out for you----Congrats!!

You can't go by pounds when figuring a Prime Rib's timing.

It depends on how thick it is. A 6 pounder that is 4" thick will take about the same amount of time as a 10 pounder that is 4" thick.

I can't help you with the question of splitting the cooking time between the smoker & the oven, other than to say I put smoke on my Prime Rib the whole time, and would not use the oven at all for my Prime Rib unless there was something wrong with either me or my smoker.

Bear 
 
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Glad it worked out for you----Congrats!!

You can't go by pounds when figuring a Prime Rib's timing.

It depends on how thick it is. A 6 pounder that is 4" thick will take about the same amount of time as a 10 pounder that is 4" thick.

I can't help you with the question of splitting the cooking time between the smoker & the oven, other than to say I put smoke on my Prime Rib the whole time, and would not use the oven at all for my Prime Rib unless there was something wrong with either me or my smoker.

Bear 
 
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