Chuckie or Chuck eye?

[patcrail]

Last time, I lucked out & cut the chuck eyes out of sale "Underblade chuck roasts" at $2.99/lb.... sad part was a lot of what I trimmed off was probe tender (like butter) at 130... so this go-round, I have a 2 lb chuck roast (sale), well marbled, 2” thick... it’s either a thin pot roast or a thick steak, but for under $6, I’m gonna reverse sear it, and anything that ends up too tough will just get trimmed off for carne asada or wraps... dry -brined 18 hrs, hit with cow crust, and on indirect now with a kiss of pecan wood & fat for "burnt offerings"... we’ll know soon!

[patcrail]

Pics:

[patcrail]

The grocery tag

[patcrail]

We’ll find out soon! The part I thought was tough shoulder meat probed tender at 105, the rest was semi-tender, so gonna just have to wait and see

[patcrail]

Well, F!!! I screwed up somehow and it was so damned salty I wanted potato chips to tame the salt taste! A waste, but at least it was less than $6.... it wasn’t chuck eye, had a little more tooth, but less so than a sirloin, so I’ll try again with the other 2 I have in the fridge, but actually measure the salt this time.... I’ve never measured before & never had a problem, but this was insane

[zzdocxx]

potato chips, lol.

BTW I have had that happen to me, I didn't realize how salty the "coco amino" was that I added for umami, it is SUPER salty. I also added salt. Luckily it was just some scraps trimmed from a 20lb vak pak, I don't remember how she salvaged it, I think she threw in mushrooms, potatoes, etc. with it. She takes care of my mom and cooks for her too. I get to play with my grill and then after having a little, send it out for other people to eat.

[Schwyy]

I laughed at that potato chip comment too. we've all been there I call that the salt monster in my house!

[patcrail]

For whatever it’s worth...

[Mr. Bones]

It'll still grace a pot o chili jus fine...

Bubble, Bubble, Toil, an Trouble

Don't add ya no salt til it's simmered a spell, Brother

[fzxdoc]

I'm with Mr. Bones --toss that meat into some chili and you'll have some good eats, even with the salt. Unless you soldiered through the steak and are now retaining water like a sponge, that is.

Kathryn

[zzdocxx]

Would it be OK for me to post my humble chuck roast here? It was one of those sliced off the roll from the meat case at Costco, not quite 2" thick I guess. I put it on the Traeger smoker grill at around 180 degrees, with a couple of thermometers stuck in it. I was surprised it hadn't got up to 125 until probably 5 hours later. I put the heat up to 250 for a while and kept checking the temp every 10-15min. Then I took them off, cranked it up to 500 and put the GrillGrates in. When it hit around 450 I seared the chuck. I'll post a pic from my phone next pic.
Here was my thinking. I have two very similar roasts. The other one I popped into the SV at 125. These chucks have been sitting vac packed in my fridge for over a month, so I figured that might make it possible to just slow smoke/grill it to medium rare and have it come out edible. Which it did, though it does have some moderate tooth to it. It is also very fatty ! ! !
I figured if it came out too tough I could either continue it on to 205, and that would also determine what I do with the SV roast.
I cooked some brats and some Linguica (Portuguese) sausage as well.
OK pics to follow, sorry I don't mean to hijack, just wanted to add to the discussion.

[zzdocxx]

I sliced up the Chuck, a little toothy as I said but moderately so. You can see the big seams of fat too. Maybe that's a good enough reason to take it all the way to 205. Just wanted to try it though.One more thing, there is a band or two of pretty tough connective tissue in there somewhere.
I seared the sausages on the grill grates then also hit them with the propane torch because they didn't get nice dark marks on them.
I should add the chuck has good flavor, I guess I will have to trim a little before eating. I see this as possibly going into tacos or ?

PS
1. Can anyone give me some info on whether going up to 205 final temp will render out more of the fat ?
2. How long to SV ? I am hoping to give it a little smoke after the SV but before searing..

[EdF]

zzdocxx

Here are some notes from a couple years back from Potkettleblack

(potkettleblack): So, I know JKLA and ChefSteps like hotter temps and shorter cooks for their Sous-B-Cue, but I'm gonna state a minority opinion. Chuck, do at 130-135 x 48-72, until it passes a pinch test. Brisket, same time, same temp, same test. The pinch test is a key concept for sous vide, just like probe tender for traditional BBQ.

If you are inclined to attempt this again, do a chuck (unless brisket is cheaper where you are... in which case do a brisket flat). Put it in for 135* for 24 hours... pinch the bag. If it’s not tender, it's not ready. Give it another 12. Repeat until it’s tender under your pinch. When it's tender, shock it cold in an ice bath. Refrigerate overnight. You want this cold on the grill/smoker. Dry it off, rub it, put it on at 225-250* and let it run until it's rethermed. Then, take it off, and heat your sear up to sear temps and sear it until you have the crust you want. That should produce closer to what you're looking for.

And more: My SV mentor would advise that you low-slow the brisket at something like 130-135 until it pinches tender before shocking, chilling, and finishing with a 225-275 smoke to build the bark. The tender pinch is gonna be 48-72 hours, most likely.

[zzdocxx]

Thanks so much for your input. I am going to have to try the pinch test. Meanwhile I left the 2nd chuck roast in SV overnight at 127.5, and just took it out, put in ice bath, and then fridge.
I will probably try to Q it later today.
Or maybe it should go back into the SV ?

Edit: I pinched it, and about 2/3 of it feels soft, but there are a couple of hard areas. So I threw it back into the SV at 132.
Though I should say the first one was not bad.

[fzxdoc]

127.5° in the sous vide can be pretty risky, zzdocxx . Most experts recommend going no lower than 131°.

Meathead, in his Deep-Dive Sous Vide Que book available as a free flipbook here on the pit says:

"Cook sous vide at 131° or higher. At lower temperatures you may not be killing all the pathogens. You may be incubating them!"

Kathryn

[zzdocxx]

Yeah that sort of crossed my mind. I'm going to sear the h*11 out of it but of course you are right.

It's at 132 now but perhaps I ought to take it off sooner rather than later and get to smoking ?

[zzdocxx]

Chuck eye or nay ?

OK I seasoned the meat and put it back on the grill.

I forgot to do the ice bath this time, oh well, we shall see what happens.

There were still two areas that felt not as soft as the others, I'll post a pic to show where.

[zzdocxx]

Here's the meat post SV.

The strip on the lower right corner is still kind of hard.

That football shaped piece at the very bottom is also kind of hard.

The both go down at angles so maybe I'm just pinching that part in a different direction, who knows.

This does remind me though of when I cut up a chuck roll that I got at Costco Business Center, it was in a ~20# vak pak. I watched a number of youtube videos about how to cut it up into usable parts. From what I understand, about 7 or 8 years ago the national beef association or whatever, came up with a way to cut it up for better cooking and profit.

It involves separating out three main parts of the whole roll. 1, the "roll". 2, the "Sierra Steak" (similar to flank). 3, "Denver Steaks", the "4th most tender cut of beef". Alternatively the Denvers could be cut up into "boneless ribs". I made mine into Denvers and they were indeed delicious.

Eh almost forgot you can also take out the chuck eyes from the roll, they are kind of small and I inadvertently stuck mine in a vac pak with a bunch of small scraps I had trimmed off, hahaha.

It was a pain in the rear but kind of interesting to do, it was when there wasn't much meat available in regular stores. The whole chuck roll pretty much can be separated/cut along planes of connective tissue including fat that lie between the different muscle groups. Here's a great vid that shows how it can be done.

https://youtu.be/npzRwXSvEyg

[fzxdoc]

zzdocxx It will happily continue to tenderize at 132° until you're ready to smoke. It depends on what your end goal is, says Potkettleblack , our resident sous vide expert here.

If you want a steak-like texture, then set a steak-like temp, go for 48 hours minimum. Flash chill, then smoke up to your preferred steak temp. If you want it pulled for sandwiches then you can go 155° or 160° for 24 hours or so then smoke up to a max of 160°/probe tender the next day after flash-chilling and placing in the fridge overnight.

These are just a couple of ways to go. YMMV depending on your desired end result.

Kathryn

P.S. Sorry I posted this before I saw your last post. BTW, flash chilling is very important from a food safety standpoint. Just sayin'.

[zzdocxx]

Thx, your input appreciated. Hadn't considered flash chilling as safety issue, only to facilitate searing the surface without overcooking. Is it just a side benefit ?

It sat briefly on the counter --> seasoned --> smoker grill @~170 degrees now. After a 35min, thermoworks dot and thermopen show temp as ~110.

Built-in Traeger temp probe still running ~10deg higher. I found a way to calibrate involving a glass of ice water.

<<Ran out of characters, had to edit for brevity.>>

[fzxdoc]

zzdocxx Flash chilling only necessary if you're not smoking or searing it right away.

Sorry if I misunderstood.

Kathryn