17# prime rib on franklinstein II

[rdhines40]

My first time smoking a prime rib, my boss had some of my brisket the other day and asked if I would smoke a prime rib for him and his family, of course I obliged. He said he wanted it just like the brisket so I rubbed it down with some olive oil then hit it with salt and pepper and I added just a touch of garlic and herb rub as well to give it a little extra.

Before I get to the pictures, question for the brethren.... I notice after an hour and a half in I wasn’t getting very good color on the meat yet. I was running around 250, I ended up bumping the temp up to 285 and held it there Until the last 15 mins where I went up to 375 to get just a little extra on the outside. 3 hours total pulled at 124 IT. It turned out great looked killer And Man it smelled sooo good!! I think I just wasn’t cooking hot enough for my smoker at the beginning. I know you can cook a little hotter in a larger smoker.

Here’s the porn:

 

[ssv3]

You gotta go hot enough but not too hot if you know what I mean. 350-375 is just about right for a nice bark and end to end pink on the inside. Or A very quick, intense sear at the end.

 

[mchar69]

Before I get to the pictures, question for the brethren.... I notice after an hour and a half in I wasn’t getting very good color on the meat yet.

PATIENCE!!! It takes a long while for a big piece at 225 to come up.
Your 285 I feel is in no-man's land - either 225 or less.

 

[mchar69]

Waiting for a slice shot, I bet it looks killer.....

 

[Demosthenes9]

Fwiw, bark/color will take longer to develop at lower temps. That's ok though as the meat will take have to cook longer anyways to attain your desired degree of doneness. I'm not saying that the bark will be exactly the same, the higher heat will have a more pronounced bark, but you can still get a good bark at lower heat.

What lower heat does give you is more of a consistent, edge to edge color instead of having a fairly wide band of well done around the outer edge of the meat.

 

[rdhines40]

Next time I’ll give it more time than 3-3.5 hours to smoke at a lower temp. Crazy thing today I left the smoker outside all night with the fire box door cracked about 1/2” to let the coals burn out. I stopped feeding the fire it at 5:30pm, I just now cleaned the ash out at 10:40am the next day and I still had hot coals in the fire box. My ash bucket is smoking. So if you’re ever building yourself a smoker and you are asking if an insulate or semi-insulated (air gap, like mine) is worth it.... it definitely is!! 17hours outside in 40* weather and I had enough coal bed to start a new fire! Wow.

 

[Sid Post]

Air gaps work and, more is not always better. A thinner 'air gap' prevents larger convection currents which destroys the 'thermal blanket'.

 

[Smokin D@wg@77]

looks great !

 

[rdhines40]

Air gaps work and, more is not always better. A thinner 'air gap' prevents larger convection currents which destroys the 'thermal blanket'.

mines about 1.5" I was gonna stuff some ceramic insulation in there, but I didn't have any local to me and I didn't want to hold up the build progress, plus it would have almost doubled my cost of the build since I scrapped most everything from work HA!

 

[KClandcruiser]

You nailed that prime rib! Great job on that

 

[luv2smoke]

Next time I’ll give it more time than 3-3.5 hours to smoke at a lower temp. Crazy thing today I left the smoker outside all night with the fire box door cracked about 1/2” to let the coals burn out. I stopped feeding the fire it at 5:30pm, I just now cleaned the ash out at 10:40am the next day and I still had hot coals in the fire box. My ash bucket is smoking. So if you’re ever building yourself a smoker and you are asking if an insulate or semi-insulated (air gap, like mine) is worth it.... it definitely is!! 17hours outside in 40* weather and I had enough coal bed to start a new fire! Wow.

What you described really has nothing to do with insulation or air gaps. I can't count the times I've read about someone cleaning out a fireplace a day or two after using it and throwing the ashes in a garbage can and later the garbage can ignites.