Chuck Roast as hard as a rock......................

[agaffer]

I bought a beautiful CAB chuck roast on Thursday and Friday morning got it ready to smoke. I never looked at the weight but it was nice and thick and well marbled. I used my RecTec Bull this time rather than my Bronco pit barrel. While it was coming up to the temp. of 225° I seasoned the roast with some SPG plus ground porchini mushrooms over an application of Head Country for wetness.

After 4 hours I took a look to see if the bark had set, it had and I began spritzing every 30 mins. At the 6 hour mark I put in a probe and saw that the internal temp was only at 140°. I decided to go ahead and wrap it in butcher paper so it wouldn't dry out. At 7, 8, and 9 hours it had stalled at 145° and was so hard I could barely get my thermapen into it. At 10 hours it finally hit 165° and it reamained so hard I thought that I had turned it into charcoal. At 11 hours it slowly began to rise in temp. 12 hours, still as hard as a rock it made it to 175°. At 13 hours it made it up to 180° and still hard. At this point I was positive that something had gone seriously wrong and I was tempted to pull it out and unwrap it. But, I decided that "in for a penny, in for pound". At 14 hours (11:00pm) it was at 200° and the pen finally slid in easily. I thought that I was going to have a 6pm dinner and now it was my bedtime. I thought about going another hour and decided I didn't want to stay up so, I pulled it off and let it have a brief rest. I took a slice from the middle just for at taste and was amazed at how moist, tender, and tasty it was. I liked it better than brisket. Just shows you the truth about the old adage, "It will be done when it is done." I think next time I will cook at 250° and hopefully get the time down to 8 hours.

So, missed having it for dinner but, today will make a burrito for lunch then use half of it for "My Take on Oklahoma Joe's Beans" (incredible recipe you can find on the internet) and the other half for some Myron Mixon potato soup.

 

[SmokinAl]

Great story, sure wish you had taken some photo’s!
Al

 

[smokerjim]

Sounds like the wait was worth it, like you mentioned next time I would go 250-275.

 

[sandyut]

We need pics!

Chuckies can take a while, to me they are much like a brisket that way. Especially if you had a big one.

This cook sounds like a success! You can run the cook temp higher to shorten the cook time. 225 is S.L.O.W. Like smokerjim said above

 

[agaffer]

Last thing I felt like doing at 11pm was to take pictures! Anyways, the purpose of the post was to let people realize the truth about not using time when it comes to fairly large beef pieces of meat. Someone else may duplicate exactly what I did and have a perfect roast in 6 hours, you just never know.
Personally, the reason I panicked was that awhile back I smoked a brisket flat and didn't bother to probe it until the 6 hour mark. It also was hard but, the internal temp was pretty high. When I pulled it off at 6 hours it had turned into a dried out hunk of shoe leather.

 

[thirdeye]

225°, although a very traditional barbecue pit temperature, is pretty low. If your pit thermometer is off by a hair to the low side, the cook will take forever. 250° is easier to deal with, and 270° is easier yet.

Chuckies will usually benefit rom a wrapped, boat, or covered finish.... but be careful or it can turn into something more like pot roast.

 

[SecondHandSmoker]

Keep in mind that spritzing can also increase your cook time by 20% due to the cooling power of evaporation.

 

[noboundaries]

Another example for a physics lesson.

The amount of heat energy a mass of meat can absorb is determined by the temperature difference of the mass of meat, the chamber temp, and the medium used for transferring the heat energy (air or water).

Cold meat absorbs a lot of heat. Warm meat absorbs less due to a smaller difference between the meat and chamber. To keep meat absorbing heat energy in a smoker at a more predictable rate, you have to crank the heat up as the meat warms.

Let's say your smoker is at 225°F and the meat stalls at 145°F. Chemistry takes over at this point as the meat sweats out water in the cells. The meat temp will remain there (or drop) due to evaporative cooling. Tough cuts of meat get their juiciness from melted collagen (tough connective proteins), not the water it is sweating away.

Once the meat water is gone, the stall ends and the meat will absorb heat at a rate controlled by the temperature difference of the meat and chamber. Greater difference, faster transfer. Lower difference slower transfer.

Tough chuck is not a lazy, low collagen steak muscle, but the two are often confused and treated the same. The result is rock hard, dry tasting chuck meat due to unmelted collagen.

Water transfers heat energy 25x faster at a given temperature than air. That's why a chuck roast braised (simmered) in stock at 212°F will reach fork tender in 3-4 hours. Same principle applies to sous vide at lower temps over longer times.

Wrapping captures steam and increases surface contact of excited molecules of water, but it isn't braising, and is still dependent on chamber temp/meat temp differences.

Bottom line? Increase chamber temp at the stall to keep a 100°F+ difference between the meat and chamber temp. When probe tender, the collagen has melted and the meat is ready for a rest.

BTW, spritzing will release chamber temp and add to evaporating cooling, extending the smoke. Spritzing is another topic entirely. It does nothing for the moistness of the meat. It is purely for flavor profile and to make more smoke particles stick to the meat.

 

[Bytor]

I've been going 250 for chucks for a while now and won't go back to 225. Gone 275 at times for the thicker ones too. If I want more smokiness, I'll fire up the smoke tube. Definitely no spritzing either,too much heat loss in the pit.

 

[indaswamp]

Good discussion!

 

[whistlepig]

The last two chucks in my smoker at 225 were shoe leather. Since then I have been putting them in a coventional oven in a cast iron Dutch Oven @ 325 degrees with beef broth and they are melt in the mouth. Far better than a slow cooker. And far better than my smoker. If I do a chuck roast on my smoker it will be in a Dutch Oven.

 

[noboundaries]

The last two chucks in my smoker at 225 were shoe leather.

Yep. Undercooked. I used to have the same problem. Now when I smoke a chuckle, I'll smoke it at 225-250°F for 2-3 hours, then tightly wrap it in foil with a cup of beef broth (and veggies at times), and crank the heat up to 350°F or more. Usually done to probe tender (right thru the foil) in 5-6 hours.

 

[whistlepig]

I'

Yep. Undercooked. I used to have the same problem. Now when I smoke a chuckle, I'll smoke it at 225-250°F for 2-3 hours, then tightly wrap it in foil with a cup of beef broth (and veggies at times), and crank the heat up to 350°F or more. Usually done to probe tender (right thru the foil) in 5-6 hours.

l'll give this a try. I would rather have the smoke flavor than the unsmoked Dutch oven in an electric oven flavor. .

 

[Fueling Around]

I smoke all of my uncured roasts in foil pans and try to hold 250° measured at the grate (meat) level.
With my pellet grill (pooper) I use a smoke tube, sometimes 2 tubes, I cover tightly and finish in the oven at stall temperature. Once wrapped the smoke only perfumes the foil.
I'm surprised your Rec Teq didn't get to stall after 6 hours. A pellet pooper is nearly a convection oven from the forced airflow. I've noticed a significantly reduced time frame in my pooper

 

[agaffer]

It did get to a stall at 6 hours. Just, the stall was 145° rather than 165°

 

[noboundaries]

It did get to a stall at 6 hours. Just, the stall was 145° rather than 165°

I've seen stalls occur anywhere from the high 130's to the high 160's. 6 hrs together to 165°F is a bit long. No two meats are the same.

 

[Fueling Around]

I've seen stalls occur anywhere from the high 130's to the high 160's. 6 hrs together to 165°F is a bit long. No two meats are the same.

Agree.
When the meat temps stops rising after steady smoker temps you hit a stall.
A wrapped pan is a great method to finish the cook in your oven. I love collecting the juices released after the stall.

 

[eaglewing]

3 - 3.5lb chuckies, all done between 8.5 and 7.5 hours at 250°
All had that hard bark and all were juicy as heck...

 

[Bearcarver]

I'm sure glad it ended up good !!
As I was reading along, I thought you were having Thermometer troubles.
I never had anything stall as low as 145° IT.
Figured it was actually more like 160° or higher.

Bear