What went wrong?

[oldsmokerdude]

I had my first try at making burnt ends from a couple chuck roasts. I thought to myself, not too hard, I got this. I used Jeff's recipe, marinating in Worcestershire sauce and Jeff's rub (I love that stuff) over night. Heated smoker to 240 with a nice flow of hickory smoke. Put the seasoned and marinated roasts in. Smoked for about 4 hours until IT was 190 (I know, that seems fast to me, too). Pulled them, cubed them, sauced and re-seasoned them then back in the smoker for a couple more hours stirring every 30 minutes.

After two hours, the IT was 201, but they still felt tough. Put them back in for another 30 mins: still tough, and then another 30 (still tough and IT about 208).

They tasted amazing, but they are very chewy. I though perhaps my thermos were off so did a boiling water test and all were within a degree of 212.

So at this point I'm thinking the meat was not very good quality? It had been pulled from the freezer and thawed in refrigerater for two days.

Can any of you more experienced chefs think of anything else that could account for this?

 

[noboundaries]

Believe it or not, it needed longer. Just for simplicity, lets assume your temps were accurate and you had a good boil test. You just learned an important lesson: temp is only a ballpark indicator when meat is done. The meat itself will tell you when it is ready and it don't care what its temp is. I've had chuckies go as high as 215F before they probed tender.

I learned that same lesson with a chuckie. Early on, I had a chuckie reach 210F and still probed tough. I too thought, "bad piece of meat." I took it off the smoker, cut it up, and made chili out of it. The braising of the chili finished the meat. It became melt in your mouth tender. Lesson learned.

 

[RiversideSm0ker]

Chuck roast burnt ends are something I am very interested in trying. I will have to keep this in mind when I finally get around to this one. How small did you cube the meat? 1/2 inch or something larger? At least they were delicious if a bit chewy. Always eat your mistakes.

George

 

[oldsmokerdude]

I've had chuckies go as high as 215F

I was wondering that as well. I was afraid if I went too much higher I would be making "jerky":eek: I've also been reading in the forum today how difficult chuckies are to get "right". The taste was so great I'm definitely going to try again.

How small did you cube the meat? 1/2 inch or something larger?

I cut the meat into about 1 inch cubes. That seemed to me to be about the rights size of two bites. I'll probably stick to this size for my next try.

 

[RiversideSm0ker]

Maybe a little smaller size would have helped speed the process. I've never tried this before but I really want to do this one. How about fat content? Did the roast have a lot of marbling? It seems like these should have a decent fat content. They look so delicious all sauced up in that tray on the list of Jeff's recipe archive. Next time you will nail it.

George

 

[flatbroke]

try it again with another and chock this one up to worn out ole dairy cow