Smoking Prime Rib Roast, Why Did It Cook So FAST?

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DadmanInIL

Newbie
Original poster
Dec 26, 2024
3
0
More than 1 website said 35-40 minutes per pound to get to 225 degrees for a 13.7 pound bone-in rib roast smoking at 225 degrees (8-9 hours). I only let it get to 43 degrees out of refrigerator. I didn't depend on the electric smoker temps, I used a Thermopro bluetooth with 2 probes in the roast and 1 for ambient temp on the rack under the roast (in a foil pan on a 1/2" rack).
After 4-5 hours I had to pull it at 126 degrees and chill it in an ice bath because we were more than 5 hours away from serving. Then I did about 45 minutes in oven at 500 degrees but temp wasn't changing and outside was getting too crispy so I reduced heat to 400 and waited until 126 degrees again. My wife wanted dinner NOW, so we served it - a little more rare than medium rare but it turned out great otherwise.
And it was 30-35 degrees outside so I almost started it even earlier.
I've been smoking for quite a few years - why would this happen, and what else could I have tried?
 
Naw, 4-5 hrs for a rib roast at 225 cooked to 125 is about right. Rib roast is cylindrical in shape so the thickness is uniform, as such, adding weight means adding length not girth. 4-5 Hrs is what I would expect in this case. I would have wrapped in foil and placed in a cooler to rest, not placed in a ice bath.
 
you may have had the probe in a BIG vein of fat rather than meat?? that might explain the un-doneness.
2 probes - but both were in the same general place/orientation but opposite ends of the roast. I should have had them in different parts of the roast.
 
Naw, 4-5 hrs for a rib roast at 225 cooked to 125 is about right. Rib roast is cylindrical in shape so the thickness is uniform, as such, adding weight means adding length not girth. 4-5 Hrs is what I would expect in this case. I would have wrapped in foil and placed in a cooler to rest, not placed in a ice bath.
5+ hours to serving threw me off... 4 hours or less and I would have done what you said.
 
I dont quite understand. If you planned for 8-9 hours and it was done in 4-5, why the sudden race to eat so fast that you felt like an ice bath was needed? That's the worse thing you can do to a roast. If you planned that many hours, side dishes like casseroles wouldn't have even hit the oven yet...theoretically...

As far as AFTER it has reached the desired IT, leaving some room for the roast temp to increase as it rests, its worth delaying dinner 20-30 minutes or more for the juices to redistribute before carving. Maybe try to explain to the wife how this works? This is an expensive piece of meat to be demanding anything from it!:emoji_wink:

I removed the bones off of my roast and trussed it in to a log shape. It was 4.75lb boneless and was at 125 in 2.75 hours. That works out to 35 minutes a pound roughly. But like Smokinedge said this apparently doesn't work out scaling the meat. Meaning the 35 min doesn't necessarily work exactly as the size of the roast grows. There is a LOT of info on the web out there and it had my head spinning because the info isn't always exactly the same from site to site. I hadn't done a roast in a while and decided to ask and look in to it here, not really trusting the traditional info found out there with weight and time charts, etc..

It's too bad you didn't come here before your cook. There was a LOT of discussion about rib roasts going on right before Christmas. That helped me be very successful. My roast got done faster than I expected too, but I had already learned about holding the roast at a "keep warm" temp until everything else was ready (like a potato casserole in my case that took twice as long as expected). So my roast was done early and the casserole was late. My roast came out perfect still, even though we were not eating till 7:45.
 
My rib roast was 16.5lb after dry age trimming etc. At 235°F it took 8-9 hr to reach 130°F IT. Your time seems about right. Smoker air flow vol / velocity has an effect on cook time as well.

The high roast temps do not effect core temp as quickly as tgey raise outside vs a lower cook temp. So its inpine with your results on developing a crust vs increasing tge Iat significantly. But that higher temp will effect the resting temp rise more drastically than low cook temps.

I can say going forward I will always be cooking/smoking my rib roasts @ 235°F till the doness I want as civilsmoker civilsmoker adviced me . My prefered pull @ 130°F. It gave me a perfect edge to edge med rare after rest peaking at close to 135°F with almost no gradient. Its as close to a sous vide even doness as I have ever seen. So good......
 
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Agreed TARM. Civil also educated me on holding the roast after reaching temp. Allows you to get the roast done ahead of time and react to whatever is happening with sides...maybe a late guest. In my case it was a scalloped potato casserole that took two hours instead of the expected one.
 
Agreed TARM. Civil also educated me on holding the roast after reaching temp. Allows you to get the roast done ahead of time and react to whatever is happening with sides...maybe a late guest. In my case it was a scalloped potato casserole that took two hours instead of the expected one.
Me too. The hold over time saved me as everything in the smoker was cooking at different temps.

My wife makes killer scalloped potatoes. It was sooo good. I knows hers takes awhile to cook. One of the reasons I could not have access to the oven the last few hours.

Congrats on everything turning out great!
 
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