Meat/Veggie:

5 + lb Prime Rib Roast from a side of beef from a couple great neighbors. They have had some problems overcooking the Roast on their Traeger so they asked  me to cook one for them. A few hours prep and smoking for a big slice of Prime Rib, heck yes I’m in.

Rub/Injection:

1.     Dry brine with Kosher salt @ 7 the night before
2.     EVOO then a light coat of William’s Fajita Mix

3.     Followed by granulated garlic and fresh ground black pepper
4.     Topped with HOS Brisket Rub

Fuel for the Fire:

1.     KBB  2 chimneys + 2/3 of chimney to start the smoker
2.    2 chunks cherry wood
3.     1 chunk hickory wood


The plan was to cook most of the afternoon and try to time it to be out of the broiler at 5:55 to get over to the neighbors by 6:00. I wanted it cooked to 120 in the smoker then take it up to 130 in the oven broiler to give it a little bark on the outside.

Here is the full roast before doing anything to it.

Here is a pic after I separated the ribs from the roast. I tied the roast to keep it more round for even cooking.

And one pic after applying the rub.

Smoking:

Smoker was up to temp and I placed both the ribs and the roast on the smoker at 2:00 pm. I figured it would cook low and slow until a little after 5:00. I would then pull when the internal temp hit 120 so I could bring it inside to finish. What I thought was a good plan worked great until nothing went as planned. My smoker almost always just chugs right along at 250 degrees with minimal adjustments. But, since I was trying to do this while also trying to work from home, nothing went as planned. The smoker shot to 281 degrees shortly after all the meat was on. So I shut the vents down all the way but the smoker only dropped down to 270. After only an hour and a half on the smoker the internal temp of the roast was already up to 112. Now I’m in grave danger of overcooking this very expensive cut of meat! The very cut of meat of which I promised wouldn’t get overcooked.

Luckily, our neighbors were kind enough to move dinner up an hour. Pulled the roast and ribs at 3:45, only 1:45 after starting the cook, at an internal temp of 120. I let the roast steam out for a few minutes and then wrapped it in foil. Put it in a cooler to hold the temp until I could finish cooking in the oven. Here is what the meat looked like after pulling it from the smoker.

Finish:

Started broiling at 4:45 and pulled when the internal temp hit 130. Luckily, all was good and it cooked just about right and the flavor was excellent.

Lessons Learned:Continue dry brining. Tried to get too creative with the rubs. Flavor was still great, but keep it simple on a Prime Rib. If you having nothing else to do the smoker will behave. But, if you are trying to get something else done it will not behave. You can hold a Prime Rib wrapped in foil in a cooler like you can a brisket, ribs or a pork butt.