After seeing DaveD 's recent posts on pulled beef, I figured that I make this again. My last excursion with pulled beef (spoiler alert) turned out the same this time. I'm posting here, rather than SUWYC, mainly because the long form is a better medium But let's start at the beginning, which was two days ago....
Two black Angus chucks, rubbed with my #1 rub (has salt), and dry-brined for 24 hours:
I didn't realize I these were black Angus, so that was a nice surprise. Well, I prepped the Kamander (no pics...just use your imagination). Lump charcoal, in a pyramid, 2 chunks of Japanese maple. Heat deflector and drip pan. Used the Inkbird for temp control: 235F/113C. Time: about 2:30 pm (yeah, I know, late), ambient temperature at about 70F/21C, cloudy.
I cleaned and used my heavy duty grate, which I haven't used in a while, as I have favored the lighter S/S one I bought a couple years ago. Closed the lid and let it go to work.
Here's a cameo of my Kamander, chugging away with smoke:
After about 1.5 hours, I lost smoke, so I ended up adding a couple more chunks of J. maple, which got thing rolling again. The Inkbird kept nearly perfect pit temperature throughout: +/- 5F/2.7C.
We predictably hit the stall at about 4:30 pm:
Gotta love that symmetry of temps. I gave it another 45 minutes before boating it:
Things got weird after boating it. The meat quickly pushed through the stall, but with wildly uneven temperatures, which makes sense as one of the pieces was a little thinner. At about 5:45, we hit 200F on one probe:
The temps were way off each other, as you can see, but I took it off:
I added some beef broth, wrapped in foil as it was very dry, and popped it in my warming oven for 90 minutes. Well, it came out dry and tough. By then it was into the evening (this was not planned for dinner, btw). Popped it into the fridge to deal with in the morning.
Going back to the meat this morning, I removed the hardened fat, broke the meat into large chunks, and put it in the pressure cooker with some more water. 15 minutes at high pressure/natural release, and voila:
It actually turned out really well. Lots of good smoke flavor, very beefy, moist, tender.
This was nearly identical to the last time I made it. I'm guessing my chucks are just too lean. Or I stink at cooking these. Anyhow, the end result was great (no plating pics....may be dinner tomorrow).
Thanks for sharing the cook. One thing that stands out in your story (except for the overly complex cook ) is: the photos only show the meat from above. I suspect your cuts of meat are too thin. it looks (correct me if I'm wrong) like they are about 2-2.5" thick.
If my assumption is right I would strongly recommend trying a chuck roll that looks like a pork butt (thickness-wise). Much easier to cook, don't fight physics.
Thanks for sharing the cook. One thing that stands out in your story (except for the overly complex cook ) is: the photos only show the meat from above. I suspect your cuts of meat are too thin. it looks (correct me if I'm wrong) like they are about 2-2.5" thick.
If my assumption is right I would strongly recommend trying a chuck roll that looks like a pork butt (thickness-wise). Much easier to cook, don't fight physics.
Henrik, yeah, you are correct and you described where I went wrong. I was looking at Huskee's first post in the current SUWYC thread and noticed his chuck really was a 'roast', as you described. Thankfully, the pressure cooker is a miracle device.
I don't see anything wrong with the way you did this, they just needed to cook longer. I get my best results when I take them all the way up to 210 (or whatever temperature water boils at your elevation) and just keep cooking for about an hour longer.
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Final results look quite good. A bit of an interesting way to get there but you did. As Henrik said those puppies were a little on the thin side. What I’ve done with chuckies that thin is to place them on top of each other and tie them up. Yes the cook will take longer but you should get the results you’re looking for without having to get the pressure cooker involved. Experimenting can be fun.
1. Run hotter on thinner pieces. Run 275+ and wrap the WHOLE THING (no reason to boat like a brisket that has a fat cap). Let it all bark before you wrap.
2. Take to 210 internal, hold for another hour at 200, then give a good warm rest for at least a couple hours.
3. I only use Angus Choice for pulled chuck and nothin' doin' but throwing them in the smoker after a dry brine and some rub.
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Henrik, yeah, you are correct and you described where I went wrong. I was looking at Huskee's first post in the current SUWYC thread and noticed his chuck really was a 'roast', as you described. Thankfully, the pressure cooker is a miracle device.
Thanks for the great advice!
They like to sell them thinner nowadays, maybe 2"" or so thick/tall. Like a huge steak really. I will ask the person at the meat counter if they can cut me a cubical 5-6lber, and they usually oblige. If no one is there so I can't get that, I simply buy & stack two of the thinner/shorter ones on each other on the smoker. I just did that this past Thursday, the stack. Works the exact same. I wrap my chucks earlier than my pork butts though, typically early into in the stall.
Those chucks look kinda lean, for pulled beef I find the cheaper cuts (but find a well marbled one) do better. I don't wrap mine except to rest and generally don't have an issue, and when I do... we just add tallow and beef stock and have wetter tacos or whatever (but almost always tacos).
Glad you were able to pull out a good outcome. I'm amazed you got to 200 after only a few hours! I've never smoked a chuck that was ready in under 10...
Glad you were able to pull out a good outcome. I'm amazed you got to 200 after only a few hours! I've never smoked a chuck that was ready in under 10...
The short time might be caused by a few factors: thinner cut of meat, efficiency of the Kamander, fat/meat/water ratios.
The final result was outstanding, but I will definitely try some of the tips and tricks shared by others here.
How not to make pulled beef
) is: the photos only show the meat from above. I suspect your cuts of meat are too thin. it looks (correct me if I'm wrong) like they are about 2-2.5" thick.
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