2-Part Momma's Day Smoke: Rib Steaks & 20# Whole Rib q-view

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forluvofsmoke

Smoking Guru
Original poster
OTBS Member
Aug 27, 2008
5,170
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I couldn't be home with Momma all day today, so after work, I hot smoked a 6-pack of bone-in rib steaks to hold her over until I can do the real deal on Tuesday...another 7-bone whole rib roast.

I figured I had just about enough time for a hot smoked steak tonight, instead of cold smoked/seared. This may very well be my first hot-smoked rib steak...hmm...not sure, anyway, I had to give it a whirl.

I laid on a heavy double-dose of my Jalepeno Rub on 4 of 'em (completely covered, rested and covered again), and a combo of Weber's Beef Burgundy Rub on one side, and Prime Steak Seasoning on the other side for the remaining two steaks.

In the Vault for 2 hours @ 225* with a wet pan and smoke provided by Mesquite and eight charcoal briquettes...I/T's are just getting past 140* for most, and a couple are near 150*. I pulled them @ 2.5 hours with I/T's in the mid 140's to mid 150's:



The Burgundy Beef & Prime Steak seasoned:



My Jalepeno rubbed:



Resting a few minutes before the eating frenzy:



My med-rare tail-slappin' steer rib, with a heavy dose of the med/hot rub:


Tuesday will be when Momma gets her real smoked meal...well, OK, these rib steaks were really good too, just not quite total package.

The Wife said the Burgundy/Prime was a bit too sweet...sure does look good though, almost like it was glazed.

The Jalepeno rubbed had that creeper mode to it...about half-way through our steaks, my 19 year-old boy and I were both starting to unbutton our shirts and wipe the sweat off our brows...WE LOVED IT!!!!!
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The beast will follow on Tuesday...starting the smoke about ~9:00 am MDT.


Thanks all!

Eric
 
Thanks fellas!

Just keeping this updated here with more of my plans.

I put this rub together a couple hours ago in preparation for un-wrapping the beast tonight for trimming/rub/wrap/resting overnight, as I'm fresh out of red bell pepper, or I would have used that rub instead. This new rub is not the same rub as the one I used in December. Everyone here at home wants me to duplicate my birthday smoke with the flour coating, and I really want to incorporate a butter basting to the process as well. That was my original plan in December, but I decided I didn't need it for crust formation. I want to kick things up just a bit more this time around.




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4 Tbls dried/chopped Onion, powdered
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2 Tbls (pre-grind measure) Black Peppercorn, fine ground
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3 Tbls minced dried Garlic
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[font=&quot]½ tsp Thyme[/font]
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3 Tbls (pre-grind measure) dried Rosemary leaves, medium grind
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4 Tbls Kosher Salt
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3 Tbls Spanish Paprika powder
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Note: if you have not used Thyme before, it has a very strong aroma, and a dominating flavor when blended with other spices, so it needs to be used sparingly.

I also want to remove the fat cap and membrane completely for the purpose of developing and maintaining a really nice crust. The fat cap and membrane had so much shrinkage on my first round that it pulled the crust in towards the center of the roast, so I intend to correct that issue. It should be a much nicer presentation when it’s finished, with a good coverage of crust. I just finished re-reading my birthday smoke to be sure I could assess everything I wanted to do differently.



Well, here's my proof of proud ownership from a score my wife and I made a couple months ago...the 22# mate to this is still in the freezer...it was mislabeled as steak by the meat dept so we could get in on a great deal. It's been resting peacefully in my q-freezer just waiting for the moment of truth:



I'm waiting for kitchen space so I can prep the beef, as it's been raining since late last-night and ALL day today...my wifey is cooking chicken/vegetable soup for dinner right now, so I'll get the trim/rub/wrap out of the way after dinner.

I'm thinking about starting the smoke earlier than 9:00 also, just so I can run a lower smoke chamber temp and let it smoke longer.

Hmm...speaking of kicking things up a bit...maybe, just maybe, my beloved SNP would like to get in on some charcoal burnin' action? My Smoke Vault gets in on the majority of my smokes...weather forecast is 50% chance of rain (heh...big surprise) and windy. Neither rain, nor sleet, snow or darkness of night shall hinder or overcome the ambitions of a dedicated...(OK, seriously addicted) smoker. Besides, there's nothing quite like a good challenge to keep things interesting!
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Trim, rub and wrap to follow. Man, only 14 more hours until lift-off...uh...smoke!

Until then,

Eric
 
After taking a look under the fat cap at the membrane and realizing it would take too much meat loose to remove it, I decided to score it, and work the dry rub into the scoring instead, as a method to improve the crust formation.


Ready for trimming with a 8" fillet knife...that's a 15" x 20" cutting board, btw:



Fat Cap trimmed down from the eye towards the bone ends:









Fat Cap removed:



Trimmings pan so far:



I trimmed off most of the thin fat layer over the membrane, scored the membrane and removed most of the fat near the rib-bone ends. There was a heavy flap of meat on the right side which covered some fat...here, it is still laying loose:



Meat flap back up, and ready for rubbing:


Trimmings pan with rib-bone end fat...I didn't weigh it out, but it appeared to be about 2# total with the cap, so an 18# trimmed whole beef rib...I bagged the fat trimmings to refreeze for sausage mixes on a later date:


Rubbed, wrapped and into my Q-Fridge...sorry, no pics of post-rub...you'll see the rested rub before dusting with flour in the morning:



One change of plans so far with the membrane not being removed, but the scoring is a good alternative...should look pretty cool after the smoke, too.

I'm dyin' to fire up a charcoal chimney...10 more hours 'til it hits the grates for a journey through the thin blue smoke. My first 7-bone whole rib was in the Vault gasser with cherry smoke...this one gets a charcoal fire, cherry and maybe some mesquite for smoke. Mmmmmmmmm-aaaaaaaaaa-nnnnnn!!!

Until then, good night all!

Eric
 
I left the rib membranes bare lastnight...this gives a good look at the true colors of the rub for comparison.

I had about 1/4-1/3 cup of dry rub left-over, so I used it to season the flour, and coated the rib membrane first (w/o EVOO, this time), and continued to the cap and ends until the seasoned flour was gone. Then I used straight flour to finish it all up.

Just getting ready for a good dusting and pat-down:


Seasoned flour:


Getting a the final treatment of TLC:


And, into the SNP @ 8:00 am with mostly charcoal briquette fire, using some mesquite lump, cherry smoke wood, and for now, no water pan until I'm sure my chamber temps are stable/rising over my 250* target...then I'll add the pot. I needed extra coal grate use to get it hot enough, so I removed the water for better access. I'm showing the full grate size of the 40" chamber here, just so you can get a good idea of the size of this beast:


Weather is overcast and threatening to rain, but I'm not worried...mother nature will just be keeping me on my toes today
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Time for smoke check already...been in for 35 minutes and counting
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Thanks all!

Eric
 
I am so dis-appointed that you are not going to leave the membrane on, then boil these ribs, pour the water & flavor down the drain & put them in the oven for an hour with BBQ sauce. (Sniff)

OMG!!! Slap me hard!!! LMBO!!! Looking forward to the finish as the adventure continues. Smoke On!!!
 
HA-HA-HAAAAAAAAAH!!!!!!!!! So, you saw that U-Tube video, too...

Thanks, yea, it's gonna be another great day for smoking!


The flour forms a really nice crust from the meat drippings...like chicken fried steak, without the frying pan and cooking oil.

I can take a few quick shots of this in progress so you can see it in action. I have a pretty good detailed run on this from my first smoked whole rib as well...it was my wife's idea last Christmas to use flour, and I'm glad I did...it was so good I had to do it again.

Eric
 
Now that's a mighty fine cut of beef right there. Thank you for sharing the rub recipe, too. I'm looking forward to seeing the end result.
 
The idea of a flour/rub encrusted smoked roast has peaked my interest. I'm also looking forward to the finished product. Again great q-views that can serve as tutorial.
 
Man there Eric it looks sooo good and I cann't wait for it to finish smoking. I'll have to check back in.
 
Thanks, my first one turned out great...I can only imagine how good this one will be.

Oh, my brother, are you in for a treat!

Thanks Mark. Sometimes I wish we could do speed-smoking, but I know that wouldn't be right. I'll tell her to hurry when she can, 'cause the guests are waiting for dinner...LOLOLOL!!!!!!!!!!!!
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I took a quick peek to see how the flour/dry rub crust is coming along, just partly lifting the lid...it's already there!!!
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...I did want to show how it begins and transforms, but you can see that on my first whole 7-bone beef rib...(click the appropriate link on my signature line, under my smoking stories).









It's cruising along beautifully and looks great on the outside. I'll stick a thermo probe in it @ ~4 hours, from the right hand end, away from the fire box, and see how it looks on the inside.

Hmm...just started thinking about the butter baste...I'm gonna start the baste at about 135-138 I/T, depending on the rate of temp rise, as I'm thinking I'll want to pull it for resting @ approx. 146-148*. Carry-over heat will take it to ~152-155*. That should give it a couple hours to glaze over and really darken up the crust from the baste...one application should be plenty, as the crust should soak it in pretty well with little loss from drippings...we'll see how it goes.

I'm also thinking about that crust staying crisp...instead of a foil wrapped rest, maybe go straight to an open cutting board while still monitoring I/T's, and give it time for temps to fall off a decent amount before grabbing a knife. This will prevent the crust from softening due to steam in the foil. I want to get that great crust and hold onto it.

3.75 hours in, and time to get that probe sterilized with alcohol for some measurements
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The ride continues...

Eric
 
Oh man, I just checked out the Christmas one you did and it looks great. This one, looks awesome!

Can't wait to see the final turn out on this.
 
Thanks Steve, I really enjoy smoking, so I'm just sharing what I love to do, and how I make it all come together.


I stuck my freshly over-laid (have 3 layers on it now, and counting) foiled probe cable in under the lid of the SNP, tucked the probe into a sweet spot in the eye about mid-way through the cross-section, straight in from the end, and nburied it in up to the bend in the probe tube...should be the perfect spot.

Temps are climbing nicely, at what appeared to be approx. 3.5-4 minutes/degree F rise...then, it may have slowed down just a bit. That will change in a couple more hours as this thing stalls near the temp I want to pull it out at...just a theory here, but it is a rather large cut, so it's expected. The temp it decides it will want to stall at will remain a mystery until it actually happens...I expect it at 145-148* for this very large cut, especially being bone-in, and having so much inter-muscular fat deposits. It may fool me and come at a lower or higher temp...we'll see. I have been wrong before, but I'll admit it
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Coloring on the crust isn't changing much anymore...slightly darker since the first look, but not very much...basting will start in a few more hours. Bones are starting to show themselves now, as the meat is shrinking up some...lots more of that will appear in next 5-6 hours. Scoring of the membrane is starting to re-appear on the crust as well...hopefully, my efforts to keep the crust from being pulled in towards the center of the roast by scoring will work. One drawback to this method is that I didn't want to score the bare meat on the very top of the eye, so some pulling of the crust will occur, but not as much as it normally would have. Another possible drawback is a bit of extra meat drippins during the smoke, meaning a possibly drier roast...last one I smoked without trimming/scoring was bursting with natural juices, so no worries on that issue.






I would have liked to have a drip pan under this beast for a base to make Aujus, but my tuning plate mod is too close to the cooking grate...one advantage of using a vertical smoker for a smoke like this...(sigh).

More to come...

Thanks all!

Eric
 
looks wonderful...we make a rib roast every christmas....but in the oven because too cold for my old smoker....can probably make it work on new one....gonna give it a try this summer and decide if want to give it a try. Thanks for the qview.
 
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