My first Beef Clod


 

Mark Combs

TVWBB Member
This weekend I smoked a beef clod for the 1st time. It was a test run for an event I am doing next weekend where I am cooking for 150+. Already planning on doing 6-8 pork shoulders, but wanted to do beef as well. Contemplated brisket, but given the price point of the clod, thought I would give it a shot. At $1 less per pound than brisket, a little more economical.

The rub was a slight variation of the midnight cook rub on this site:

1/4 cup blk pepper
1/4 cup table salt
1/4 cup paprika
2 TB garlic powder
2 TB onion powder
2 TB sriracha seasoning
2 tsp ground mustard

Started with a 22.67 lb clod from restaurant depot. Loaded the 22 WSM with Kingsford blue. Used pecan, oak, and mesquite for the wood (trying to empty some bags that were lying around). Trimmed some of the larger pockets of fat, probably 3-6 lbs removed. Rubbed the meat, let it sit for about an 1-2 hrs while getting everything else ready. Based on what I had read, I was anticipating about a 20 hr cook. No ATC, and did not crutch at all. Reloaded the smoker with water and briquettes about midnight, and that carried thru the night.

Had everything loaded and cooking around 430pm Friday. Had planned on a noon finish, ended up being about 830 am. I downloaded the graph from my Thermoworks Smoke. The spike around midnight is the reload of another bag of charcoal. I may also have to invest in an ATC, but can't make up my mind on which one I want.

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The temp was a hair under 185, and it was foiled, wrapped in towels and placed in a cooler for about 3 hours. Took it over to a friend's house who was cooking a breakfast for some of his son's buddies from high school who are home from college.

It was not as fatty as a brisket, yet still pretty moist. Think it maybe could have been a little juicier, had I pulled it from the cooker a little sooner, but I really did not anticipate it being "done" in 16 hours. The problem with these long cooks is you start drinking earlier, and unfortunately (at least not last night), I didn't stop any sooner than normal- in fact went much later than I probably should have. Damn near drank a beer for each pound of meat I think.

I sliced up a little up, but then decided to shred the rest. Pulled apart fairly easily. For a large group, this will do the trick- not sure how it compares to a nck off chuck roll- but still about $1 cheaper per pound. Will have to give one of those a try at some point in the near future.

Will try another couple clods next weekend, and welcome any thoughts or tips from others as there is not as much info out there on this cut (compared to brisket and others), which is a real shame as I thought the flavor was really good.
 
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That looks good to me!! I was curious about that cut of meat when I read Chris' article about it. But, I haven't seen it anywhere yet. Since I haven't done one, feel free to disregard, but what about injecting?
 
Hi Dan, in some of the videos I have seen, some do inject the meat. As this was my 1st time cooking, wanted to try it without injecting. Ballistic bbq has a couple of videos out there where he shows the injection he uses.

When I cook them this weekend, I may experiment with injecting one, and cook the other the same as I did this one— see if there is any noticeable difference. The other thing I will likely do different is try to get it off the smoker at about 180, as opposed to 185.

I didn’t have anyone saying that what I cooked was “dry” in the test run, but to me, it was not as juicy as I have had with a brisket. As I was not concerned with slicing, I just shredded the meat and poured any drippings from the foil and cutting board over the top in the pot. Not gonna lie, was happy to have the pro pork puller hooked up to the drill; as not sure I wanted to pull with the bear claws. I don’t mind cooking, but I have grown tired of shredding meat.
 
I've had it a few times at Lockhart Smokehouse in Dallas, Tx. They seem to not cook it up to brisket temperatures and they slice it thinner than brisket, maybe closer to what you'd get on roast beef sandwich. It's delicious. I'm not sure what the finishing temperature range would be.
 
First time I have heard of this cut of beef. Looks great to me, thanks for sharing.
 
One more thing to try! Chuck Roll might have to come first but, I’ll be limited to Kettle work for a while, going to the cottage!
 
I think I will also have to try a chuck roll, as have not done one before.

I made 2 more clods last week, along with 6 pork butts. Unfortunately, I did not capture any pictures (I'll blame it on the heat and beer).

I did tweak the rub I used for those two, by adding some Chili Powder. Mind you, the amount of rub I made was more than sufficient for both of these, and in fact, could likely have done 1-2 more clods with the remaining rub.

Here is what I used in this cook according to my scribbled notes:

1 cup salt
1 cup black pepper
1 cup Paprika
1/2 cup garlic powder
1/2 cup onion powder
2.5 TB dry mustard
4 TB Sriracha seasoning
3 TB Chili powder

With the 2nd cook, i also pulled it off at 180 as opposed to 185. It did not have much time to rest after I pulled it off. Only had about 30 mins before I had to drop in a pot and shred the meat.

In total it was 41.89 lbs (1@21.46, 1@20.43) of beef, and 47.59lbs (2@, 15.03, 2@17.13, 2@15.43) of pork shoulder. For the 150+ that were in attendance, it was more than enough, and was a hair over $180 for all the meat.
 
When I used to pick orders of meat at a major grocery warehouse I used to see cases and large cryos of it quite a bit as "Shoulder Clod." I can honestly say I have never seen it packaged as a whole clod in any stores. Pretty sure most places cut it up and sell it as chuck (which it technically is).
 
Sure wish I'd seen your post earlier Mark. Guess I should cruise the recipe threads more often. Your cook looks fabulous. I'm a bark fanatic and your's is outstanding. Very interesting write up too. I've been researching Clod cooks and the only thing holding me back is an occasion suited to that amount of meat. Keep those posts coming. I've watched the Ballistic vid you mentioned a couple of times. Gotta do one soon. BTW, I use the BBQ Guru Cloud and love it.
 

 

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