Dual-purpose chuck cook

[DaveD]

Using this space to document my process today, using a chuck roast for two purposes: as the meat for a pot of chili beans, and as a regular low & slow for pulled beef for sammiches. Nothing noteworthy or revolutionary here at all, but it's useful to me at least to capture the process...

Started with an Angus chuckie from my local Harris Teeter, weighing in at 3lb/1.4kg, which I cleft in twain and dry brined overnight. Then this morning, hit them with Cowboy Crust rub, one of the three tubs o'rub my suave and debonair Secret Santa gifted me (thanks again!), and this is its first major use.





On the SnS kettle with B&B coals and a couple of hickory chunks by about 9am.



Also put a foil container of wagyu tallow in there to pick up a few hours of smoke and replenish my stash for future use. The pieces are coming along nicely.




Got some liquid gold from that process - strained this for storage.


Meanwhile, gearing up to start the pot of chili beans in a bit.

That's my lovely bride's tomato sauce made from her own homegrown - I didn't realize we still had any left! So that and the can of tomatoes will go in with the Shelby mix, green chile, and a dash of red chile powder, along with one of those two chunks of chuck once it hits an IT around 170F/75C or thereabouts. I'll cube it up, toss it in the dutch oven (into which I ladled about 1.5 tbsp/20ml of the smoked tallow while it was still liquid) and build from there. Our last portion of the Rancho Gordo Midnight Black beans I'd made a while back will go in at the end.

Both pieces are in full-on Stallsville. I'll need to pull one off by 1:30p so I'll have to take whatever temp I get by then. Reckon I'll foil-boat the other piece at that point.



More later!

[TripleB]

Looks good Dave. Can't wait to see the finished product. I'm making roast beef Po'boy sliders for a poker night next Friday. Looking forward to seeing what your sammy looks like.

[barelfly]

I spy GC getting ready for the mix of goodness!

[DaveD]

Naaaaaaaailed it

[DaveD]

Hey now, back with an update - been busy! So there's a lot here...

Pulled off one of the pieces to chunk up and put in the dutch oven to start the chili beans around 1:30, and put the other in a foil boat. The lid was off for long enough during that process for the second chunk of hickory to fully ignite...




IT on the first piece was just under 150F/65C when I took it off, so not surprisingly it was plenty firm, which made it easy to cut up. I chunked it quite coarsely, expecting some degradation in the pot...



We had a little sample and it tastes fantastic, and although obviously not probe tender, it was a quite pleasant bite all the same. That Cowboy Crust puts some zing in the bark for sure!

Had to call an audible on the tomato sauce: my lovely bride's frozen portion is already loaded with sliced pepperoni and crumbled Italian sausage, intended as a pasta topping (but not informatively labeled, my dear...). Fortunately we had a tall jar of Cento passata to press into service. I gloved up and mooshed up the canned tomatoes with my hand as I put them in the D.O.




And the 1/4c/60ml of roasted green chile that barelfly readily picked up on, plus some Hatch red chile powder. Also added 1/3c/80ml of a nice cabernet that we had with our steaks last night.


It's perking away in the oven set to 230F/110C.


The other piece of chuck is at 195F/91C and was starting to probe tender at last check:


Once it probes, I'll bring it in and turn off the oven and let the chili and chuck rest until dinner. More after that!

[DaveD]

Got some time for a breather, so last update before we eat up.

Added the RG Midnight Black bean portion for the last 20 min or so of simmering, and it is now officially "chili beans" Chuckie is probing super tender almost everywhere now, so at the top of the hour, I'll turn off the oven and loosely tent the boated chuck in there beside the dutch oven, and they can both rest for 90 min or so (will be monitoring temps) until dinnertime.

[Smoked Transistors]

Love the foil boat method. Great color and smoke ring on that beef ! Looking yummy for sure.

[DaveD]

Deliverables: Both the chili beans and the pulled chuck were fantastic. I was a little worried that those beef chunks were a bit too large, but in the end it was just fine. The low & slow chuck was uber-tender, super juicy, and the bark from the Cowboy Crust rub was a huge hit. My lovely bride was emphatic, "I really like this one!"

Chuckity chuck:




I griddled up some buttered brioche buns on the cast iron skillet that got to the high 400sF/mid 200sC and piled 'em high with pulled beef, and served with a (smaller than usual) bowl of the chili beans with the customary shredded cheese, sour cream, and Scoops delivery system.






I've got two meals' worth of chili beans leftover, and 8oz/225g of the pulled chuck... Super happy with how this turned out

[Clawbear57]

You did good my friend.

[texastweeter]

Lookin good! I'm with you on the labels. I got too many hunks of dead flesh I have harvested in the freezer to be able to identify easily.

[J-Melt]

Looks good! I have never done pulled beef and need to try that someday.