Chuckie's in love: Smokin on a cold day

[DaveD]

Howdy folks, today it's one of the coldest days we've yet had in the 2.5 years we've lived here, not expected to break freezing. But brilliantly cloudless sunshine, so I figured a good day to see how my Pit Boss Copperhead will do with temps in the teens F / -teens C.

I had taken to leaving the smoker on its low-T SMOKE setting (typically gets to about 130F/55C) for the first hour of my cooks recently to give the meat a little time to really take up some smoke while the cuts are cold out of the fridge. Last weekend, it wasn't even this cold and the SMOKE setting couldn't compete, apparently, it shut itself down. Came right back up, no big deal, and I found that I needed to go to a set point of 250F/120C so that the box would end up at the desired ~225F/107C.

So today it's a 3lb/1.4kg 100% grass-fed chuck roast from CrowdCow. Dry brined overnight with kosher salt, and doused with the beef rub I've been tweaking, which I'm calling Steer Prudence I'll be updating with some play by play as the day goes on if y'all want to ride along

EDIT: I had mistakenly thought this was a Prime chuck and labeled it as such. It is 100% grass fed, but no indication that it's Prime grade, my mistake. Have edited where I used it before...

Copperhead firing up with the rising sun. 17F/-8C outside.


Brined...


Rubbed & instrumented with a wired probe and my Meater+.


And away we go!

[saneric38]

I'm actually doing a chuck on the PBJ. It's 32 outside. The PBJ is running hot at 350 though.

[DaveD]

Awesome! It's a double chuckie situation.

[DaveD]

Smooth sailing thus far, temp is up to 20F/-7C but the Pit Boss is operating nominally.

2 hours in, topped up the water pan, bark just starting to set up.


Meater+ and the wired probe are reading just 1 deg F different for once. The big drop is when I opened up for the photo and water top-up. Stall appears imminent.

[58limited]

Ya know, seeing this made me decide to grab the chuck I bought this week and thaw it for a Sunday cook. It'll be a good excuse to test my new Meater.

[DaveD]

Alright! Chuckies on the march!

[58limited]

It will also be my first long low and slow cook on the SnSK in SnS mode.

[DaveD]

Four hours in, and we are definitely in Stallsville. No surprise... check out all that liquid goodness pooled in the middle of the chuck! Ambient temp now 25F/-4C in cloudless sunshine.



The two most recent T drops were when I took the photo above & spritzed, and when I topped up the pan again, respectively.

[58limited]

For mine I plan to put some beer in the drip pan and use the juices for jus or for a pot of beans.

[DaveD]

That's something I need to try. Thus far I've just let the drippings go into the water pan, but I need to try collecting them and see how much I get...

[smokin fool]

Atta boy, your a better man than I am, I dug out our smoker a few days ago and still don't have the onions to spark it up in this cold.
Going to get warmer into next week so give it a go....if I find my onions....
I'd love to grab a chuckie but I can't decide which limb I want to give up.

[DaveD]

I have it way easier than you do, I'm sure! We're at the high temp for the day right now, 31F/-0.5C, and that's not hard to take at all. And with the brilliant sunshine, it's very pretty out. Gotta go snap a couple pics...

[DaveD]

6.5 hours in, and that channel of liquid goodness is about half as deep now. Looks like we've emerged from the stall, and the Meater's app is now estimating a pretty realistic-sounding 3 hr 15 min remaining. The two T probes are still within 3F/1C of each other. Starting to look pretty delicious...




A very nice winter day for smokin meat.

[smokin fool]

Hmmm, my backyard don’t look like that....

[efincoop]

Mine either!

[saneric38]

Taste like brisket.

[DaveD]

Wow, that looks fantastic! I agree, a good chuck is almost as good as brisket, for my tastes. That said, I did get a 5-lb brisket point which is coming up soon...

[RonB]

It's always a good time to smoke a chuckie.

[DaveD]

I pulled it out at about 180, and double-wrapped in HD aluminum foil, then back in the box. On track to come out of the smoker sometime in the next 15-30 min, then it'll go into the FC to rest for an hour or so. Right on target!



It's a wrap.

And the temp smartly increases after the big excursion during removal & wrapping. The wired probe is reading about 8 deg F behind, so I'll give it a bit more time...

[DaveD]

After-action: Rousing success! The chuck was moist, tender, and the wrapping & resting didn't diminish the bark to any noticeable degree. My "Steer Prudence" rub needs another iteration... We have leftover suitable for a couple of hearty sandwiches (it was a 3lb/1.4kg piece). The beef flavor here was outstanding from the grass-fed chuck. Yum.

[Dr. Pepper]

That's a gorgeous result, Dave. And, thanks for documenting the journey.

[bbqLuv]

I did not see my place setting; it is looking good.

[Elton's BBQ]

Great result on that chuckie indeed!
Looks really good!

[Andrrr]

Nice work and kudos to you for braving the elements to make it happen! Almost makes it taste that much better. Smoked chick is so good!

[Bkhuna]

Love the RLJ reference.

[Draznnl]

+1 I personally thought it was Coolsville.

[DaveD]

I heard it downstairs at Danny's All-Star Joint...

[58limited]

I didn't check this post again yesterday. That looks fantastic! I hope mine is as good. Prime grass-fed? Rare. Not grain finished?

[58limited]

No problem! Wasn't trying to criticize either. Yours certainly has quite a bit of fat compared to what I have gotten from my friends. I was just about to go to Crowd Cow and buy one but since I have another Wagyu on the way I decided to hold off..

[DaveD]

Whatever the grade, this was one fantastic chuckie! If I'm reading the page right, it's Australian grass-fed beef. Just delish.

[Dr. Pepper]

I recently purchased 35 lbs of outside skirt from Marx Foods: grass-fed New Zealand. I mentioned in another post that I feel some guilt over the violation of buy local, but it's hard enough to find good outside skirt, let alone 35 lbs of grass fed. And, it also is delicious (wife and I just had some tonight.)

[Caffeine88]

Awesome result, and thanks for documenting. I've got a couple Akaushi chucks in the freezer, and waiting for the right weekend to bust em out. Between you and 58limited I'm thoroughly inspired. Nice work!