Sliced versus Pulled Chuck Roast

[jfmorris]

Ok team AR. Need some advice.

I've got two chuck roasts, dry brined overnight, and rubbed down with Big Bad Beef Rub, smoking on the Performer right now, with the SNS maintaining a steady 232F for the past hour or two since I put them on. When I polled the girls (wife and daughter) last night as to whether they wanted pulled or sliced beef for dinner, wife didn't care, daughter wanted sliced, since we have had a lot of pulled pork in recent months. My executive decision - I will slice one, and pull one. I've done sliced already in the past, but never done pulled. These chucks are probably 2 pounds and 4 pounds respectively (6 pound two pack, but one is a lot larger than the other, same thickness though).

So, they are rocking along, up to 106F internal in one, 115F in the other right now. In reading Clint Cantwell 's recipes for sliced versus pulled, he says to cook to 180F internal, with no wrap, for sliced chuck. In his recipe for pulled chuck, he says to wrap at 160F and cook to around 205F. Which matches what I have done for brisket - I wrap the brisket at 160F, and cook to 205-ish or probe tender.

So the question is - for sliced chuck, what do you guys and gals recommend? Last time I did a sliced chuck, I pulled it at 180F, and felt it was a little tough. If I cook both chucks to 205, and wrap them at 160, I don't want both of them falling apart to where I end up pulling both.

Obviously I have until mid afternoon before I hit 160 and need to decide if I wrap just one or both of these bad boys.

Thanks.

[Rod]

I've only done a pulled one. I thought it came out a bit dry as compared to a pork butt. If I were to do it again I would probably wrap sooner.

[Attjack]

I rarely wrap and cook in a foil pan. Personally, I prefer to cook to probe tender and slice every time.

[RonB]

It looks like you sliced with the grain instead of against the grain. I'm guessing that since you took it to probe tender, it's not chewy?

Looks great BTW.

[BourBonQ]

RonB you can actually find the grain direction a chuckie?...

[mgaretz]

Yes, but you have to separate the muscles and slice each one individually. This what I do when doing a 24 hour SV at 131f - you get the tenderness and rareness of prime rib with the flavor and cost of chuck.

[Attjack]

I don't think I did. It certainly wasn't chewy.

[RonB]

See my comment above, (3.3). But as I said the important thing is that it wasn't chewy. The reason I asked is because I have a well marbled chucky in the freezer waiting to Cinderella into pastrami.

[jfmorris]

As a follow up, I ended up taking both chucks to 205, having wrapped around 160-170 (smaller one was higher at the time of wrap). Both ended at 205 within a couple minutes of each other. Excellent results, and it’s a hit with the family.

[Huskee]

Last time I went to 190 or so then sliced it I wasn't thrilled. I decided I'd do what I do with brisket. Brisket I go to 197-200ish, then faux cambro hold. For pulled beef I let it go higher, to say 205-209, hold there an hour, then the 2 hr faux cambro, and it basically falls apart.

[Attjack]

Yeah I cambro too. It helps.

[dahcopilot]

drybrine the day before, cook at 225 until 205ish, 2 to 4 hours in the yeti, me and my son pull some while we slice the rest. so good.

[jfmorris]

Huskee i had really hoped to cambro these for a bit, as I know that would only improve things, but the fire started dying out on me in the SNS and I lost temp for a while, and the cook didn’t end until about 5:30, so I had to bring them in and serve right away - we had to leave at 6 or so to go somewhere.

i will do this again and for sure start earlier, or run at a higher cook temp once wrapped, to have time for a 1-2 hour hold.

[Steve R.]

You really have to cook the hell out of a chuck roast to make it like pulled pork. Getting it to 210 and just keep cooking it for an hour, then faux Cambro for another couple of hours gets it there for me. And wrapping after a decent amount of stall time is important.

[fzxdoc]

Nice, jfmorris , very nice.

Kathryn

[jfmorris]

Thanks for all the tips, and I do think a few more degrees as well as a cambro hold may have made it easier to pull. As it is, this was my first time pulling a chuck - the last few I had followed the recipe for sliced chuck, cooking to 180. I'll cook it to these higher temperatures for sure going forward. I am happy with the amount of bark, even having wrapped at 160 degrees, so will continue to do the wrap as well.

[rotagilla]

What was the total time for them to get to 205?

[Attjack]

For me looking at my last log I got to probe tender (probably over 205) at different times on the pair I did.

------------log---------------

Primo XL w/ DigiQ DX2 @ 250f
Oak 3 big chunks wrapped in HD foil one small naked chunk
On @ 9:30am
First one done @ 4:15 pm
Second one done @ 6:10 (cranked it to 300 around 5:30)

[Troutman]

Next time try QVQ to 135. You want chuck like steak that’s the way to go !!!

[jfmorris]

I will try that sometime.

[jfmorris]

Here's a graph from the Smoke Gateway app, so you can kind of see how long it took to reach 205F. Pit probe went in and Smoke turned on around 9:15, meat was added around 9:30. The second smaller chuck had a Thermoworks Dot connected to its probe. There was a drop mid-day when I did the wrap at 160F, as I removed the probe and reinserted it through the foil. And the very end I was running behind schedule, so I pushed the pit temperature up to 300 to "get it done". When it hit 205 at 5:20PM, I turned everything off and hustled to feed the family.

I had a pit temperature drop around 4pm as the Slow 'N Sear was running low on fuel - I was burning Royal Oak, which does not last as long as some other charcoal brands. I was really close to being done well before 5pm if that had not happened. All in all I would say if you don't run out of fuel, the cook would have taken from 9:30 to 4:30, just over 6 hours.

[Dadof3Illinois]

Great looking cook Jeff!!!
Chuck Roast seem to be my go to now. For me I like cooking them on my kettle at around 225F with a good amount of smoke (Pecan is my new favorite). wrap when they reach 160-165, add more rub and some beef broth. Put them in the oven at 275-285 until IT is 205-209F.

[jfmorris]

Thanks Dadof3Illinois - its Jim actually though! . Next time I might just move them to the oven when I wrap as well, and snuff out the charcoal at that point. Then I for sure won't need to worry about running out of fuel like I did at 4pm on this cook. That said, something to be said for keeping it all outdoors... I used hickory wood chunks on this cook, but do like pecan too.

[Dadof3Illinois]

Oops, sorry Jim....I guess I was thinking the JF in your handle stood for Jeff....my bad!!
I’m really liking the pecan wood but it’s a little harder to find here in Illinois.