Bonless prime rib roast...need some expert advice.

[JohnDS]

I just did a 16 lb boneless prime rib I bought at Costco. I salted it and left in uncovered in the fridge for about 15 hours. Then I took it out, rubbed it with olive oil and put an herb seasoning on it (salt/pepper/garlic/rosemary/thyme/sage). I left it to come to room temperature for a couple of hours. I then put it on my smoker at 225˚. It was done in 5 hours, much before I expected it or wanted it. Watch your probes!

That's kind of scary because the heygrillhey.com site a couple of people recommended is saying 35min per pound. Yours is like 18.75min per pound. That would suck for me. I have a 20Lb roast and that's quite a discrepancy in time.

 

[Beach Bum]

That's kind of scary because the heygrillhey.com site a couple of people recommended is saying 35min per pound. Yours is like 18.75min per pound. That would suck for me. I have a 20Lb roast and that's quite a discrepancy in time.

I looked at my cooking notes. My last couple have been about 40 minutes per pound at 225 on my bull. Someone else suggested cutting. If you are doing a full seven bone size, I would consider cutting it into the three and four bone sections. I have done a full seven once without any cutting in an oven. Most often I am smoking a four bone section, which is also the plan for this year.

 

[Gonefishin]

That's kind of scary because the heygrillhey.com site a couple of people recommended is saying 35min per pound. Yours is like 18.75min per pound. That would suck for me. I have a 20Lb roast and that's quite a discrepancy in time.

To be fair, this cook didn't exactly follow HGH's writeup, might explain part of the discrepancy. Boneless vs bone in, nothing in the writeup about leaving it to come up to room temp, which was done for 2 hrs.

Getting a cook to finish perfectly at a preset time has always been a stumbling block for me. I've found it works better if I can call a projected finish time when it's 30-60 minutes away.

Have you ever noticed on an online recipe that there may be hundreds of folks that give it 5 stars, but if you read the comments under the recipe almost all of them tweak the recipe? How can it be 5 stars if you had to change it?

 

[Puck60]

I just did a 7 lb Rib Roast Friday. Seasoned with Meat Church Holy Cow and MC Herb Garlic Seasoning. Placed in oven @ 500 degrees for 15 minutes after the roast reached room temp and then place it on the RT 590 at 225. Pulled when internal temp was 120. I like rare meat and my wife said this was the best compared to cooking in the oven.

 

[MJ Pogns]

John,

You are right - that's a big difference in time! I had been planning on 30 minutes per pound at 225˚, plus 15 min sear, plus one hour standing, and it was done several hours too early for me. Learn from my mistake!

After googling a bunch, here's the best explanation I found.

Imagine you have a 3 bone prime rib that's, say, 8" long.
And now imagine you have a 35 bone prime rib that's 8 feet long (imagine that animal!) and a RecTeq smoker big enough to handle that piece.

These two pieces will take virtually the same amount of time to cook. The heat only has to penetrate from the outside to the center, which is the same distance in both pieces.

I think your 20 lb prime rib will cook in exactly the same amount of time as my 16 lb prime rib, assuming they are both boneless, and started at the same temp and were cooked at the same temp. Yours is 4 lbs more, but it will NOT take 2 more hours (at 30 min/lb)

I hope this helps. Good luck, and tell us how you did. And tell us how you ended up thawing that chunk of meat, and how long it took.

MJ

 

[JohnDS]

So the prime rib roast turned out great. What began as a 20LB untrimmed boneless roast, we had a change of plans and decided to cut it in half and trim 3Lbs of fat off. That left us with a 7Lb roast. After dry brining it for 24hrs, I took it out of the fridge and coated it with Mrs. O'Leary's Cow Crust plus another quick hit of salt on the outside. It was only out of the fridge for about 20-30min, just to rub, then put on at 225°. Thank God I put on at 12pm noon instead of 3am. It was done in 4 or 5 hours!!! In any event, it came out great and I thank you all for your input and help. Pics below.

 

[Waterboy]

Did you keep it at 225 for the whole cook? That looks like a great crusty bark for 225. Might have to pick up some Mrs. O’Leary’s Cow Crust.

 

[JohnDS]

Did you keep it at 225 for the whole cook? That looks like a great crusty bark for 225. Might have to pick up some Mrs. O’Leary’s Cow Crust.

Actually, 225 until it hit 120, I removed and let sit 20-30min on counter, while sitting, I turned it up to 400, put back on until 130 internal. Just make sure if you use the smoker to sear it, make sure it's clean from prior cooks. I made this mistake with wings once. I did wings at 225, then turned to 400 and all the prior grease made a bunch of white smoke and ruined the wings. Otherwise, if you're lazy or forget, just use the house oven.

So now, what I do is, if I know I'll be turning it up on a future cook, I'll clean it as usual, but also turn it up all the way as high as it goes to burn everything off, so after the meat is ready, I can simply increase temp without worrying about cleaning.