Whole prime rib- Who's done it?

[upinsmokebbq]

The good folks here have been a great source of information & advice on more than a few occasions, so...I stand before you again. In a couple of weeks I will be doing a catering job and serving prime rib for 80. I will be cooking (or bringing up to temp.) on site, using my reverse flow smoker. For those of you with experience, am I better off going with the pre-cooked & bagged prime rib...or starting from scratch with whole rib-eyes?

Any ideas on how long these will take to cook? I'll probably pull at 130°

Self serve buffet line & we will carve as the guests come through.

Thanks for all of your comments.............Best.............John

[SoloQue]

I started a thread "Got Beef" a few months back there might be some good info for ya there. I'm not up on how to embed a link or I would have it here for ya.

[upinsmokebbq]

Thanks...I'll check it out!

[Smokeone]

WELL! I have not done one, but I think I would want to cook it from scratch. That way it is all my flavors and hopefully they would come out like I want!

I would think a little higher cook temp would be in order.

Sent from my iPhone using Forum Runner

[smokendink71]

no not on a prime rib, I pull mine at about 125-130 and yes it is much better to cook and serve, how long it takes to reach temp depends on how you are cooking it. oven or smoker?

[upinsmokebbq]

Right now I am planning on cooking them (probably 5) in my reverse flow smoker. No problem maintaining 250°-300° in it. The temp that I pull at will depend a lot on how they are coming along...don't want to have to hold them forever. Also, at about $100 apiece I'm not too interested in screwing these up.

Thanks for all the comments!

[Gizmo]

I would love to help you upinsmoke but the cardiologist only lets me cook 1 a year so I'm certainly no expert - I'll leave that one to the pros...

Dink you intrigue me.

I prefer a rib eye steak over anything in the animal - even the porterhouse and I want to learn something too...

I get different answers from butchers (or I'm too dense to understand them) so what's the difference in;

1) rib roast
2) prime rib
3) rib eye
4) porterhouse ?

I think I know but I'm probably wrong.

Oven or smoker - love to hear your explanation of what makes them different cook times. Natural convection have something to do with it?

I like mine medium rare and I can describe medium rare in the finished product but the $80 on the grate made me nervous a couple years ago so I looked it up. That's why the temp I pulled mine at on the last two Christmas's was 145 - I was pleased both times with the results - course it's hard to screw up that fine of a cut of meat but I didn't know any better...

I've also heard there is no such thing as ordering prime rib cooked a certain way because prime rib is prime rib and there's only one way to cook it ...

[smokendink71]

rib roast is sold with ribs or chine bone intact, prime rib is with bone removed, rib eye is prime rib just cut into steak before cooking and porterhouse is a 1lb or more T-bone. as for cooking time and differences when I do a prime rib in the oven I set my oven for 500 and roast the prime rib for 30 minutes then knock the temp down to 350 until the meats internal temp reads 125 then pull and let rest 30 minutes before carving. however in the smoker I get my heat to 275 and smoke until I hit 125-130 thus taking longer to reach temp because of the overall lower smoking temp and also rest for 30 minutes before serving. and yes a lot of folks are right there is only one way to get a prime rib if you do it right, prime rib is always cooked to no higher than 130, if you want it past that it is done when they slice if from the roast, they will put it either on a flat top or charbroiler to bring to your liking. hope that helps a little Rick.

[smokendink71]

always trust in a good probe thermometer.

[upinsmokebbq]

rib roast is sold with ribs or chine bone intact, prime rib is with bone removed, rib eye is prime rib just cut into steak before cooking and porterhouse is a 1lb or more T-bone. as for cooking time and differences when I do a prime rib in the oven I set my oven for 500 and roast the prime rib for 30 minutes then knock the temp down to 350 until the meats internal temp reads 125 then pull and let rest 30 minutes before carving. however in the smoker I get my heat to 275 and smoke until I hit 125-130 thus taking longer to reach temp because of the overall lower smoking temp and also rest for 30 minutes before serving. and yes a lot of folks are right there is only one way to get a prime rib if you do it right, prime rib is always cooked to no higher than 130, if you want it past that it is done when they slice if from the roast, they will put it either on a flat top or charbroiler to bring to your liking. hope that helps a little Rick.

Rick...Thank you for an informative post. Going to lean on you a bit more if I may. Starting with whole lip on rib-eyes that are going to be 12-15 lbs., and cooking them in the smoker at 275°....do you have any idea how long they are going to take to come up to 125°-130° ? TIA...........John

[Smokeone]

Oops! To clarify I meant the cooker temp would need to be higher, not the meat. Nice red juice running out is perfect for me!
Knock the horns off, wipe its a*&, lets eat!

[smokendink71]

I'm a firm believer of show it the fire until it gets scared and then having dinner.

[Gizmo]

Dink thank you very much for that info - I'm going to have that printed, matted, and framed for my kitchen wall and I think upinsmoke meant YOU when he asked his last question ....

... but I'll take a stab at it ... If memory serves, the 10 pound prime rib I did last Christmas was cooked on Edgar at about 230 over a little hickory and mostly peach wood and was up to 145 core temp in around 2 hours. It had just a slight smoke ring and a red tint top to bottom. Best dam thing I've EVER sunk my tooth into ... I thought it was great for eveness of doneness and smokeyness throughout (there I go making up words again).

Which brings up another point when cooking these finer cuts - maybe it's just me (or the apple pie) but it seems like the higher quality cuts of beef cook faster - maybe all that marbling is carrying the heat throughout more efficiently?

[Mettle]

I would cook on the FEC. You could hold for an hour ( transporting) and make it even better. Do not cook and reheat. Don't do that diservice to the meat.

[HARRY BARKER]

whats a FEC?

[Gizmo]

A brand of cooker from Cook Shack. They claim the FEC-100 is the winningest pit in competition BBQ - but then again it's been around forever...

[upinsmokebbq]

FEC=Fast Eddies Cookshack....just a well known brand of pellet cooker. I have to say, I love mine, but have not fired it up a lot since I built the 500 gal. reverse flow to Frank's plans. Both great cookers, just depends on what you need to do.

[upinsmokebbq]

I am no expert, but I do a little catering & am willing to share my experiences with others who may have questions of their own. Good or bad...this is how it went. I am also lazy...this is a copy & paste of my response on another forum.

Well...it is over & done, and could have hardly gone better. Got lots of positive comments and the client is well pleased which is what matters. The hostess & I were both concerned as cocktail hour wound down to dinner time...there were a number of folks in attendance who were not invited She took it all in stride and we ran out of nothing. Barely:-)...I had one slice of prime rib left at the end of the night. I don't know how many people we fed...more than 80!

So...for those who are interested......what actually happened:
I used a pre-cooked & bagged prime rib from USFoods & cooked 4 of them that averaged 14.5 lbs. for a total weight of 58 lbs. Placed them in the FEC-100 at 275° and they were at 135° in three hours flat. Then briefly in to the warmer set at 140°...then into the cambro where they rested for about an hour before being sliced and served with au jus in the pan.
I did not check the temperature at serving, but they were too done for me. No pink. However, we did not have a single person ask for something more rare. They were fork tender and very flavorful & I had a number of people come up to me saying that they were much better than last years. IMO they were not, but this bunch clearly does not like pink & their opinion is what counts.
For those who might do something similar, here are the amounts I cooked and how it worked out.
80 people....probably 50 guys.
Prime Rib- Cooked 4 with a total weight of 58 lbs. Had one slice left over.
Shrimp- Peel & eat...large, beautiful and fresh off the boat from a friend in LA that owns a shrimp trawler. Served both as an appetizer and on the buffet line. I cooked about 25 lbs. of these and had maybe 10 lbs. left over. Only surprise of the night.
Green Beans- Cooked 4 #10 cans with smoked ham and onion...about 100 servings. Had about 6 servings left over.
Baked Potatoes- Cooked 75 and had about 10 left.
Salad- Used 2 of the Mixed Spring Greens from Sam's and one of their 2# bags of mixed lettuce/carrots etc., plus cherry tomatoes and cucumber slices. Probably 5 lbs. total and had about 1/3 of it left.
Disclaimer: All presented FWIW and YMMV. It worked for me and my customer last night:-) Sorry for the long post.........Best.............John

[smokendink71]

sounds like it worked out fine for you, good job.