Standing rib roast

Last weekend (1/22/06) I decided to smoke a standing rib roast in my new smoker. I followed a simple recipe I found on http://bbq.about.com. All I did was rub the roast with olive oil (after letting it sit out for an hour or so), sprinkled with kosher salt (the recipe didn’t call for this, but I added it anyway), then sprinkled with granulated garlic, and coated the entire roast with cracked black pepper.

Before any of this began, I set up the smoker so it could pre-heat to around 250 deg.

For the smoke, I used a few different woods: Maple, mesquite and oak (I used another one but I don’t remember what it was).

The cook time in the recipe called for 2 to 3 hours. My actual cook tome was about 1.75 hours.

It was a little struggle at first for me to keep the temperature between 225 and 250, but once I got the hang of it, it wasn’t too bad.

During the smoke process, the exterior of the smoker remained cool, with the exception of the seams where two pieces of metal met. This was also a spot where some smoke was lost as well, but very little.

Also, the water pan seemed to dry up way too quickly. I could tell when the water pan was dry, because the temp would shoot up quickly. Adding water was not a lot of fun, as the water drawer slides bound up under the heat. This forced me to poor the water in without pulling the tray out, causing some of the water to spill through the smoke holes into the burners. On one this extinguished the fire.

I am also wondering if the thermometer is inaccurate, causing my shore cook time. I will have to add a second thermometer to be sure.

Also, another thing I observed is that when there was water in the pan, I struggled to keep the cooking temp high enough, but where there was no water, I struggled to keep the temp low enough.

Next time, I think I may experiment by getting the temp up to where I want it (without water), then setting it to low and see if it maintains temp. I also may try sand, as suggested in some websites I’ve seen.

Any way, the Roast came out excellent! Not as smoky as I would have hoped, but it was my first try and the thing had plenty of flavor.

My next endeavor will be brisket.