Bad x 2

[Omnivore]

Ok so I had two somewhat disappointing meals this week. The pork was the biggest head scratcher so I put it in this forum.

I just borrowed an old traeger from a friend who never uses it. Vacuumed the firepot and put new Lumberjack hickory pellets in. Threw on 3 racks of st. Louis style ribs from Costco. Temp was steadily at 250F. I go to check on them a little less than 4 hours later and they are more than passing the bend test. I don't prefer fall off the bone tender but that's what they were. But what really bugged me was that there were so many areas on the ribs were the connective tissue hadn't broken down or the fat hadn't rendered. Just kind of stumped as to how the meat could be overly tender but still have a lot of pieces I had to pick out. Is this normal St. Louis style ribs?

Ok so then the other day I picked up a small 10 pound strip loin from Costco. I cut 6 steaks off of it and then saved the rest to smoke as a roast. For dinner that night I grilled a couple of the steaks ( 1 medium, other medium rare) and they were super chewy! I just grilled them hot and fast, nothing weird, not rocket science, just not great quality meat I guess. Anyway, so now I'm wondering if I should still smoke the strip roast. Would it seem any more tender smoking it at a low temp? I don't really want to serve any of it as steak and currently plan on slicing the steaks into stir fry meat. Should I go forward with the roast or cut my losses?

 

[jcam222]

Perhaps some sort of injection with meat tenderizer prior to smoking?

 

[bregent]

Temp was steadily at 250F. I go to check on them a little less than 4 hours later and they are more than passing the bend test.

That seems a bit fast, but hard to tell. STL take about 4+ hours for me at 275F. I'd say yours were probably just a tad underdone - not sure how to explain your bend test results.

For dinner that night I grilled a couple of the steaks ( 1 medium, other medium rare) and they were super chewy!

Which end of the strip were they cut from? I always cut off the vein end and and use for burgers or stew. Depending on how thick you cut the steaks, you'll usually get one or two from that end. Just not worth grilling IMO.

 

[smokerjim]

strips to me are a hit or miss, sometimes they're good some times, well they just suck, what grade of beef are they. like bregent said though cut a steak off the other end and fry it up and see how that is, when I buy strips I always get the steaks off the end closer to the sirloin, they're just better to me.

 

[Bearcarver]

Ok so I had two somewhat disappointing meals this week. The pork was the biggest head scratcher so I put it in this forum.

I just borrowed an old traeger from a friend who never uses it. Vacuumed the firepot and put new Lumberjack hickory pellets in. Threw on 3 racks of st. Louis style ribs from Costco. Temp was steadily at 250F. I go to check on them a little less than 4 hours later and they are more than passing the bend test. I don't prefer fall off the bone tender but that's what they were. But what really bugged me was that there were so many areas on the ribs were the connective tissue hadn't broken down or the fat hadn't rendered. Just kind of stumped as to how the meat could be overly tender but still have a lot of pieces I had to pick out. Is this normal St. Louis style ribs?

Ok so then the other day I picked up a small 10 pound strip loin from Costco. I cut 6 steaks off of it and then saved the rest to smoke as a roast. For dinner that night I grilled a couple of the steaks ( 1 medium, other medium rare) and they were super chewy! I just grilled them hot and fast, nothing weird, not rocket science, just not great quality meat I guess. Anyway, so now I'm wondering if I should still smoke the strip roast. Would it seem any more tender smoking it at a low temp? I don't really want to serve any of it as steak and currently plan on slicing the steaks into stir fry meat. Should I go forward with the roast or cut my losses?

I don't even buy NY Strip Steaks, because they're too Tough (Chewy), but when I smoke NY Strip Roasts, like I do my Prime Rib, they come out Awesome & Tender. So Yes, I Smoke them with 220°--240° Smoker Temp.
New York Strip Roast (Hickory Smoked)
New York Strip Roast (Christmas 2018)

Bear

 

[bregent]

In my experience, most packaged NY steaks include at least one steak cut from the vein end, which is very chewy. That's why I only buy whole strip loin, remove the vein end and grind that for burgers.

I find NY's to be about as tender as a ribeye. If your NY's are chewy, you're buying bad meat or cooking it wrong.

 

[Omnivore]

In my experience, most packaged NY steaks include at least one steak cut from the vein end, which is very chewy. That's why I only buy whole strip loin, remove the vein end and grind that for burgers.

I find NY's to be about as tender as a ribeye. If your NY's are chewy, you're buying bad meat or cooking it wrong.

Thanks everyone. The steaks I grilled were not from the vein end. It really bugs me when I see one of those vein steaks being sold along side otherwise nice strips.

It was a 'choice' loin and actually looked like it had a bit of marbling once I steaked it out.
Properly cooked, just not a great loin this time around. This has happened before at Costco - I usually looove when they sell coulotte and one time it was just SO tough. Oh well!

Thanks everyone for the recommendations! I'll post the strip streak stir fry I end up making