While I think many of us are in agreement that for many situations, the old pseudo-standard of 225 as the ideal smoking temp is a myth that is largely busted (vs. say 250-260), I *did* find a situation where I think it is indeed helpful. Last week I was hunkering down to self-isolate with my sister and brother in law, but had the foresight to ask them to go grab my Weber kettle and my barrel cooker before we sealed ourselves off, and they said they had bought a beef roast that was on sale that afternoon. Turns out it was an inside round, so not typically the first thing I would reach for to smoke (vs. say, cubing it for stew beef or using a SV machine) BUT I do know they're good oftentimes if you do them really and truly low and slow AND you slice them nice and thin. They're great for a French dip or any kind of sandwich but being that they're typically very lean, it's easy to dry them out and ruin it if you're not careful.
So I set my barrel very conservatively (and the temp outside of about -5 C was actually a bit helpful in this regard as it kept it from overshooting), and eventually got it up to about 245 and held it between there and 220 for about 2 hours, letting the beef come up to temp very slowly and just letting it do its thing. Pulled it off when it read 129 internal on the Meater and let it sit for perhaps 20 mins and noticed there was actually very little carryover. Peaked at maybe 131, and it was definitely more rare in the thicker part (it was an odd sort of wedge shape and despite me putting the wide side closer to the heat, I believe my heat deflector (a large stainless bowl with water in it) in the barrel almost worked too well as in this case I actually wanted the one end to be a little hotter, and the deflector made the temperature "too" even. So when I do the other one (it was a large, 5 lb roast we had cut in half, doing the other half tomorrow) I think I'll take the deflector out but still figure out a way to get a couple of cans of water in there as I think the water I had in there definitely made a difference in keep the roast moist, as it was very lean as I mentioned and also cooking at altitude in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains, in the winter when it's very dry, I think it's super key to keep whatever you're cooking in nice and humid inside.
Anyway as I say, usually I'm quite happy for most roasts, ribs, really almost anything to be smoked at a little higher temp, the only difference most of the time is you finish earlier with the same delicious results, but in the case of very lean cuts like inside/outside round or eye round, the old 225-230 may actually yield some benefits in terms of keeping the meat from drying out.
Anyone found the same results? Or indeed, am I just weird and you can smoke round roasts at the higher temps too? In my experience I haven't had much luck that way but maybe I've been doing it wrong.
So I set my barrel very conservatively (and the temp outside of about -5 C was actually a bit helpful in this regard as it kept it from overshooting), and eventually got it up to about 245 and held it between there and 220 for about 2 hours, letting the beef come up to temp very slowly and just letting it do its thing. Pulled it off when it read 129 internal on the Meater and let it sit for perhaps 20 mins and noticed there was actually very little carryover. Peaked at maybe 131, and it was definitely more rare in the thicker part (it was an odd sort of wedge shape and despite me putting the wide side closer to the heat, I believe my heat deflector (a large stainless bowl with water in it) in the barrel almost worked too well as in this case I actually wanted the one end to be a little hotter, and the deflector made the temperature "too" even. So when I do the other one (it was a large, 5 lb roast we had cut in half, doing the other half tomorrow) I think I'll take the deflector out but still figure out a way to get a couple of cans of water in there as I think the water I had in there definitely made a difference in keep the roast moist, as it was very lean as I mentioned and also cooking at altitude in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains, in the winter when it's very dry, I think it's super key to keep whatever you're cooking in nice and humid inside.
Anyway as I say, usually I'm quite happy for most roasts, ribs, really almost anything to be smoked at a little higher temp, the only difference most of the time is you finish earlier with the same delicious results, but in the case of very lean cuts like inside/outside round or eye round, the old 225-230 may actually yield some benefits in terms of keeping the meat from drying out.
Anyone found the same results? Or indeed, am I just weird and you can smoke round roasts at the higher temps too? In my experience I haven't had much luck that way but maybe I've been doing it wrong.
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