My First Chuck Roll(s)


 
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Dave Cluck

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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
 
Dave, Bryan has a lot of experience with CR's but is at SmokeStock this weekend. From what I can remember, he said it pulled like a pork butt!
 
I think CR is a little tougher than pork butt, when you say stringy, I can see that too .. are you referring to the way there seems to be connective tissue all through the meat, in every strand?

Try leaving the other one go up to 205F. It will pull easier and the meat will be softer, but do wrap it and let it rest at least 4 hours.
 
Dave,

I've never done a chuck roll, but here are a few ideas anyway.

With Butt & Brisket, it's been my experience that the longer they sit in the plateau area of around 160 degrees, the juicier and more tender they are. For this reason, I've taken to cooking them at around 210-215 degrees, which adds significantly to the cooking time but gives a better product.

When a piece of meat is cooking as fast as your chuck roll, I probably would close down a vent to lower the temperature and let it cook without foil for a while. Foiling speeds up the cooking process, which goes counter to trying to extend the plateau. I've used foil to try and speed things up when necessary, but I do try to avoid that when possible.

I like to foil after the meat comes out of the plateau and is getting close to 190; it seems to also help keep the meat juicy.

Of course, after all that pontificating, it's possible that it was just the nature of the meat you had. I took a Paul Kirk cooking class once, and I remember talking to him about brisket and complaining that the one I made at the class came out dry. He said "Sometimes they just don't have any juice in them", an excuse I have taken to heart whenever my brisket comes out dry.

Good Luck,

Rick
 
Dave,
My first experience sounds exactly like yours. However I think I have the answer to the "toughness". We both pulled them too soon, after they were foiled. Should have waited until they reached 200*-205*. The stringiness is just the cut of meat. The only way you could avoid that is to kinda chop it a bit after being pulled. Like Greg said, Bryan has alot of experience with CR's and should be able to chime in more when he returns.

I was gonna do another CR this weekend but Costco was out, so I settled for a double pack of boneless butts. I have never tried "boneless" butts, but that was all they had so I settled for them rather than my usual picnics!! (which I prefer in the first place)

BTW, wait until you eat the CR after it has sat in the fridge overnight! I thought it was 100% better the next day!
 
Thanks for the feedback guys. The second chuck had to be pulled since it got down to 147 in the cooler. Man that took a looong time!
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Don't think I'll be buying 19+ lbs of any meat that requires pulling again.
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Shawn: Stringiness as in the muscle tissue itself. I know that's a characteristic of chuck, but it just wasn't as tender as the pork butt I did last weekend. Just looking to see if this is normal for chuck rolls on the WSM or if perhaps I need to adjust my chuck roll game plan. Additionally, some of the muscle chunks were actually a bit dry where others were much more tender. I really noticed this when pulling the second roll. Obviously this is a fat content per muscle area issue to a large degree. Of note is that I did not flip either of them until I foiled. Not sure if this was a contributing factor.

Rick: I like your thoughts on lower temp in order to slow the fat rendering/tenderizing phase. I'll give that a go next time around with the chuck and my briskets. I did this session with lump and other than the water/foil temperature spike thing about 6 hours in I sat more or less in the 240s. I'll shoot for closer to 220 or so next time and see how that does. I also agree that foiling, in my case, wasn't what I ought to have done for two reasons. First I meant this to be an overnight smoke and foiling flat out ruined any chance of that. Bad planning on my part.
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Secondly, as you mentioned it lessoned the duration of the important temperature plateau and I think that's why I ended up with a tougher end result.

If this was just one of those fluke cuts of meat that was destined to be problematic then that's further impetus for me to stop buying gimungous cuts at premium prices like I did this go
around. The wife freaked when I brought home a $70 chunk of beef. Thank goodness for the foodsaver..

I just got through going through two huge sandwiches and all said and done it was really good. Slightly toasted potato roll, red onion, my father-in-law's coon-sauce and a side of garlic mashed potatoes. Bloat-ED!
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Thanks again guys!

~Dave the newb..
 
Yeah, Larry, that was another issue I wasn't sure about. The target temps I used were based on Chris' Chuck Roll write up. After I pulled them off and stuck them in the cooler I stayed up for about 40 minutes to see if the temperature would continue to rise. It didn't move a hair over that time and I thought that odd. I made an effort to make sure that I was probing the meat tissue rather than fat pocket throught all of this as well as taking multiple readings in various locations. Not sure what the lack of a carryover temperature rise means..

Thanks for the advice, Larry.
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~Dave
 
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR> The wife freaked when I brought home a $70 chunk of beef. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
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Holy Smoking Chuck Roll Batman!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
<sigh> sorry I misread your post I thought you only had removed one of them

Not sure I would try cooking at 210F. For one thing, it will be virtually impossible to get a large CR to 205F at that temp. I would stick to around 235F. Cooking that low would delay it so long that moisture loss would surely be a problem.

I really don't think your cook temp was the problem, you just removed it too soon. Try to take it to 205, let it cool a minute, as Jim Minion suggested wrap it in plastic wrap then foil then rest it covered in a cooler for at least several hours.

That and it's just not as tender as pork butt to start with.
 
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Not sure I would try cooking at 210F. For one thing, it will be virtually impossible to get a large CR to 205F at that temp. I would stick to around 235F. Cooking that low would delay it so long that moisture loss would surely be a problem. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>


<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR> I really don't think your cook temp was the problem, you just removed it too soon. Try to take it to 205, let it cool a minute, as Jim Minion suggested wrap it in plastic wrap then foil then rest it covered in a cooler for at least several hours. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

I agree on both counts!
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<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Larry Wolfe:
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR> The wife freaked when I brought home a $70 chunk of beef. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
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Holy Smoking Chuck Roll Batman!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! <HR></BLOCKQUOTE> Mine too, I paid over $3 /lb for my first one (and for butts).
 
The grain runs from top to bottom, so when pulling an easy way to handle that is to cut across the grain the full lenght of the roll into 1 to 1.5" thick. At this point pull and you won't get the long strings. If it is tough then it need more time. Was the roll sellect or choice?
Jim
 
Thanks for the pulling tips, Jim. It was choice, btw. Next time I'm not going to foil unless I need to to meet a deadline and I'll be leaving it on until it gets up to ~205 or passes the fork tender test. I'll get there sooner or later.

~Dave
 
Dave, I've only done 1 chuck roll. It turned out great. I only cook at 215 - 220 tops! My chuck roll was 18.75 lbs. It took 24 hours to do and I did foil it at 165 - 170. I think the next 1 I do I will foil at a later temp. ( was actually a little to moist for me). The meat pulled just like pork. I didn't cut mine in half, just rubbed and cooked. The butcher in the local grocery gave me a good deal on it $1.98/ pound. I brought him a foodsaver bag full of the finished product so that hopefully he will continue to give me good deals. I brought 2 bags to my daughter at school last week but haven't heard anything from her yet. I had some last week for lunch and at the end of the week made pizzas and used the rest for a topping on the pie. I loved it as much as the pork. Can't wait to do another!
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Well I'll definitely be doing more chuck rolls, Rick. Beeeef..

There was no way I was going to get that 19.35'er on a single rack. No folding or twising that beast either. In fact, even cut in half as it was, my top vent-mounted temperature probe had to be set in askew because the thing was a too tall.

Lord knows I've got more of it than I know what to do with it right now so I just might try greasing the rails at another butcher shop next time. $3.49/lb. was painful!
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~Dave
 
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