Hello! Can you tell me what i did wrong?

[Indyh]

Hi all.

First Post, based in the uk.

Really enjoying cooking on the grill and want to improve my skills. Would appreciate some help on the below.

Tried to do a roast topside of beef on the bbq. Followed a weber recipe I found, had 1.7kg of meat. Target temps and times were 200 c and 1.5 hours cooking.

I used two coal baskets to get indirect heat, with a small drip tray full of water in the middle.

I had 3 probes in the meat at various thick parts and a grill probe to get accurate cooking temps. I was surprised how close the weber lid thermometer was to the actual grill temperature.

I also had a foiled over drip tray with damp wood chips (weber whisky which I presoaked for 30 mins) placed next to the meat on the grill.

I noticed that the meat cooked through at significantly different temps, with a max 14 degree c variation. I was aiming for medium rare at 56 degrees, so waited until all 3 probes gave that reading. It meant that i had some parts done at 67 when the last part caught up. All probes were at deep points in the meat. I even rotated it half way through cooking to ensure an even cook.

Was surprised to see such huge variation. End result was a dry roast, with one area cooked medium rare.

Could it be that the foiled over drip tray acted like a heat deflector next to the beef? Any suggestions on what went wrong. Few pics attached

 

[smokerjim]

Did you have your probes at the same depths that would cause different readings.

 

[Indyh]

Did you have your probes at the same depths that would cause different readings.

They were the same depth. Do they need to be different depths?

 

[fivetricks]

Not sure what topside equates to here in the US.

Unless it's already a VERY tender cut of the animal, especially considering how thick yours was, 200c is quite high to be cooking at..

There's a whole bunch of information you can find about temperature equalization, thermal mass, etc.

Basically you were cooking so high that the outside of the meat took a BEATING while the inside of the meat was trying to catch up. This will result in a dry roast. In order to give any more advice, I'll have to look up what the us equivalent is to your cut. I'm guessing that's part of the round?

If so, then it generally requires low cooking temps, low finish temps and braising in many cases. Round is hard to keep moist. There's no fat


Edit: yep, it's top round.

Do a forum search on here for "roast beef" or "top round" and see how others are cooking it. This should provide some insight as to what happened to yours :-)

 

[Indyh]

Not sure what topside equates to here in the US.

Unless it's already a VERY tender cut of the animal, especially considering how thick yours was, 200c is quite high to be cooking at..

There's a whole bunch of information you can find about temperature equalization, thermal mass, etc.

Basically you were cooking so high that the outside of the meat took a BEATING while the inside of the meat was trying to catch up. This will result in a dry roast. In order to give any more advice, I'll have to look up what the us equivalent is to your cut. I'm guessing that's part of the round?

If so, then it generally requires low cooking temps, low finish temps and braising in many cases. Round is hard to keep moist. There's no fat


Edit: yep, it's top round.

Do a forum search on here for "roast beef" or "top round" and see how others are cooking it. This should provide some insight as to what happened to yours :-)

Thats great, thanks for the reply. I wonder why on earth Weber would have recommended that temp for that type of cut

 

[smokerjim]

They were the same depth. Do they need to be different depths?

no, I was just wondering if you had one closer to outside of meat and one towards the middle, which would read different temps, outside running hotter then the middle. I do see now where you mentioned that you had them deep in to the meat.

 

[WaterRat]

I think the above replies have you covered on cooking that cut. For probes, once you are a little way into the cook it's good to check with a fast read thermometer to make sure you don't have your probe stuck in a piece of fat or gristle. In terms of setup (I'm not a kettle user myself) but most times I see guys use coals on only one side for better indirect heat. There are a ton of easy mods that you can do to a Weber kettle that turn it into a better indirect cooker/smoker. Hope this helps :)

 

[SecondHandSmoker]

As fivetricks said above, 200 degrees C is way too hot.
Here is a good solid method for a top round roast.

Smoked Beef Top Round - Smoking Meat Newsletter

Smoked beef top round, like most beef, does extremely well in the smoker. It can be cut up like steaks or into strips for use on tacos, salads, fajitas, etc.

www.Smoking-Meat.com

.

 

[tallbm]

Thats great, thanks for the reply. I wonder why on earth Weber would have recommended that temp for that type of cut

Hi there and welcome! I think the guys have you squared away. I just wanted to add that big chunks of meat are hard to probe properly and it is just a reality. This is why I put 3 probes in my briskets and usually get 1 of the 3 right even though I aim them all at the thickest center-most portion of the flat muscle but from different directions. It's crazy the difference in temps but 1 usually gets it right when I use 3 hahaha.