I have a 160

I did a standing rib roast (I think that is what I am supposed to call a prime rib) this weekend

7.4 lbs

my plan was to cook it to 126 internal and then hold the oven at 140 for 3-4 hours to get a little extra smoke.

set it at 250

calculated 1.5 hours @ 12 min per lb per the forum

I got it to 126, (it took almost 1 hour longer then I thought it would)

I opened the door for about 4 min, put it on hold @ 135,

when I went out to check on it 20 mins or so later the actual temp inside the smoker kept going back to 240 range.

so I turned it off and on... actually had to unplug it because turning it off did not reset the control panel

opened the door for another good 3 to 4 min and then set it at 135 hold

it kept pushing the smoker temp up above 200, it ended up pushing the internal to 155, at that point I just unplugged it and kept it closed until dinner another 2 hours.

what was I doing wrong?

Thanks

reelBBQ

i have run into something similar with my sm150. what i think occured to you is the wood caught fire. the same thing had me baffled for awhile as i never really saw any flame just a spike in my remote after opening the door that wouldn't go away. finially worked my nerve up and just thru opened the door and yep got flame and that matched my previous spikes.
based on the time you gave that's my best guess.
don't know if it helped any but i hope it does.
jack
ps. for me the learning curve on the sm150 was a lot tougher than my fec100. but since i have learned it's little nuances i really love my sm an find i am using it more and more to the point that if we can get our own restaurant the 2 sm's we already own will for sure be the workhorses and the fec will be our overage containment device
pps. been a long day please excuses all the ps's. ok did you hit the reset button?? it's all the way at the bottom. if you turn it off you will have to wait about 5 mins since the memory will hold your settings that long-reset will instantly blank that sucker out.
250 setting-for fun put a remote thermo down the exhaust hole. if your's is like mine a 250 setting will spike to about 300f+/-. while my average temps over a cook for brisket or pork will match the panel temp on a long cook that can give you a problem on a short cook.(this explains why my 150 set at 300f will shut down due to temp overrun).
saw the part abut holding at 140 to get extra smoke. next time try this-reverse your order-go 140 for your smoke for xxxx number of time and then kick up but there is an easier way. put your meat in dead cold into a dead cold smoker. reduce your temp 25f and go from there.

Jack
Thanks for all the great insight!

never even considered the wood on fire, I'll look for that ... the other thing I was thinking is the small meat load relative to the size of the cookshack was wondering if that was my problem.

I've only done 4 or 5 smokes so far so I am getting to know her. and I am totally new to smokin.. I've noticed the temp swings... thought that was just me.

did not know about the reset button, I'll look for that when I get home, probably right in front of me. completely forgot about the 5 min rule ... Tom told me about that when he showed me his ... for power outages...that makes sense...

I like the idea of reversing the temps low to high. What I saw on the forum was high to low and I was just following that advice. I thought maybe there was some food safty issue that I was unaware of.

The good news is the in-laws were so impressed with the smoke flavor they had no idea that I thought it was a little over done. And I had a great time smokin.

Thanks again for the help!

Tim

Hang in there,you're doing great.

Let me hear from you,anytime.

Reel BBQ - I do these regularly now in the 009. There can be a food safety issue going low to high. Here is possibly where you went wrong; you took the roast temp too high before you lowered the temp on the smoker. Holding at 140 is not for extra smoke; it's for slow roasting. The 009 takes approximately 2 hours to get a roast this size to 108/9, which is when I open the door for a good 15 minutes to lower the temp, and then turn down to 140. I then hold at 140, which takes about 4 hours to reach 127 internal. This lets the juices redistribute thoughout the roast. I personally don't put wood in the box; I load with garlic and rosemary. Good luck on your next one!

Hey Tom

All is well over on the beach I hope!

we almost got Bar-B-qued by the fire @ Wickham Park last weekend! was coaching a soccer game for one of the kids and started to see the smoke and red glow not to far away.

thanks for the words of encouragement!

Tim

Might be worthwhile checking out Alton Brown's prime rib recipe on foodnetwork.com. I use it when I do prime rib and it turns out great.

LA BBQ

Definitely did not leave it open that long. Looking back that would have made a big difference, but at the time it seemed sort of counter intuitive. Also I took it too high... did not give myself any room to work with. that is probably a good lesson in all my smoking.

I used a couple of sprigs of rosemary and a few garlic cloves along with the hickory wood... per the forums (probably yours suggestion. I think next time I will also do more of a roasted garlic ... take a couple of heads, leave them whole, cut off the tops, put them in foil, add some olive oil and let the roast with the PR. great aroma maybe it will add some flavor, Does anyone put a pan under the roast to catch the drippings to make a sauce?

I am a little confused on the food safety issue. ... Now I believe I read in the 101 series that 40 to 140 is the
danger zone ... we want to minimize the time here right? but how long is too long. does low to high get you more smoke flavor with some added risk? and high to low have a lower risk but give you less smoke flavor.... is there a tradeoff or am I confused? Is the issue because we are going to only 126?

Thanks

Tim

reel,
don't get hung up too much in details.
saw the part about the in-laws.
you scored major brownie points there!!!!
never underestimate the power of brownie points. been married to the same girl 35 years now and those brownies come in handy
jack

35 years ...now that is something to shoot for!

love to hear that!