Beef Shoulder Muscle


 
C

ChadVKealey

TVWBB Pro
I've done some research and found videos on how to cook a "beef shoulder clod", but what I have is labeled as "beef shoulder muscle". It's boneless and seems to have a cap of soft fat on one side with some other veins of fat within. Doesn't look to be as fatty as a boston butt (which, I think, is the closest porcine equivalent).

At any rate, I've got two of them, one about 6.5# and the other about 7.3#. Was planning to trim some of the fat and rub with equal parts kosher salt and coarse-ground pepper, maybe a little garlic power, tonight. Then, start them on the WSM at 250 starting at about 7 AM tomorrow with a couple chunks of cherry or hickory. They're for a function on Sunday afternoon, so I'm under no pressure to have them done for dinner Saturday.

I don't know temp wise what will be "done", so I figure I'll start checking for tenderness with a skewer once they hit about 160-170. I'm generally not a foiler, but I might put these on racks in foil pans to save the drippings. I also don't know what to expect from the finished product. Most of the info on shoulder clod says that it's best served sliced (like brisket), but some parts are better for pulling/shredding. I'm hoping it stays together enough to run through the slicer (after it's cooled) since I'm planning to crock-pot it with some au jus for sandwiches.

Any tips, tricks or advice are greatly welcome.
 
ChadVKealey said:
I've done some research and found videos on how to cook a "beef shoulder clod", but what I have is labeled as "beef shoulder muscle". It's boneless and seems to have a cap of soft fat on one side with some other veins of fat within. Doesn't look to be as fatty as a boston butt (which, I think, is the closest porcine equivalent).

At any rate, I've got two of them, one about 6.5# and the other about 7.3#. Was planning to trim some of the fat and rub with equal parts kosher salt and coarse-ground pepper, maybe a little garlic power, tonight. Then, start them on the WSM at 250 starting at about 7 AM tomorrow with a couple chunks of cherry or hickory. They're for a function on Sunday afternoon, so I'm under no pressure to have them done for dinner Saturday.

I don't know temp wise what will be "done", so I figure I'll start checking for tenderness with a skewer once they hit about 160-170. I'm generally not a foiler, but I might put these on racks in foil pans to save the drippings. I also don't know what to expect from the finished product. Most of the info on shoulder clod says that it's best served sliced (like brisket), but some parts are better for pulling/shredding. I'm hoping it stays together enough to run through the slicer (after it's cooled) since I'm planning to crock-pot it with some au jus for sandwiches.

Any tips, tricks or advice are greatly welcome.
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I don't know a lot about it, but it seems like you wouldn't want to cook it to something like 200 internal. I've got a recipe somewhere at home in a book, but I'm thinking you wanna cook it to something like 165, then slice. You'll probably wanna slice it thinner than brisket.
 
Dustin Dorsey said:
I don't know a lot about it, but it seems like you wouldn't want to cook it to something like 200 internal. I've got a recipe somewhere at home in a book, but I'm thinking you wanna cook it to something like 165, then slice. You'll probably wanna slice it thinner than brisket.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the info. I was planning on using my new deli slicer for it, so "thinner than brisket" shouldn't be a problem. The upside is that anything beyond 13-ish is "safe" to eat with beef, and slicing it deli-thin should help with tenderness as long as I don't overcook it and it dries up.
 
Shoulder clod is one of the offerings at Kreuz Market in Lockhart. It seems that they cook it much like brisket -- to tenderness. You're right, it's a bit leaner than brisket and has a milder, yet still beefy taste. I've had it a couple of times, but prefer brisket. My wife likes it quite a lot. Good luck and let us know how it comes out.

Jeff
 
Chad.

I have done beef neck/clod before. But I've only done it for pulling. I did it low and slow until 195[SUP]o[/SUP]f, then start checking for doneness. When you can put a fork in it and twirl it like spaghetti you're done. Wrap in foil/towel & into a cooler to rest for about an hour or two then pull.
 
So, I ended up trimming all of the visible fat & silverskin off of one and trimming the other a bit less aggressively (left most of the silverskin on it). Then I gave each a liberal dose of salt, pepper and granulated garlic and wrapped in plastic overnight.

Saturday morning, I got the WSM up to 250 and placed them in there, smaller (more trimmed one) on the lower grate and the larger (less trimmed one) on the upper. Meat probe was inserted into the lower one. It took only 4 hours for them to hit 160-170 and poking with a skewer and instant-read thermometer showed them to be fairly tender at that point. Fearing they would dry out (there wasn't a lot of visible marbling), I decided to pull them out, foil and rest. Here's one just before wrapping at a temp of 168:


The short cook time worked well because I could now use the WSM for some wings (that's another story for another thread). But, after a rest of about 3 hours, when the temps dropped to a comfortable handling range (130-ish), I unwrapped them and ran through my new slicer, resulting in this:


Taste-wise, it was pretty good. Not brisket-like at all, but more like a smokey roast beef (which is really what is was). Texture-wise, it was fairly tender, but it was hard to identify the direction of the grain in order to cut across it. Also, they each had a thick (maybe 1/8" to 1/4") vein of gristle running down the center. I ended up hand-cutting to remove that and then running the remaining chunks through the slicer. Chilling the meat would probably have made slicing easier, but it wasn't terribly difficult. I also saved the juices from both (probably about 1 to 1-1/2 cups) and adding that to the pans of sliced meat. I then foiled & fridged them.

Unfortunately, reheating 1-1/2 of the pans worth in the crock-pot the next day wasn't the best move. Some of the smokiness was lost, and the texture got a bit stringy, but the flavor was OK.

In the end, I wasn't overly thrilled with the outcome. Maybe leaving them in longer (to 195, and Tony suggested) would have given me a better result. I don't think that gristle would have broken down though, and there really didn't seem to be enough fat to keep it from drying out, so I didn't want to risk it. If I can get it at a good price (under $3/lb), I'll probably try this cut again, but will inject with some beef broth and whole garlic and cook it longer. At the price I paid ($3.99/lb), I can just get brisket and know what to expect.
 
I found that recipe in my copy of Legends of Texas Barbecue cookbook. By Robb Walsh for beef shoulder muscle. It does say 165. The recipe is from Rick Schmidt in Lockhart. My thinking is It'd completely fall apart at higher temps and it's naturally more tender than brisket. I haven't cooked it myself though.
 
Could always make burgers out of it (with a bit--~20%-- mixed in when grinding). Obviously, not smoked b4 grinding ;)
 
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