Ordered what I thought was going to be two chuck roasts from my butcher and ended up getting these which were labeled as chuck rolls. They look beautiful and are nicely tied up...but wondering can I still go through with my plan to smoke these until they pull?
The last time I had one of these I cooked it to medium rare...but I'd much rather do pulled beef in this case unless it's going to be a disaster.
Anyone with experience? One way or another these need to be cooked tomorrow!
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You should be able to. Chuck roasts come from the chuck roll, but they (roasts) typically have more marbling. You should still be plenty fine though. I might trim them in half, but it's hard to tell from the pics exactly how big they are. You can smoke them as small as 3-4lb hunks for more bark. I personally like to wrap mine in foil at or near the start of the stall, since beef bark, when the time is spent to take them all the way to the point of pulling, can get dry and hard. I find the foil and the earlier wrap help mitigate too much hard bark.
Treat it like a pork butt for pulled pork, except I highly recommend keeping it at 200-210 for an hour, then do the 1-2hr faux cambro hold where the temp wanes. The fat & gristle from the chuck can use that extra time up at temp to bask and soften.
Thank you! They are 3lb each already. Also appreciate both the advice to foil early, and to hold above 200 for an hour. I have had mixed results with pulled chuck over the years, those may be the explanation of why some have been better than others.
Your butcher is being a bit sloppy with his terminology. An actual chuck roll is a subprimal cut designated 116a in beef butchering definitions. They typically run somewhere in the neighborhood of 20ish pounds and contain chuck roasts and other cuts. If you have sufficient interest, I did a write up on how I broke one down into a variety of cuts; Do you enjoy minor league butchery? - Pitmaster Club (amazingribs.com)
As a practical matter it's likely 99% of folks neither know nor care about accuracy in terminology regarding beef butchery. What your butcher did was take what's mostly chuck roast and rolled it up and tied..................thus logically/descriptively it's a "chuck roll". Should cook up like a typical chuck roast.
I was thinking about this as well. I've bought chuck rolls (the suboptimal) at Sam's Club (I have to ask for them), and they break down to a couple of nice chuck roasts, about a dozen Denver and Sierra steaks, and some nice ground beef. At least for me.
These are more like "I rolled some chuck up and tied it with a string". Hence - chuck roll.
Unfortunately didn't get photos of results but turned out great.. Thanks to Huskee guidance I did about 5 hours at 275 which got internal temp to 170-175, foiled for 2 hours at 275 which got IT around 205-208, then 1 hour in 200 degree oven, then 1 hour in faux cambro. I will do this again next time I cook a chuckie!
If not cooking outdoors, I am cooking on the stovetop with my 14" carbon steel wok, 12" CI skillet, or in the oven with my two Lodge CI pizza pans, or two dutch ovens. I've also got a nifty Lodge carbon steel grill pan that rocks for veggies outdoors.
THIS post shows an actual chuck roll. I.e. the sub-primal cut called "chuck roll". That is not what your butcher sold you.... looks like he took a thin chuck roast, rolled it up, and called it a chuck roll, haha...
Thanks to PJ Panhead John telling us all about the $8 Sam's membership, I ended up buying a whole chuckroll from Sam's. I've been interested in trying some of the "new" shoulder steaks and this seemed like a good opportunity.
For those that may not know, a little while back some beef group sponsored research looking
The chuck rolls at Sam's are usually in the 15-20 pound range. I need to get one soon I think...
Somehow I missed that gboss posted this up a year before I did the one I linked to above...........would have saved me a lot of key strokes and time to just refer to his post.
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