prime rib

I would say that it's overkill. Go with the previous recipes posted in the forum (some really good ones in the last week or so). As long as you keep an eye on the internal temp, it's hard to overcook a PR.

You're more than welcome to do what you want,but me, I wouldn't cook under 150*. I like to error on the side of safety and that should stop any growth of bacteria on the surface or in the cooker.

I know there seems to be a LOT of experts on smoking, but I've come to believe that the temp 180* is the point that you can cook with minimal drying effect for beef, but hey, I'm NO expert so take the advice for what you paid for it.

At 150* it will take 6-6.5 hrs for rare!

^^^^^ What he said...'cept I'd do it at 180* all the way. What do you gain at the lower temp.

it's not so much the temp; use whatever you prefer as it will effect the length of your cook time. The advantage to low and slow cook for PR is to obtain minimal over-cooking the exterior, therefore maintaining maximum rare or medium-rare meat, whatever your preference. Of course if you have quest who are more to the well-done end of the spectrum then cook at high temp all the way and you'll get a wider range of doneness for carving. For me, I like the 210ish range for minimum over-cook exterior and maximum rare interior, as well as a reasonable cook time of around 4.5 hours. And for PR I don't add wood to the smoker.

Here's my pic of minimal gray ring for PR that works for bone-in or not: Prime Rib

That's beautiful. I did my last one at 190* half way then 225* for the balance. Best ever.

I cooked a 14 lb boneless rib roast last week on a barrel wood fueled smoker with a fire box off the side using oak. I started in a cold smoker, during the cooking temp varied between 180-212 and it took 5 hrs to 130 meat temp. When the roast hit 130, the smoker temp had cooled to 180 and roast temp was not climbing fast. 30 minutes before I pulled off the roast, smoker was 190 and roast was 128. I had a hot grill that I seared for 4-5 minutes a side and then cut and served and it came out great. Looked about like TN Q pic. I'm not sure what advantage you would have by cooking any cooler as 95% or more of the roast I cooked was the same, med rare. Not hardly a gray ring at all. Just one slice on each end med well.

TN Q, how do you prepare your eggs when they come out or just serve them as they are?

Great info! Thanks to everyone! This is obviously my first PR so need all the help I can get! Any thoughts on if it will help, or not, to do the f-t-c method and for how many hours? I am trying to figure out what time in the morning I need to start the process so I can plan a serve time. Thanks again!

Yes, it does need a rest. IF you foil after you sear, you will loss your crust. I FTC mine for at least one hour and usually 1.5 hrs for the rest and then sear on my oven for 10 minutes on 550*. It then is ready for immediate carving.

If this is you 1st prime rib, I'd suggest taking a look at Smokin's PDF on prime rib... LINK!

I recently read a recipe in CooksIllustrated that started off with "Top chefs say that 18 hours in a 120-degree oven is the route to prime rib perfection. So what's a home cook to do?"

Now I have a hard time believing all that and my first thought was 'food safety'. Don't know how they can do that other than I think they also suggest using a blow torch to sear the meat before cooking.

Anyway, here's the recipe they finally came up with. YMMV

As for me, I'm going to cook mine at about 180 which is a lot lower than I usually do PR and then I'm going to do the 10 minute sear in the oven.

When searing at 550*, keep an eye on it. You may have to pull it before 10 minutes. Enjoy.

I smoked the rib at 160 for 7.5 hrs. turned out perfectly medium rare! Let it rest for 2 hrs then seared on the grill. Most amazing PR I have ever eaten! Very little juice rand out when slicing! Almost didnt need a knife to cut in to bites! Thanks for all of the advice!