Foiling/Coolering a Prime Rib Roast

[fatguyputter]

Hi folks, I'm a newby here, but have had good success with rib roasts. I held mine for 2 hours at Christmas and it was perfect. Smoked at 225 to 122*, wrapped and into cooler, then into hot oven for 6 minutes to form crust - check out my blog for cooking process and pictures http://bigdudesramblings.blogspot.com/2010/12/holiday-dinner-five-christmas-dinner.html. I also cooked three others for other people and got rave reviews from all.

Big Dude,

Thanks for your input. I went to your site and everything looked great, and I think your method fits exactly what I am trying to accomplish. Help me a little with a couple questions. First, do you remember how much your roast weighed? How many bones it had (appeared to have about 6 or 7)? I will be cooking in similar weather and conditions and was trying to get a rough idea on timing. Did you end up getting it pulled at 3:00pm like you intended at 120*? If so, that would mean you were 5 hours getting it to 120*......correct? Then hold for 2 hours......then sear and serve. If I'm understanding you correctly, then you had a little over 7 hours of cooking and holding.

I am doing about a 12 pounder and it will be 5 or 6 boner. So depending on the actual size of your roast, I can gauge from there. Thanks for your help.

 

[Big Dude]

I did a full 7 bone rib roast that weighed almost 20#. I believe it cooked for 5 hours, rested for an hour in the cooler, then into the oven for crust. Another whole one I cooked weighed 16# and cooked in a hotter part of the smoker and it was done in 4 hours. The beauty of the method is you can cook it and leave yourself a couple of hours leeway, then hold in the prewarmed cooler until ready to stick in the oven. Many may be concerned about having it sit in a cooler for a couple of hours but I've never had a problem from a health standpoint - I wouldn't hold it over about 3 hours at that temp, but I'm comfortable eating it below that and you'll have to decide if you are. I've cooked rib roast several ways and I believe the reverse sear is by far the best. Good luck.

 

[Gary in Va]

trim the lip of fat off and the outer tough fatty layer
season it up how you like it
roast/smoke on your cooker at 300-325
it should take between 2.5 - 3 hours to hit 128-130 in the center
wrap in foil and put in prewarmed cooler or cambro.

if you start it at 3:30 it should be done at 6:00 to 6:30 You will have medium in the middle, medium well on the ends. this will please most any crowd. Holding for 1 to 1.5 hours will not be a problem

Bacteria issues are on the outside of the meat not necessarily on the inside, the outside of the meat will be way above the 140 mark which will kill any bacteria and I would venture to say that the outside will safely stay above 140 for that hour or more that you will be holding it.

I do this process every Christmas to 3 whole ribeyes for a group of people and they all rave about it.