Mondo Chucko

[DaveD]

Today I've got a huge Prime chuck roast on the SnS kettle going low and slow all day. Got it at Hickman's butcher shop in Rehoboth Beach, about 20 minutes away. It is the thickest chuck I've ever seen, which the guy cut for me on the spot. I'm keeping track of the cook here today largely for my own edification but as always, happy to have kibbitzers in the peanut gallery Figured this was better than gumming up SUWYC.




That puppy is almost 4 in/10cm thick! I dry brined it yesterday and hit it with Cowboy Crust before getting it on the kettle by about 7:15am - it's going to be a long cook I reckon.




Not easy to see in these pics, but there is a lobe of meat that is not well joined to the main mass - the butcher is sort of holding it against the side of the cut with his blade in the second shot above. I had already decided I needed two probes at different distances from the surface, one in the center and one about halfway from surface to center, which will be informative about how the heat moves through the meat. So I used the upper probe to pin that errant lobe to the main piece, it's the one at the top in the photo above, and it's on the bottom on these below.

At the start:

About an hour in:


Kettle is running nominally, and the temp at the probe closer to the surface is already measureably warmer than that in the center. Cool

More later!

[RonB]

The Fresh Market sells chuckies like that. I think of them as double cut. I only buy them when I see an exceptionally well marbled specimen - I like to put some smoke on them too.

[DaveD]

I certainly got me some marbling on this one!

[WI Bubba]

Looking good so far.

[Jfrosty27]

Dayum! That’s one huge chuckie! Sit back and kick your shoes off. It’s going to take a while to get the bad boy done. Yum.

[FireMan]

Send me a piece, will ya?

[DaveD]

A little over two hours in, and the central temp and intermediate temp are now only a little over 4F apart, down from a max delta of about 12.

The weather is a heck of a lot nicer today than it's been, with the humidity dropping from dew points around 75/24 to about 65/18. That's still plenty muggy but it's an improvement for sure. Only a breath of a breeze, and the kettle is humming right along.

[Santamarina]

This thing is making me hungry!

I visited Rehoboth Beach last summer on vacation. Just spent the afternoon there, but I liked what I saw. Had lunch (and a few beers) at Dogfish Head…outstanding.

[Michael_in_TX]

Okay, I'll give you this....they are not that big at HEB.

[DaveD]

No, but they have no-kiddin butchers who will cut to order, so they still win!

[DaveD]

Midday update from beautiful downtown Stallsville, USA. Lots of juice pooling on the surface, having the usual effect.




Interestingly, the temp difference between the center probe and the "halfway" probe has increased again, back to the dozen degrees F of earlier. I was not expecting that - figured they would keep converging until identical and then stay that way. Hmmm...


Rehearsing for my next livestream in between getting lunch together for my lovely, breadwinning bride, and enjoying the much nicer weather while the cook proceeds about as nominally as one could ask for. Life is good. More in a while...

[58limited]

Lookin' good! I'd put a pot of beans under that to catch the drippings.

[realdocBBQ]

Very awesome! Yeah, I'd expect a good 8-10 hours on that if you're going all unwrapped. I'd put that in a foil boat here in a little while, at 4" thick, treat it just like a briskie!

[DaveD]

I just did! Update below.

[DaveD]

Whoops, forgot to do the update! Anyway, it went into a foil boat at 12:45 and has been cruising along ever since. Got it out of the stall promptly, and there is a TON of juice in the boat. However, one puzzling thing is that the "halfway" probe's temp dropped significantly, to where it was actually below that of the center probe. I thought maybe it got immersed in juice, but it's in the upper half of the cut as it's sitting in the boat, if anything the center probe would get it first, and it clearly hasn't.


So I have no explanation for this other than that all the liquid on the surface is removing heat that much better than the cooker is delivering it, but if that's true, why isn't the center experiencing it too? Color me stumped.

One thing I tried was adjusting the position of that halfway probe, and you can see the divot in the temp profile where I did that. Somehow having the lid off got the fire pumped up, and rather than wait til I could valve it back sufficiently, I punted and just put it in the kitchen oven at 200/93, where it can hold until dinnertime. It was probing pretty tender at last check, although still had a bit to go, so this should do it. So the chaos at the right of the plot is when I made that transfer.



Next update will likely be the after-action

[theroc]

Oh man. That's going to be good.

[Oak Smoke]

On occasion I’ve had a chuck or two that I needed to take to 209 and hold a bit to get the tenderness I wanted. The first couple of times I encountered it I would take a chuck off the smoker after I had wrapped in foil at 185 F when it hit 203 F. They were tender at that time but after a couple of hours rest they had tightened back up. I don’t know why but found cooking to 209 F then rest cured it. I may be the only one this has happened to but it has happened more than once.

[DaveD]

Alrighty then, here are the deliverables. Dayum! Super tasty, super tender and juicy, great smoke flavor, and the bark was just right, it had good chew but it quickly came apart, wasn't tough at all except at a couple of corner bits. Sides of some RG vaquero beans from the freezer and some broccoli. Well worth the long cook!





One thing I'll note is that I don't pick up anything of a distinctive flavor note from using the mesquite. I know that's typically the wood that is most distinctive, but neither my lovely bride nor I could have picked out this smoke flavor in a lineup. I've had that experience pretty much across the board - I really can't tell the difference in smoke flavor from one type of wood to another. I sure can tell when there is wood vs no wood, but after that? Nope.

[Burntfood]

Thanks for this Dave, I really enjoyed it. I don't think you're using a fan, correct? Just straight SnS. I'm assuming you had to refill the coal at some point?

[DaveD]

No fan, just the SnS. I've never needed to refill coals on this kettle. I routinely get well over 12 hours from a full load of B&B, in fact I've never even tested how long it would go. I've cooked everything this way, except only brisket, which I run on the kettle overnight for ~12 hr then transfer to the vertical pellet smoker the rest of the way.