Is anyone else cooking?

Ron's Prime Rib, Italian Beef and Chicago Chinese Food

Is anyone else cooking?

I have a 6 1/2 lb rib roast in my Smokette right now. One of these days I am going to try Poopie's recipe, but it comes out sooo good in the Smokette that I hate to change anything. I season it with seasoning that we buy from a restaurant in SW Michigan that specializes in prime rib, and then cook it in the Smokette. I put a head of garlic and a bunch of rosemary twigs (leaves on) in the wood box and let it cook at 250 until it hits 130 internal, then I lower the Smokette temp to 150 and let it sit in there for about four hours. It comes out sooo juicy and tender!

I also put in a beef roast (top round, on sale) that I am going to slice up for Italian Beef sammies for tomorrow night. I made up an injection for the italain beef out of beef broth, garlic, fresh herbs (marjoram, basil, oregano and parsley), cayenne pepper and a dash of worcestershire sauce. I simmered that for about 10 minutes, strained it and let it cool, and then injected it into the roast. After that sat for a couple of hours I seasoned the outside with salt, pepper and some of brauma's home mdae garlic powder. I'm going to let it cook the same way as the rib roast and then wrap it and stick it in the refrigerator over night. Then I'll slice it real thin and make up some au jus with the same ingredients as the injection plus some sliced green pappers and make sammies!

Pictures to follow...

Note: The subject for this post was changed to make it easier to find in a search later -ron

BBQ_MAFIA said:

What is Italian Beef and what makes it Italian?

I never saw it in Italy or anywhere in the NY/NJ area.

I read a few posts where it was mentioned in high regard so it must be good.

Let me know all you can so I can try it out.

Click to expand...

I think its a Chicago thing... It's beef cooked with italian seasonings (garlic, parsley, oregano, basil, marjoram, thyme), sliced thin, and then heated back up in an au jus made from beef stock seasoned with the same type of seasonings. Its then served on an italian or french roll with either hot peppers or sweet peppers cooked in the beef stock mixture. Sometimes you'll see it covered in mozzerella. Around here you can order it four ways; Dry (no juice, just the beef and the roll), Regular (beef and a little of the juide), dipped (they dip the roll in the juice for a couple of seconds) and drowned (where they make the sammie and then hold it under in the juice unil the bubbles stop.

Just like anything else, there is a debate in Chicago as to who has thde best beef sammies. The Portillo's chain do a great job and are very consistent. There is a new chain called Buona Beef that is very good, but Al's Beef Shop is still the winner in most surveys.

Too much info?

The cooking and the eating are done! I screwed up a little, I'm afraid. I trusted my NuTemp too much. I had the remote unit by the sliding glass door to the deck so i could see the prime rib temp, and the temp was climbing nicely. My plan was to turn the cooker temp down when the meat hit 135. With carry over, it would be medium inside and the end cus would be medium well for my wife. My daughter asked me to help her with her chem homework, so i checked the temp and it was at 120. Good. When we were done with her homewokr I checked again and it was 131. Still good, but getting close. 30 minutes later it was still at 131 so I walked to the cooker to check and the transmitter showed 145! Crap!

oh well... Not much i can do at that point, so I dropped the temp and held it until dinner. It was closer to medium well throughout. It was still tender and juicy, but just over cooked.

Here's the pics... first, the italian beef roast. I wrapped this and stuck it in the fridge and I'll slice it thin tomorrow. Second, the prime rib before cutting, and finally the prime rib wih the first slice cut off.