Prime Rib two ways: oven roasted and smoked.
1st one completed on Christmas, second one completed last night for dinner with friends (FriendsMas?)
Whatever itscalled isn't important right now. What is important, at least to me is the "why" and "how."
First, the meat. Nothing extravagant, I bought a whole angus ribeye portioned into 3 roasts, ribs cradled, thoroughly seasoned with salt and pepper and tied 30hrs prior to cooking:
1 - 7lb unsmoked for Christmas dinner
1 - 6lb smoked (this Saturday for "friendsMas")
1 - 5.5lb extra just for us for a later date (because why not).
Second the how: if you ask 10 knowledgeable chef's how to get the perfect prime rib you will likely get 35 different answers. I have a number of tools at my disposal: SV, rotisserie, countertop roaster, propane/charcoal grill, wood/propane/electric smoker, oven roasted, braised, baked. And what times and temps? The combinations are endless... which way is the right way? Whichever gives you your desired results.
How do you choose? Depends on what you want and what limitations you have.
Decisions, decisions...
PR1 - Christmas dinner. At least one attendee is not fond of smoked meat.
PR2 - no limitations.
Requirements (per me) needs to have a nicely finished exterior but as much pink as possible, ideally uniform edge-to-center color.
After assessing what tools I have available, I wantes something reproducible both in an oven and in the smoker. SV is tempting but I never feel I get the desired outside texture without an extended timeline. Thinking about what I like most about smoking low and slow, it allows you to carefully and evenly bring your meat to a desired temperature both internally and externally. Essentially the same concept as SV but with a low dry heat bath instead of water. Too low leads to an extended cook time and a dry surface. Too high of heat and the heat transfer causes the outside to cook faster than the inside. Wanting to avoid the thick band of over cooked meat,
I decided to do a reverse sear technique, one with, one without smoke. As already mentioned, the reverse sear helps to evenly cook the meat. Goal is a near edge to center uniformity of doneness. Searing first raises the external surface to a high temp and prolonged cooking time makes the outside temp rise faster than the center.
So why bother searing at all? Searing last serves two purposes: 1st, it gives that nice outside crisp look for visual appeal. 2nd, it warms the meat after its 30 min rest.
1st one complete on Christmas: we had some family over who don't really like smoked meat and we had several stops on Christmas where I wasn't comfortable leaving the smoker unattended. So into the oven @9am 170f.
A conversation here on smf a couple of weeks ago raised the question regarding temperature stability in the oven as compared to the smoker, so I put a probe to monitor fluctuations. I have a gas oven and it seems to swing about 15 degrees. Relevance in that it's a little bit more temperature stable than my electric smoker which swings 20-25, but reasonably similar as far as I'm concerned.
Pulled the oven prime rib @135 and rested for 60 min. Just before serving, into the oven @500 for 10 min, then cut from the bone.
Saturday we had our Friendsmas dinner and prime rib was a featured main course. More about the dinner party on another thread.
Following a similar model, I put the prime rib in my cookshack at 9am @170 but was getting wide temperature swings 30+ degrees. Minor increase to 185 and temp stayed much more stable 20-25deg.
Pulled the smoked prime rib @135 and rested for 75 min. Just before serving, into the oven @500 for 10 min, then cut from the bone.
1st one completed on Christmas, second one completed last night for dinner with friends (FriendsMas?)
Whatever itscalled isn't important right now. What is important, at least to me is the "why" and "how."
First, the meat. Nothing extravagant, I bought a whole angus ribeye portioned into 3 roasts, ribs cradled, thoroughly seasoned with salt and pepper and tied 30hrs prior to cooking:
1 - 7lb unsmoked for Christmas dinner
1 - 6lb smoked (this Saturday for "friendsMas")
1 - 5.5lb extra just for us for a later date (because why not).
Second the how: if you ask 10 knowledgeable chef's how to get the perfect prime rib you will likely get 35 different answers. I have a number of tools at my disposal: SV, rotisserie, countertop roaster, propane/charcoal grill, wood/propane/electric smoker, oven roasted, braised, baked. And what times and temps? The combinations are endless... which way is the right way? Whichever gives you your desired results.
How do you choose? Depends on what you want and what limitations you have.
Decisions, decisions...
PR1 - Christmas dinner. At least one attendee is not fond of smoked meat.
PR2 - no limitations.
Requirements (per me) needs to have a nicely finished exterior but as much pink as possible, ideally uniform edge-to-center color.
After assessing what tools I have available, I wantes something reproducible both in an oven and in the smoker. SV is tempting but I never feel I get the desired outside texture without an extended timeline. Thinking about what I like most about smoking low and slow, it allows you to carefully and evenly bring your meat to a desired temperature both internally and externally. Essentially the same concept as SV but with a low dry heat bath instead of water. Too low leads to an extended cook time and a dry surface. Too high of heat and the heat transfer causes the outside to cook faster than the inside. Wanting to avoid the thick band of over cooked meat,
I decided to do a reverse sear technique, one with, one without smoke. As already mentioned, the reverse sear helps to evenly cook the meat. Goal is a near edge to center uniformity of doneness. Searing first raises the external surface to a high temp and prolonged cooking time makes the outside temp rise faster than the center.
So why bother searing at all? Searing last serves two purposes: 1st, it gives that nice outside crisp look for visual appeal. 2nd, it warms the meat after its 30 min rest.
1st one complete on Christmas: we had some family over who don't really like smoked meat and we had several stops on Christmas where I wasn't comfortable leaving the smoker unattended. So into the oven @9am 170f.
A conversation here on smf a couple of weeks ago raised the question regarding temperature stability in the oven as compared to the smoker, so I put a probe to monitor fluctuations. I have a gas oven and it seems to swing about 15 degrees. Relevance in that it's a little bit more temperature stable than my electric smoker which swings 20-25, but reasonably similar as far as I'm concerned.
Pulled the oven prime rib @135 and rested for 60 min. Just before serving, into the oven @500 for 10 min, then cut from the bone.
Saturday we had our Friendsmas dinner and prime rib was a featured main course. More about the dinner party on another thread.
Following a similar model, I put the prime rib in my cookshack at 9am @170 but was getting wide temperature swings 30+ degrees. Minor increase to 185 and temp stayed much more stable 20-25deg.
Pulled the smoked prime rib @135 and rested for 75 min. Just before serving, into the oven @500 for 10 min, then cut from the bone.
