Prime Rib Experiment - Drip Pan or not?

[spartanhuntr]

Hey guys.

Just thought i would throw out some outcomes from my Christmas experiment. This was my second Christmas to make a prime rib. Last year (2018) it was simply amazing. Everyone from my 6 year old son to my hard to please father went nuts about how amazing it was. Facts were a Costco Prime cut. Herbbutter crust i made and sitting right on the grill grates.

This year (2019) i changed one thing as i saw on youtube a recommendation that i sit a drip pan / cookie sheet under it with a raised rack so the air could still circulate but i could catch the drippings of the herbbutter crust/seasoning i did and the rendered fats. Same cut of meet. Same spices (hefer dust and espresso rub). same pellets.

There was a noticeable difference in the Prime Rib. Don't get me wrong. It was still good. No complaints. But it certainly lacked the same intensity of smoke flavors. There is NO doubt in my mind that the drip pan did interfere with the flow of the smoke. It tasted roasted versus smoked. The positive is that the the au jus was off the charts. I mean it was succulent. Imagine a full brick of irish butter, fresh garlic, sage, rosemary and then the two seasonings in a juice. BUT the Prime Rib was not as good. It tasted a bit more like what you would get at a nice Holiday Buffet somewhere. Tasty but unremarkable.

Any other results like this? Any of you Maestros out there know how to capture both? It would be easy to say i will just go back to no drip pan but let me tell you, the au jus was so good people were using it on their potatoes instead of the gravy. And, i ended up throwing almost a whole dish of my horseradish sauce because few used it compared to the au jus.

Thoughts?

 

[Uncle Bob]

I'm no maestro but your reasoning about the drip pan/rack combination you used might be a conceivable contributor to what you experienced. I will add though, that each piece of meat reacts differently in spite of cut and grade.

Perhaps a different rack setup that elevates the chunk of protein and allows more air flow and still catches the "nectar". Something like this might work better and has other uses as well to justify the added cost. You'll note it also has the smoke adder devices mounted just under the protein rack which could further enhance. Other alternative could be the accessory rack that RT offers coupled with a low profile drip pan would have better elevation than a typical cooling rack in cookie sheet type of deal. Probably other choices as well, just thinking that a multi task solution would be helpful.

 

[Roaniecowpony]

The other difference you may have experienced is the meat drippings smoking off and influencing flavor in the meat. When you catch the drippings, no smoke from them...

I've smoked meats with a raised grate and drip pan in a komado and still gotten good smoke flavor.