I give up!


 
LMichaels

LMichaels

TVWBB 2-Star Olympian
So, I have now tried multiple times on 2 different smokers to do a chuckie. Worked on this one today since about 1230. Flavor? Outstanding! Eating quality? Awful. Not as awful as the others but awful. I've gotten better but don't want to serve this. Ugh. WTH is the issue for me? I see these people on YouTube turning out chuckies like crazy and they're all great. Don't know what I am doing wrong. I can do brisket and many other things with no trouble. I guess I will save chucks for pressure cooking, pot roast what have you
 
I’ve concluded the same thing. Chuck roasts are for the instant pot for pot roast. Briskets are for smoking (unless I make a Jewish style brisket).
 
Chucks are a tough BBQ. To have a good chuck BBQ, you have to do two cooks. 1) Smoke, 2) Braise. You smoke it to 100 or so degrees as low as you can go pit temp, when it hits 100 IT, you pull it off, wrap it in foil with broth and whatever else floats your boat, and you finish it wrapped in foil. By putting broth in the foil, you're basically braising at that point, which is pretty much was a crockpot does. Both cooks are low and slow, I believe the SF lowest temp is 200 degrees, and that's the temp you want to stay at

YMMV
 
I’ve tried several. Not a fan. They just miss something huge.

And to be fair, no one on YouTube is overly likely to say “this is awful”🤣
 
I’ve only ever done one successful smoked chuck, and it was definitely before I had ANY clue as to what I was doing. Even with detailed notes I cannot reproduce it, because I did not understand what I was seeing during the cooking process. I should pull the notes out again and try to make heads or tails of it all. 😂

It was essentially a smoke followed by a braise as @ChuckO described above.

Around here, equivalent grade of chuck roast is more expensive per pound than brisket, so I figure I might as well do brisket instead. So much for “poor man’s brisket”.
 
My last one, after some disappointments - I decided to wrap it extremely early - I wrapped it at 140 in foil. It was pretty good. I wouldn't serve for Tea with the Queen though.
 
I spun one once for about three hours, it wasn’t bad but, not jaw droppingly good either. I have had an itch to do another for a week or two so, I might see if i fond one this week. Will advise…
 
Now I'm very nervous about smoking another chuck roast; several I've done (though only for burnt ends) were perfect but you're a much better cook than me. I can see myself never being able to turn in a good one from now on, lol.

Is it possible that trying a different brand or source could help?
 
It's not the cost bothering me. It's even if I only buy a small point or flat, it's still WAY too much. I need to find a smaller cut of beef, I can cook on a smoke yet small enough I don't feel I filled the freezer or we're eating leftovers for a month of Sundays.
 
When chuck roasts come to our house its death by meat grinder or instant pot pot roast.
Tried one L&S on the pellet grill about two years ago and that convinced me it was not BBQ fodder.
Like Larry said the flavor was good but even the dogs had a hard time chewing it.
 
LMichaels said:
It's not the cost bothering me. It's even if I only buy a small point or flat, it's still WAY too much. I need to find a smaller cut of beef, I can cook on a smoke yet small enough I don't feel I filled the freezer or we're eating leftovers for a month of Sundays.
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Can relate to that we are still feasting on one a huge pork shoulder I made pulled pork with over a year ago. Still have about 10-12 vacuum sealed bags of the stuff.
 
LMichaels said:
It's not the cost bothering me. It's even if I only buy a small point or flat, it's still WAY too much. I need to find a smaller cut of beef, I can cook on a smoke yet small enough I don't feel I filled the freezer or we're eating leftovers for a month of Sundays.
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There's always beef loin (not the easiest thing to BBQ) I suggest you BBQ a Tri Tip. I had problems with my cook yesterday (grease fire) but I smoked it at 200 until an IT of 100, cranked the grill up to 400, moved the roast directly over the firebox. Everything was great until I flipped it at 115, by opening the grill caused the grease to catch fire, and it was scramble mode then on. I think you'll be very happy with a Tri Tip cook
 
ChuckO said:
Chucks are a tough BBQ. To have a good chuck BBQ, you have to do two cooks. 1) Smoke, 2) Braise. You smoke it to 100 or so degrees as low as you can go pit temp, when it hits 100 IT, you pull it off, wrap it in foil with broth and whatever else floats your boat, and you finish it wrapped in foil. By putting broth in the foil, you're basically braising at that point, which is pretty much was a crockpot does. Both cooks are low and slow, I believe the SF lowest temp is 200 degrees, and that's the temp you want to stay at

YMMV
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THIS^^^^

After the smoke, I’d just recommend turning a chuckle into birria taco meat and get the best of both worlds, smoke and cook one in a chili infused consume.

Smoked chuckles alone are usually too dry and stringy. They must have liquid to be anything like a brisket. But they’ll never be a brisket.
 
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Yeah, love tri tip. Good sized. VERY hard to find. Very rare I come across one, but usually buy it if I do. Today I am throwing on a slab of beef back ribs and another of St Louis ribs. Got oldest daughter and SIL coming. At least those are predictable :D But, done with chuck (for Q). Hoping to find some plate short ribs (dino ribs) soon
 
Well I guess we are not alone. Thanks for posting. I tried a chuck for shredding and was not thrilled. Still tough to shred even after 200° and very fatty. Briskets are still our favorites.
 
It's not you Larry, many of us have the same sentiments.

If you're going to smoke a chuckie, turn it in to pepper stout beef. That's some good eating.
 
Here is a recipe I've used several times - an old pre-Sns kettle (Adreneline BBQ) recipe using the classic Weber kettle with some Sns accessories.

 
So here is something interesting. I took the cold leftover roast from the fridge. Got one of my razor sharp breaking knives and did very thing slices (think coldcuts) with some giardiniera on a hard roll. Very nice. But I'm definitely not bothering with one again as Q.
Today I have a full slab of beef backribs on it, and 2 trimmed slabs of St Louis spares. Had them running about 3 hours on 225 and now reduced to 190. Plenty of smoke being generated. The Z is holding temps like a champ. Not varying more than 5 deg either way. If figure a total of 6 to 7 hours slow and easy, an hour wrapped and resting
 
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