Happy Valentines day! I was enlisted to provide the protein for this year’s family gathering and thought what better than a prime rib. I’ve never smoked one, so it’s perfect. Crazy running through the hundreds of posts on here.. and not one prime rib. My other gap is adding some seafood: for sure, some salmon will be coming in 2025.
Anyway, today was the day for prime rib. Because this was my “test run” prime rib, I found a small guy over at the local Walmart: perfect, since MrsForensicBBQ won’t provide any input other than “gross”. When you see the paragraph that starts with “🐈⬛” – Mrs is providing her input.
🐈⬛: Mr. FBBQ is correct- I am less than helpful when it comes to assisting in anything meaty. It is, indeed, gross. I was tasked with making the sides. I chose sweet potatoes (one of my all-time faves) and Brussels Sprouts (also a fave, but Mr. FBBQ had a recipe for Brussels that we thought we would try). For the Sweets, see my Sweet Potato Post for a delicious recipe!
The Prep Table
We’re going to smoke the prime rib, make a creamy horseradish sauce and Mrs is going to make some sweet potatoes and brussels sprouts. Big ol’ meal, let’s do it.
🐈⬛: Let’s get moving on the Brussels as well!! In addition to our sprouts, we will need honey and balsamic vinegar.
🐈⬛: And gross fatty meat
Found a lot of different ways to cook this thing. The one that was most intriguing to me was to coat the entire thing in butter. Not only would it provide a “what the..” kind of reaction from the pictures, but it’ll provide a “what the..” kind of reaction from my heart and arteries. Win/win. Let’s chop up some rosemary and garlic and add it to the butter. A lot of butter.
🐈⬛: For the Brussels Sprouts, it called for them being baked in the oven at a high temp for a decent amount of time. Next time, I will steam them a bit first as I didn’t think they were fully cooked. Mr. FBBQ saw nothing wrong with them. So I guess they were edible. They tasted good, Just could’ve been a little softer.
Kinda softened, could’ve been better, but it did the job. This was a crazy amount of butter. We’re going to slather it all around the meat and save the run-off for later. I thought the melted butter/meat juice would make a great finishing sauce – but I’ll spoil it up front: unnecessary. It was rich enough, I didn’t not need to make it richer-er.
🐈⬛: But, before we talk about cooking the Brussels, we need to prep them! Cut the stems off and place them in a bowl.
The Process
This was a 225F cook until it started looking cooked and then I threw the thermometer in there. No doubt, I’m cooking it rare for sure. We’re going to sear it post-smoke, so it’ll be cooked through. Now, highest I’ll go for this is medium-rare.. and when I finished this up, Mrs said her family wouldn’t do it. Too “bloody”. So my “tester prime rib” became the only prime rib and I switched plans. Keep scrolling, let me know if it’s too “bloody”.
🐈⬛: Next, douse the Brussels with balsamic vinegar.
Tried to time this as best I could with what Mrs was doing in the kitchen – and I missed the time by about a half hour or so. Wasn’t too bad, but she had the kitchen smelling amazing, and I was hungry. We tried a different flavor to the sprouts, I’ll let her tell you how they turned out.
🐈⬛: Then add honey to the bowl with the Brussels sprouts. Mix everything together and bake it at 425 degrees until they’re soft.
Now, when I pulled this off, I tented it in foil and we’re going to finish it off with a sear. I dumped out the butter juice into a mason jar, and kept it warm. We’re going to use the GrillGrates to get that perfect even sear and see what it looks like seared off. This is when them potatoes and sprouts were done – so I’d poke back into the kitchen and eat a tater or two. Had to tent the meat so the cats wouldn’t do cat things to it.
🐈⬛: The cats would likely sample the gross meat. Most of the canned soft food we feed them looks similar to Mr. FBBQ’s loaf.
We’re seared, Mrs was fed. Time to plate and complete my test run.
🐈⬛: As always, the Sweet Potatoes turned out delicious!! The Brussels weren’t bad but I’d do some stuff differently next time. This is how we learn!!
The Result
The slice is when I knew we were looking good. Of course, as hard as I try, I couldn’t eat the entire thing. My leftovers were incredible, because I’d throw a slice or two into an oiled pan and came out just as good. This thing was juicy, and the garlic/rosemary butter was awesome.
🐈⬛: So. Gross.
The prime rib was a success, the horseradish sauce was not. I should’ve went back to the Tenderloin post and used that recipe, because this one did not turn out as well. The meat though – was awesome. The potatoes/sprouts were also awesome. She was a lil’ critical of the sprouts, but I thought they were just fine. I mentioned above, I did not need to throw the butter meaty juice because this thing was juicy enough on its own.
Happy Valentine’s Day to y’all, but especially to my wife. She’s the best, she’s mine – even if I leave “meaty bits” in the kitchen sink far too often.
🐈⬛: Happy Valentine’s Day everybody! Especially my husband, who is also the best. Even if he leaves “meaty bits” not only in the kitchen sink, but everywhere.