WOW!! This is one tough cut of meat!!
Sorry for the delay! I posted some pics on my web page and it took some extra time to do.
Cooked up 2, 3 lb. chuck eye roasts.
Prepared one like a brisket......used Ken Stone's Gilded Splinters Rub. The other one I made a pot roast dinner for us.
I cooked them both for 3 1/2 hrs. at temps of 235-250?. I got behind this morning so wanted to hurry things along a bit.
After 3 1/2 hours, the pot roast temp was at 158? so I added my veggies and foiled the top of the pan. The other roast was still reading around 150?. I let the temps climb to 250? and cooked them for another 2 hours(total time...5 1/2 hrs.).
Then things started getting confusing!! The pot roast was registering 201? so I thought it may be about done. However the other one was still registering 154?. Not a problem...yet. I figured the steaming effect was accelerating the cooking of the pot roast.
Upon taking the pot roast out, I poked and prodded and noticed that many parts of the thing were not close to being finished! So I measured the temps and, low and behold, several places registered only 160-164?.
I then went back out and poked and prodded the other one and found the same problem....several parts reading under 150?!
If you go back to the pic of the raw meat, you will notice about 6 or 7 muscle groups that are part of it. The only tender part at this point was the biggest muscle...and of course this is where the thermo was. All the other smaller muscles were cooler.
It was dinner time and the veggies were done so I sliced it up and we ate. The slices were very tender and juicy, but defintely not fall apart and shreddable.
OK, now what do I do with the other one??? First thing, jack the temp up to 260?. It has been 6 hours now and the darn thing still reads 154?. I gave it another hour and still only 158?. Now, for those keeping track of time, it has been 7 hours total..that is over 2 hrs./lb. with no end in sight.
I foiled and cooked another 2 1/2 hrs. I unwrapped to check and the temps were finally reading over 190? in the tender part but still in the 180's in those smaller muscle groups.
Here is what it looked like at that point....
Well, upon poking and prodding some more, this thing started falling apart...FINALLY! Very tender with most of the fat rendered out and it pulled just as easily as a pork butt. The smell was amazing and the taste even better.
Total cook time was 9 1/2 hours with almost 3hrs. of it in foil and cooker temps between 250-260?! The internal temps were very misleading even with accurate thermo's. I think this is a case of internal temps being meaningless...the amount of time cooked appears far more important.
I can only conclude....this is one tough piece of meat that needs to be cooked for a long, long time. Mine came out to 3 hrs./lb. at cooker temps bewtween 240-260? and foiling for 3 hours.
Even with all that work, I will do it again as chuck is very inexpensive. But, I think you need to foil and cook at these higher temps if you want to eat in the same day.
I will post some pics of my set-up and the new BBQ cart in action later. Gotta get to bed!
Hope this helps and I will gladly answer any questions in the morning!
