Dave Cluck
TVWBB Fan
Alright, here we go. Started off with a 19.35 lb. chuck roll. Cut it in half, rubbed it down and put each section alone on it own rack at 6pm last night. The fuel was lump and was started using the MM. Temps came up into the desired 220-250 (at the grate) nicely and stayed as constant as I could have wanted. Everything's going fine.
At 12:00 I check the meat temp (using an ET-73) and I'm just a tad over 160. I checked multiple areas to confirm and it stands up no matter where I insert the probe. I'm thinking this is a bit quicker than it ought to have taken to get there, but I pull both cuts, double wrap them in heavy duty foil. Added some water, got the meat back on (switched top for bottom) and closed everything back up.
It ended up taking about an hour to get the grate temps back down (240s) because the lump flared up in the short time it took me to do the foiling/water. Shorty after this I notice that my meat temps are quickly going up. 168.. 175.. all within about 90 minutes after foiling. I'd planned on catching some sleep, but the unexpected (for me) swift rise in meat temps had me worried. So I stayed up to babysit. By 3:15 I've reached meat temps of 192 and I make the decision to pull them, wrap them in towls and stick them into a preheated cooler.
I kept the Maverick monitoring one of the cuts so that it would alarm if the temp got below 152. Set the remote next to me and crashed out for a few hours. At 5:30 I woke up - the meat temp was at 170 or so. Back to sleep until 7:30 - temp at 167. Back to sleep until 9:00 and the temps are down to 162. Pretty good for almost 6 hours in the cooler, but I'm worried about how they've turned out and being able to get them pulled before they dip below 140.
Well.. I just got through pulling half of one of the cuts. Very moist, bark is good in some areas while soggy in others, and over all it's very stringy and what I consider tough. Nothing like the tenderness I had with a pork butt. Taste and smoke ring are pretty good, but for now I've got it all in the fridge. I was taking me too long to get just that one section pulled. The other chuck cut is still in the cooler sitting at 154.
Is this stringy, tough texture what I should have here? Or are you all with successful CRs under your belt getting more tender results? Was mine not cooked through to tenderness? And if so, is there anything that I can still do with the cut that's still in the cooler?
~Dave
At 12:00 I check the meat temp (using an ET-73) and I'm just a tad over 160. I checked multiple areas to confirm and it stands up no matter where I insert the probe. I'm thinking this is a bit quicker than it ought to have taken to get there, but I pull both cuts, double wrap them in heavy duty foil. Added some water, got the meat back on (switched top for bottom) and closed everything back up.
It ended up taking about an hour to get the grate temps back down (240s) because the lump flared up in the short time it took me to do the foiling/water. Shorty after this I notice that my meat temps are quickly going up. 168.. 175.. all within about 90 minutes after foiling. I'd planned on catching some sleep, but the unexpected (for me) swift rise in meat temps had me worried. So I stayed up to babysit. By 3:15 I've reached meat temps of 192 and I make the decision to pull them, wrap them in towls and stick them into a preheated cooler.
I kept the Maverick monitoring one of the cuts so that it would alarm if the temp got below 152. Set the remote next to me and crashed out for a few hours. At 5:30 I woke up - the meat temp was at 170 or so. Back to sleep until 7:30 - temp at 167. Back to sleep until 9:00 and the temps are down to 162. Pretty good for almost 6 hours in the cooler, but I'm worried about how they've turned out and being able to get them pulled before they dip below 140.
Well.. I just got through pulling half of one of the cuts. Very moist, bark is good in some areas while soggy in others, and over all it's very stringy and what I consider tough. Nothing like the tenderness I had with a pork butt. Taste and smoke ring are pretty good, but for now I've got it all in the fridge. I was taking me too long to get just that one section pulled. The other chuck cut is still in the cooler sitting at 154.
Is this stringy, tough texture what I should have here? Or are you all with successful CRs under your belt getting more tender results? Was mine not cooked through to tenderness? And if so, is there anything that I can still do with the cut that's still in the cooler?
~Dave