My 1st whole Ribeye for my Birthday Dinner! Q-view

[forluvofsmoke]

I wanted to get this started early as a heads-up for those who may otherwise miss it.

This is as close as I can come to filling a request by falconrod, per his quote from my full packer brisket thread (post #32) http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/for...threadid=85756:

"Will do Prime Rib next...Please...OK, after you've caught up on your sleep...

"

Maybe this can be a starter for some new smokers thinking about doing one for the 25th, but just didn't pull the trigger yet and grab one....

My wife ordered up 2 whole ribeyes, and had one cut into 1" steaks...she just got home with them and a bunch of other goodies...the ribeye steaks are vac sealed with marinade in the freezer as I write.

We've made it a tradition for about 20 years or more to do Prime Rib or large end rib roasts for Christmas or Christmas Eve dinner. Here's the key...she always cooks 'em...I told her I had a request to do prime rib, so she agreed to indulge me this one...

I REALLY, TRUELY LOVE my wife!!!!

Straight out of the car into my camera lens:



End view of the fat cap...trimmed pretty lean per her order...gonna have to be careful with this one so I don't kill it in the smoker, as it won't be very forgiving. Oh, and yes, this is the smoker cooking grate which it will meet up with, and it fits nicely...even @ 17.14 lbs, so I'm in business!!!:



The poor thing has to wait 'til the morning of Christmas Eve until I can work my majic with it......sniff, sniff...:



Well, it should be a nice smoke for me to share with everyone, and a few things to be learned will come forward, I'm sure, as this will be my first smoked whole Ribeye.

I'll have time at work tomarrow to decide about dry rub ingredients...I already know the smoke will be hickory...temp will likely be somewhere between 250* and 275*, and my wife wanted it light on the smoke, soooooooooo, I guess I can live with that....I'm just happy to finally have the chance to smoke one!

When I get a better look at the bone size and inter-muscular fat after un-wrapping, the cross section may look different tomarrow night after a rub and a few minutes resting, but maybe not...I may just be over-analyzing this, but don't want it to take 16 hours, either. Bone down/fat up will be it's planned final resting position.

More to follow. I don't know when dinner is planned for yet, so I have to find this out in the morning. It will be a combo B-Day dinner for me and a late B-day dinner for my youngest nephew, who loves my cooking too, btw (he's 2 yrs old the 19th).


Thanks!

Eric

 

[chefrob]

looks good........shouldn't take that long, i was going to say leave it on the counter for an hour aftr you rub it.

 

[oneshot]

Hey Eric, if you have any cherry wood give that a whirl. Gives prime rib a fantastic flavor and not a real strong smoke flavor, just like your wife likes. Pecan also is very good with prime rib. Just a couple of thoughts for you to ponder. I've done alot of prime rib and those are my favorite woods to use.

 

[cheapchalee]

Man on Man, are you ever giving that smoker a work out. Thank you in advance for doing this tutorial on prime rib. The more I look at the Qview the harder it seems to stay here on this job. Man I want to go home and do some smoking. Happy Holidays to everyone.

Charlie

 

[waysideranch]

Happy BDay and smoke. Gonna be a good day in your world.

 

[mballi3011]

First off Happy Birthday and I know you will love the meal. Thats a really nice hunk of meat you have there. I know you will do it the honor that it demands so enjoy and I wait for the Qview.

 

[john3198]

Looks good, Eric. Keep us posted on the results. And happy birthday as well.

I've never done a whole rib like that, but my 4-5 bone in roasts are usually done in about 2-3 hours, at most. I pull mine at 120 for really rare and 130 for med rare - might take the next one to 135 to get it more towards the med rare side of things.

 

[meat hunter]

I cannot wait to see the end results. Take lots of preparation pics. I know yours is gonna turn out awesome

 

[falconrod]

Eric, Happy Birthday to you and the little guy. As coincidence would have it, today my wife and I were at Sam's Club and they had a bunch of different sized vacuum sealed pkgs of Ribeye (my favorite) without the bone. I was handling one about 13# and she asked me if I wanted the butcher to cut it into steaks and I said "no, I'm just trying to figure out how this guy (you) on the smokin' website would smoke it", and I put it back. True story, and now I get to watch you make another masterpiece. By the time I get my smoker out of storage and get the mods done, I'll be able to dive right in without fear because of watching you. BTW, if you ever slip up and let me get your home address, you'll have a squater on your front lawn!!!

Merry Christmas, and Thank You...

 

[walle]

Man o'MAN! Ribeyes even look delicious wrapped and in the fridge!

Happy B-Day, Forluvofsmoke!

Tracey

 

[alx]

Happy-B Day Eric.My 6 pounder looks puney compared to that big hunka meat......

 

[deltadude]

Just picked up for Christmas a ribeye usda choice + roast from Costco $6.99 per lb. I haven't decided if I'm roast/smoke or going to steak it out. The reason for not serving the whole roast, is we also have a Family year end dinner Sunday, and I have on order from the butcher a New York Strip Loin Roast USDA Prime 15 lbs for $8.90 per lb. I missed the deal Costco had last weekend for New York Strip Loins... The plus side is the butcher is throwing in a bag of beef bones for making stock.....

 

[forluvofsmoke]

Thanks, Rob...I was thinking of rubbing tonight, wrap in poly and back in the refer overnight to let the salt work on the fat cap...trying to get a nice crispy crust on top of the fat this way...I think I'll rest unwrapped for a bit at room temp, also.

Oh man! Yeah, I forgot about the cherry...I do have a couple pounds of chips still on hand....GREAT IDEA!!!!!!!! I guess I was stuck on the thought of hickory just because I like it so much with beef!

Yeah, I crank up a smoker or 2 whenever I get a chance to....can't get enough smokes in one life-time, I say!!!! LOLOLOL!!!!!!!

I can't wait to get home from work in the evening so I can catch up with the day's events here on the forum.......this place is as addictive as smoking meats!

Thanks Scott...gonna be a great time!!!!!

Thanks Mark, I hope I do it justice.....aaaaaaah, it'll come out great....gotta think positive!!! I run NiMh batteries in my digi-therms, so I'm going to recharge them tonight, that'll give me a back-up therm, plus dial therms if I break 'em both.....HEH-HEH-HEH!!!!!!

Thanks John, I figured about 6 hours with this, but it may fool me...we'll see in about 20 hours...

Hey buddy, you know me...never short on pics! LOLOL!!!!!!

HAH-HAH-HAH! Thanks man...you'll be hooked up and ready to do some fine grub before ya know it......there are so many things a guy can toss in the smoker, it's mind boggling to think about.......looking on the forums and active threads here can about drive ya crazy at times!!!

I did sit and cuddle with it after getting pics...had to try to get to know it a bitl, ya know.....now, tonight, I'll really get to know it by the time it's rubbed and re-wrapped for this evening's sleepy time.

Thanks, Alex...it does have some mass to it, not a one-hander to carry, that's for sure.


Oh boy, that Strip Loin is gonna make for a dandy feast!!!!! The bones for stock is cool...starting to get into that type of thing myself lately.


Thanks everyone for the warm wishes and thoughts!

I'll get some pics tonight while I prep and rub so I can share how I'll get to know this beast on a more personal level. Then I can have a good idea how we're going to get along during our brief relationship tomarrow! HEH-HEH-HEH!!!

Oooooh, the anticipation is starting to build, now that I'm thinking about rub ingredients......I'm also thinking this would be a great treat to do for my wife's and my parents this summer during a vacation visit...they'd love that!!


OK, more later!

Eric

 

[voldaddy]

 

[forluvofsmoke]

This is just a bit different than some of the rubs I've blended in the past. The basic ingredients are pretty commonly used, so easy for others to duplicate closely. The dried red bell peppers may not be available to some folks, so you could use minced fresh instead and apply it before the dry spices.


Whole Rib Eye Dry Rub

　
3 Tbs Dried Red Bell Pepper, coarse ground

2 Tbs Dried Rosemary Leaves, coarse ground

2 Tbs Dried Minced Garlic

1-½ Tbs Spanish Paprika powder

1 Tbs Chili powder

5 Tbs Kosher Salt, coarse

4 Tbs Dried Onion, coarse ground

2 Tbs Peppercorn, course ground
　
　
Wrapped in poly after rubbing, and rest overnight in fridge.

Un-wrap and coat the entire surface with a heavy dusting of all-purpose flour while moist from resting.

Smoke to desired internal temp.


Ingredients:


A peek at the pre-measured, prepped spices...(from top left in clockwise direction) red bell pepper; rosemary; garlic; spanish paprika; cbp; onion; salt; chili powder:



Mixed up and ready for the beast...nice color mix, and texture is very interesting...some finer and some coarse particles:


The rub is on the beast and it's resting in poly wrap right now, so I'll get those pics up ASAP.

Thanks

Eric

 

[forluvofsmoke]

The Fat Cap, very thin, with some muscle membrane exposed...I'll have to pull some tricks to keep this moist while smoking:



End/cross-section, some light marbling, relatively lean...OK, I really need to be careful with this smoke, I'm feeling...smoke chamber temps could cause issues if this smoke takes too long...this will definately be a job for the Smoke Vault 24, as I only have 1 large bag of charcoal briquettes on hand (can't risk running out or having low-temp issues due to the weather) so the SNP will have to sit this one out on the bench...poor thing has 50-yard-line seating, too, facing the side of the vault....:



Top of bones, some intermuscular fat is present, so that should help a little during the smoke for moisture:



Rub applied to dry meat on the top and ends first:



Next, comes:



Rubbed EVOO on thinly to the inside of the ribs/membrane for dry rub to stick to it:



Inside is rubbed:



Tipped up on the top side and waiting for rub on the bottom/bone edge:



Outside/Fat Cap rubbed:



I like this Ribeye already!!!!:



Starting to wrap, end-to-end with poly...I went around 1-1/2 times, then, turned 90* (on edge), wrapped another 1-1/2 times, then around the circumference/sides with a couple layers and one more end-to-end, pulling the edges of the poly tightly for a good fit and self-adhesion...he's not going to escape from this smoke tonight....probably doesn't want to now that he's had some TLC...LOL!!!!!:



Now, I lay me down to sleep..................nitey-nite, all:


My baby is resting soundly in my small indoor Q-fridge @ ~34*...temps outside are -4*F, and tomarrow's forecast is for a high of 10*, 13-18 MPH winds, -10 to -20 wind chill factors, and 30% chance of snow before 11:00 AM. My smokers are happy in most any weather when I can offer some vittles to them. I have them protected pretty well from the weather, other than the cold, so no worries on that...I already have some snow to clear in the morning from todays 14-hr snow fall...winter in Wyoming...

Un-wrapping, dusting with flour and blow-by-blow smoke to come in the morning...we'll see if I can pull this one off! Gonna be interesting for sure...man I love doing 1st/new smokes!

Please, join me the 24th...it's gonna be a fun ride!

Thanks!

Eric

 

[Bearcarver]

Happy Birthday Eric !
Seems funny, you giving us all this great present on your birthday.
Keep it coming to the end. I have never seen a post done up so perfectly, with recipe ingredients, pictures, humor, and wording we can follow to do this same thing in the future. I can see a whole lot of points coming your way when this is all done. If I was able, I'd probably give you all of my accumulated points as a thank-you.
In short, "This Post is Super!"


Thanks,
Bearcarver

 

[bigtrain74]

All I can say is WOW! That is a thing of beauty!

 

[forluvofsmoke]

I thought I should explain the reason behind the coating of flour, so you can follow the process and see what the outcome will be. This is a method suggested by my wife that she has used for years with oven roasting...results are very good in the oven...I have never before tried this method, so the smoker results are unknown to me at this time.

The flour plays a multi-purpose role here:

1. it can aid in developing a crust for moisture retention and a really nise texture;

2. if a drip pan is used to recover drippings, it will start a gravy base;

3. when plated, any un-crusted the flour can thicken the plate juices as a sauce.

The success of either of the 3 will depend on fat content, cooking temps and cooking time. Higher temp and fat content will develop a crispy crust, lower fat/temps will not develop the crust as easily, which is the case with this particular cut and cooking method. If a well formed crust is achieved, the flour will used up, and no thickening of plated juices will be attainable...I'm shooting for that nice crust if possible.

My initial temps for smoking were started with a cold smoker, begining on high burner setting to a achieve a chamber temp of ~300* for ~15 minutes, then, reducing to ~225*. This is an attempt to get the fats to start forming the crust early on...we'll see if this works or not later today.

The flour could definately be ommited. Some folks may have never even heard of this before and wondered what I was up to, so now you know.

Unwrapping, I used a knife to cut the poly on the inside cavity of the bones, so that I could carefully remove the poly with minimal disturbance of the dry rub:











Dusting the inside first with flour, while maintaining minimal movement of the meat:


Patting the flour in...no rubbing/massaging here, just patting:


Resting on the top edge again, to dust/pat the bottom edge:


And finally, to the outside/cap:





The ends weere coated/patted by cup my hand against the end near the upper edge of the end while sprinkling flour at the same time and just pressing it against the meat...here, it's all set for racking up:


I gently lifted the ribeye up onto the top edge again to slide the rack under and lay it down...then slid the meat into postion...the least amount of hand contact the better for maintaining an intact dry rub/flour coating:





Smoke is on for just over 2 hours now, so I'll get more pics sorted and uploaded with the start of the smoke and progress shortly.


I started cold, went to 300* for 10 minutes, then down to 225*.

I had a 250* grate temp spike from the ~225* target about 1hr-10min into the smoke and had to re-adjust the burner...I'm guessing this was the time when the thermal absorpion rate of the meat had dropped off a bit as it started to soak in the heat, so it's getting happy already.

Time for a second probe to stick the ribeye with and see how we're doing so far.

Thanks everyone!

Eric

 

[meat~smoker in n.j.]

Dude, you`r killing me with that hunk of meat, My stomach is girgling. & mouth is watering !!

Happy Birthday...