Jeepster & Chucky - Finished as friends

Jeepster47

Sent my wife out to buy something to cook ... told her to surprise me.  She came back with a 3 lb English Roast ... ohhh, that sounds a neat.  Asked Mr Goggle where the cut was from ... hmmm ... it's just a boneless beef chuck.  A surf of the forum showed a couple of links for how to cook it, but a PM to @Mattman3969 gave me access to three of his cooks ... thanks Matt.  Read through all of them and came up with the common method; 1) grill indirect at 250 degrees until internal of 160 degrees; 2) place roast in a pan with vegetables and a fluid, cover tightly, and cook indirect at 350 degrees until an internal temp of 205 ~ 215 degrees; 3) pull the chuck in the pan and place back on the grill at 350 degrees to cook the liquid down.

After messing around with the DigiQ for two hours (operator error), I really had all the VOCs burned off.  Had lots of lump for this cook, so no worries there ... plus, the PSWoo would have allowed me to add more if needed.  Closed the vents down for about ten minutes to bring the temp down to the 260 ~ 275 range ... held it there for the three hours it took to get to an IT of 160.   Then the egg was bumped up to 350 while the roast was packaged with a can of beef broth and La Costena canned Jalepenos and other stuff.  All the fresh veggies were available, but I wanted to make this cook as simple as possible.  Placed the roast back on the grill and left it there for two-and-a-half hours until the temp stalled at 212 degrees.  Pulled the pork in the juice (had to sample it ... wow ... it was good) and stuck it back in the egg for 40 minutes ... that's when hunger won out ... not when the juice was cooked down half way.

Threw some tin foil wrapped potatoes on grill at the "about an hour to go" time frame.  Potatoes went an hour-and-a-half.

Just so you know it really happened:



Ready to go back in the egg:



This is what went in the pan:



The meat took very little work to be pulled:



Someone posted a photo of a baked potato, sour cream, pulled meat and maybe cheese (thank you) ... that looked good so that's what I replicated for my meal:



And my wife voted to use the pulled beef to make a a burrito:



The beef was excellent ... a little bark and very tender.  Both meals were good ... I'll be having a burrito - or two - for lunch.  Well worth the six hours or so that it took to cook the roast.

A few neophyte questions/comments please:

1) I stuck the temp probe through the top of the tin foil for the second phase ... that kept the wire out of the hot steam.  The hole allowed some steam out, but didn't come close to drying out the juice.  Is that what you do?

2) How long can you keep the vents closed before the fire goes out?  I kept the top closed and did a periodic prostrate exam to verify that ten minutes wasn't too much, but decided not to push it.

3) Does a beef chuck have a stall point like pork?

4) I like the "do it simple" approach for the trial run on a cook ... don't mean to insult anyone's recipe.

5) I really like the "If you're looking, you're not cooking" approach ... only opened the lid when removing/inserting the food.

6) Although the 260 ~ 275 temp worked well, will cook at 250 the next time.

Thanks for looking ... and thanks for the help folks ...

saluki2007

Looks tasty from here.  Can't answer most of your questions, but I will offer that I usually try and wrap around the probe.  Just what I do.  Don't think it really matters.

RRP

saluki2007 said:

...but I will offer that I usually try and wrap around the probe.  Just what I do.  Don't think it really matters.

I too have been a wrapper for a long time, ever since I broke some stiff cables which got that way from grease/smoke building up in that fine wire mesh. In time they really get stiff and brittle! BTW Tom, your beef creation look good!

SGH

The grub looks fantastic my friend. Roasts as all cuts, go by different names region to region. Your English roast is what we call a cross or cross rib roast. It sits across the top of ribs 3, 4 & 5 on the carcass. Hence- cross rib roast. Again yours looks excellent.

The Cen-Tex Smoker

Chuckie will stall like a butt or brisket (question 3) but not as noticeable when wrapped or braised. You essentially are doing the "Texas Crutch" when you pull it at 160 and wrap. This circumvents the stall which usually starts to occur around 160 (it can be lower or higher but this is a good middle-point a lot of people use without actually watching the thermo to determine the exact point of the stall)

theyolksonyou

RRP

I too have been a wrapper for a long time,
what are some of you albums

Mattman3969

That looks great. Good job.

Brisket_Fanatic

Looks excellent, I always wrap my probe like @RRP said so it doesn't build up gunk and also to keep a tight seal so no steam/moisture gets out. if you trying to boil down the liquid then it should definitly be left uncovered in order to allow the liquid to evaporate.

Very nice cook, I am doing up some pulled beef this weekend and may have to add the veggies this time around.