Standing Rib Roast for Easter

I've wanted to do a standing rib roast for a long time. We just never had an excuse to o that until now. It's a great main course for Easter and they're on sale. I got a 9 1/4 pound roast for $4.99/lb.

 It's a nice looking piece of meat with lots of marbling.

Weather is beautiful today with temps at about 45° at the beginning of the cook and hitting upper 50s midway through. Wind was brisk at first but mid-cook is stiff at 22mph with gusts to 28.

I wrapped the roast it in clean towels for about 3 days for 'dry aging.'  Rub will be simple consisting of salt, pepper and coriander. The plan is to slow cook at about 225° to an IT of about 118°. Then the meat will be rested while a kettle is fired up to 'nuclear' for a nice hot reverse sear.

The initial portion of the cook will be done on the 18.5 WSM (Weber Smokey Mountain.) Water pan will be foiled and left dry. I'm using the Royal Oak briquettes (the sort of dumbbell shaped ones.) I've got some oak with a little mesquite and black walnut for smoking woods. This was my second opportunity to use my new mini-chimney today. :D

time	temp	comment
10:39AM		Lit chimney set on fire lay.
10:51		Lit chimney dumped on the coals and cooker closed up, top vent open and one bottom vent open.
11:05	?/260°/? (meat/grate/lid)	11:05 Closing bottom to about 50% of one vent.
11:17	?/270°/230°	Meat on! Closing the single bottom vent to about 25% and top vent to about 50%
11:27	32°/244°/?	Temp moderate and dropping slowly. Holding off on further adjustment for now. (Open top vent at 11:31)
11:53	36°/239°/200°
1:17 PM	75°/230°/200°
1:53	91°/257°/220°	Temps climbing as wind comes up. 18 mph with gusts to 25. Temperature is now 56°. Closed top vent to about 2/3.
2:16	100°/246°/?	Closed bottom vent to even smaller than before.
3:10	117°/234°/?	Meat off to rest!

(meat/grate/lid) => (ET-732 meat probe, ET-732 cooker probe, lid thermometer)

Here is the roast ready to rest.

After the rest, it went on a screaming hot grill to sear, but I did not keep it on there long as it caused grease fires almost immediately.

The roast came out very well for my first attempt. I sliced off the bones before carving it turned out to be pretty rare. It released almost no moisture while resting but did give up bright red juice while carving. I served end cuts for those who prefer their meat a little more cooked, I also offered to throw some on a hot cast iron pan to finish it a little more but no one took me up on the offer.

Flavor was terrific. Exposed surfaces had a pleasantly smoky flavor and the pepper, salt and coriander worked well with the meat.

Cindy made a fancy fruit salad to go with.

We also had (among other sides) grilled asparagus and Duchess potatoes.

I don't think I would do anything during the cook any differently. Instead of trying to sear on a kettle, I might try using the smoker and just firing it up as hot as I can get it. I think it would also make more sense to trim all of the fat that I can prior to dry aging.