Post-Christmas prime rib roast

[wilburpan]

Because of my work schedule, and Christmas Eve/Day Mass activities, we didn’t do anything super special for Christmas dinner. But that’s okay, since this weekend we had planned to do something special for dinner Sunday night. Here’s the start. It’s four bones, and my butcher cut the bones off and tied them back on for me.

 

 

 

I salted it, and let it sit in the fridge overnight.

The next day, I fired up Smaug, and stabilized at 200ºF. I made a rub to go on the roast.

 

 

Thyme, cayenne, rosemary, black pepper, and garlic. I added olive oil and some Worcestershire sauce, and mixed it up.

 

Why no salt? I added the salt last night, and at this point, it’s worked its way into the meat, so I don’t think any more today is really needed.

 

Here’s the roast all dressed up and ready to go.

 

Next step in progress.

 

 

I threw some celery, carrots, onion, and shallots in the roasting pan. We’ll see how successful I am with collecting pan drippings for a sauce.

[wilburpan]

Here’s the high-tech monitoring system in action.

 

 

Smaug is locked in at 200ºF, give or take.

 

 

I’m really impressed with how quickly the temperature came back up after taking the top photo. I had the lid open long enough that when I closed the lid, the thermometer was at the outside temperature. Smug was back to 200ºF in less than 5 minutes.

 

I’ve had this thermometer for over 15 years. It’s not a Thermoworks, but it’s great.

 

 

Oh, wait.

 

 

In the meantime, I’ve prepped some asparagus for grilling later. Olive oil, salt, and pepper. That’s it.

 

  

Now we wait.

When our friends got here, I showed them the prime rib roast inside Smaug. When I opened the lid, I was surprised to see how moist the air was that came out. It actually fogged up my glasses. I also noticed this.

 

 

As far as I can tell, that’s condensation that has dripped down to the bottom of the inside and is leaking out from around the vent plate. I have to believe that the ability of Smaug to trap moisture like this during a low and slow cook is part of why I seem to be having so much success with my KK 23â€, despite my complete lack of low and slow cooking experience prior to Smaug landing at my house.

 

Even though Smaug had no issues keeping the temperature at 200ºF, I wound up bumping the temperature up to 250ºF to speed things along to get the prime rib roast done at a reasonable time for dinner. Eventually, we hit an IT of 120ºF. We brought the prime rib roast inside. It was too dark to take pictures outside, so this is why it’s on my stove. We haven’t done the sear yet. 

 

[wilburpan]

In the meantime, I took out the heat deflector, and opened up the vents. When Smaug got to 500ºF+, we cooked up an appetizer and sides that our friends brought from the local Korean grocery store. Here’s some marinated pork belly in a spicy Korean marinade. 

 

 

They also brought two types of Korean peppers. The long ones are much spicier than the short ones. We prepped them with olive oil and salt.

 

 

And then we cooked them on Smaug until the skins blistered. The smaller ones had a level of heat just about equal to deep fried jalapeños, and the long ones were much hotter. Interestingly, the long ones have less heat at the tip, and gain more heat as you work your way towards the stem.

 

 

Here’s the asparagus that I had prepped earlier.

 

[wilburpan]

After getting all the sides done, it was time for the final sear. Smaug was up to over 600ºF at this point. I seared each side as long as I dared to. Here’s the end result.

 

 

I cut the strings and got the bones off.

 

 

And quickly seared the inside face of the bones.

 

 

Finally, the money shot. Even my wife was impressed.

 

 

And plated, with the asparagus and my wife’s famous mashed potatoes.

 

 

It was delicious. My wife said it was the best prime rib she had ever had, even though she likes her meat much more well done than this.

 

If I was to make any changes, it might be to simplify the rub to just salt and pepper. The sear wound up burning the rosemary and thyme (although not in a bad way). It didn’t hurt the crust, it just didn’t seem to add much in the end. Or I might just leave it as is.

By the way, I completely forgot about deglazing the roasting pan to make a sauce. Then again, we really didn’t need it.

[tony b]

Love me some grilled shishito peppers (similar Japanese version to yours). Just got a batch of seed catalogs in the mail over the weekend, and inside the front cover of one, where they put the "what's new" stuff - shishito peppers!! Guess what I'm ordering to plant in the spring??

 

"Interestingly, the long ones have less heat at the tip, and gain more heat as you work your way towards the stem."

 

That's because that's where the seeds and placenta (that web part the seeds are attached to) are. They contain almost all of the capsaicin in the peppers. Very little is actually in the flesh of the pepper.

 

Love me some pork belly, just about anyway you can cook it. A buddy brought an adobo pork belly to the Christmas party. Couldn't stop eating it. 

 

Money shot was right! Please tell me you got those killer looking rib bones and not the dog?

[wilburpan]

"Interestingly, the long ones have less heat at the tip, and gain more heat as you work your way towards the stem."

 

That's because that's where the seeds and placenta (that web part the seeds are attached to) are. They contain almost all of the capsaicin in the peppers. Very little is actually in the flesh of the pepper.

At first that’s what I thought, too. But both me and our friends picked out the seeds and web, and still found the increase in heat as you go from the tip to the stem end.

 

[5698k]

Wilbur, are you aware that there is a hole in the body of your grill to feed probes through?

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[wilburpan]

Yes, I am. The curve in the probe of my thermometer and the plug on the other end both can’t clear the hole. I’ve read about folks unbending the probe, but that makes me a bit nervous, and in any case I didn’t think about it until it was time to do the cook.

[5698k]

Yeah, people bend them with no problem, but my plugs fit through inside out.

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[DennisLinkletter]

Money shot is right.. That first cut shot is killer.

Love that you included some  cayenne in the mix.. 

Nothing gets cooked in this household without some heat..

Have not done a rib roast in too long.. 

Gotta track one down.

Absolutely beautiful!

Great cook, thanks for sharing..

[CeramicChef]

Wilbur - again ... KILLER COOK!  Buddy, you are all over this one.  Very nicely done!  Kudos!

[CeramicChef]

 

Money shot is right.. That first cut shot is killer.

Love that you included some  cayenne in the mix.. 

Nothing gets cooked in this household without some heat..

Have not done a rib roast in too long.. 

Gotta track one down.

Absolutely beautiful!

Great cook, thanks for sharing..

 

 

Dennis, glad to see you posting given everything happening in your part of the world!

[tony b]

Bad news. Went to the ThermoWorks website to check out that temperature alarm unit. That model is discontinued. Looks like they replaced it with this model.

 

http://www.thermoworks.com/products/alarm/dot.html

 

Or, upgrade to the Pro model for a few more ducats. 

 

http://www.thermoworks.com/products/alarm/chefalarm.html

[wilburpan]

 

Love that you included some  cayenne in the mix.. 

Nothing gets cooked in this household without some heat..

 

 

Now that I think about it, I can’t remember the last time I’ve cooked any sort of beef on a grill without adding some sort of heat: cayenne, ancho, or chipotle.

 

And this is going back to my college days. 

[tony b]

Hear that! Been a "chile head" most of my adult life, too. But, I think the horticulture has finally gotten the best of me; these new strains are getting just too damned hot (Ghost/Bhut Jolokia). 

[CaptVideo]

Wow! nice cook. I need to do 1 of those again.