LTHForum.com

hmmm? The cut itself when it was raw was only 2 inches thick. I'm guessing internally it had to be 190 when I took it off.

Does it want internal 190 for more time you think? I'm a total newbie to cheap cuts of beef and low and slow technique.

I'll get another one and try it if that's so.

So what should I do with the meat I have now?

You can't go by time or temp. You've got to cook it until the connective tissue breaks down and it's pullable. Practice makes perfect.

_________________
Steve Z.
Photographer/Pseudojournalist

"The only time to eat diet food is while you’re waiting for the steak to cook." - Julia Child

Thanks Stevez. I'm going to get another piece of the same cut and give it another whirl and have a knife and fork at the side table near the cooker to see what happens when I add more hours.

It doesn't "dry out"?

Pot roasts, I'm thinking now, are usually cooked by braising them. Moisture infuses into them.

I'll just have to try it again, low and slow, and see what happens to the texture.

Get one with some extra fat on the exterior or wrap it in bacon to protect it from drying out.

=R=

_________________
I just wanna live until I gotta die. I know I ain't perfect but God knows I try. --Todd Snider

Spit out the gum, sister!

Twitter: ronniesuburban

Where did you buy it and do you have a better idea of what cut it was other than "pot roast"? Grocery stores will sell a wide variety of cuts as things like "pot roast" or stew meat". Finding out what the exact cut is will help a lot.

Did the cut have a good amount of connective tissue or any marbling in it? If it did it may have been a piece of chuck or something, and Ronnie's approach is right - it may just have not gone long enough (or was cooked too fast).

Another possibility is that it was something like eye of round roast, which has very little fat or connective tissue in it. A cut like that has no tissue inside to break down and naturally braise/baste it from the inside as it cooks. Cuts like that are best stewed or braised, aren't ideal for smoking in general, and are better marinaded and indirect grilled. You can help them out by wrapping them in bacon, mopping very frequently, or even submerging them in braising liquid every 30 minutes or so as they smoke.

If the meat tastes good I'd just chop it up and braise the chunks in whatever liquid best matches the rub (beer, wine, stock). That can then be flavored to use in hash or tacos.

_________________
It is VERY important to be smart when you're doing something stupid

- Chris

Kenji,

Long and thin (2x14) for a 5-hour smoke at 250(ish) is doorway to dry beef, especially if not heavily striated with fat.

I'd venture if you did not use an instant read you were off the mark.

Couple of options, out of many, if a long thin "pot roast" ever presents itself again. If lean butterfly it out into sandwich shape, jaccard, marinate, grill. If nicely marbled, coil, tie off and smoke low and slow.

Next time you want to smoke a pot roast go with a 6-8 pound chuck roast which takes well to Low and Slow.

Far as what to do with your dessicated hunk of cow flesh, BBQ sauce my friend BBQ sauce. Chop the meat into small chunks, add a thin BBQ sauce in an almost 1-1 ratio and let sit in the fridge for a few hours to absorb. Reheat slowly in a double boiler* adjust sauce consistency and flavor, serve on cheap white hamburger buns.

Enjoy,
Gary

* Variation on Danny Gaulden method

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Sauce on the side, always, implied, axiomatic..........never a doubt, BBQ sauce without.

Low & Slow

Thanks to everyone for the advice. Using Gary's advice I pulled out the garage sale 1971 meat slicer, sliced it. MIxed it with some doctored Baby Ray's and it went into the fridge. It's also currently in two people's lunch bins, luckily I had cheapie white buns (88cents/8 pak). I'll hear back from them later today as to how it was.

On another smoking note I made another batch of herring and mackeral.

I also scored a barely used Little Chief Craigslist, to use for my fish and jerky forays. I'm picking it up tonight.

Tonight's smoke. I turned some spare ribs and back ribs from this



to this (on my Weber Kettle)



and this (on my WSM)



I've put more information about their prep here: http://smpoke-on.blogspot.com/2011/06/r ... -back.html

While those were going, I used my gasser to make dinner:



I also grilled some buffalo wings for dinner but they somehow evaded my camera.

A little Jamaican inspired smoke:

Jerk chicken, jerk wings, jerk CSR's, jerk pork steak, Asian wings, bbq CSR.

All items jerked or rubbed overnight.

Jerk paste recipe contained 10 habaneros and was blazin'. Other items were solid.

WSM using Lump, and a bag of the Jack Daniels briquettes that has chunks of the oak whiskey casks mixed in. I also had a bunch of whole allspice I kept adding to the WSM.

Loaded:





jerk wings (L), Asian wings (R):



BBQ CSR:





jerked bird:




plated:


In addition to the Jamaican style reb beans and rice & plantains, I did up a fruit salad in a watermelon, recipe called for rum, with a chemo patient & a preschooler @ home that wasnt going to happen. I mixed back in some of the watermelon juice as the "liquor" for this salad and it was actually pretty good(for fruit).



Of course I had help:



Saturday doing Naperville Ribfest(not really to eat, but to see the N. Mississippi All Stars). Firing the smoker Sunday, so far I have lamb ribs, and need to get more protein to smoke.

_________________
I got a real good mind.

Before Cotton was King: http://www.grubseeker.blogspot.com

Neighbor on the block here wanted to know what person/company to call if they wanted to have a whole pig roasted here on the block (NW side Chicago). Anyone have experience and good advice? Or should I create a new thread in Shopping/Cooking?

I would contact our own philw, pig roaster extraordinarie.

_________________
Steve Z.
Photographer/Pseudojournalist

"The only time to eat diet food is while you’re waiting for the steak to cook." - Julia Child

thanks, I PM'ed him just now.

Inspired by jimswside's pork butt post upthread from April, I did my first (and second, since I did two at the same time) whole pork butt low n slow this past weekend to feed the Davooda army on the 4th. 14 hours on the XL Big Green Egg and the meat was falling away from the bone. I used a blend of hickory and cherry lumps. It was a big hit - now I wonder why I was so intimidated by the thought of doing this...

Thanks Jim for your excellent example!

Davooda

BTW - I sourced the meat at Sam's Club for $1.77 per pound on the two-pak. Pleased with the quality

_________________
Life is a garden, Dude - DIG IT!
-- anonymous Colorado snowboarder whizzing past me March 2010

sounds good, I need to set aside the time to do another pork butt soon.


I think I also got to get me a BGE.

_________________
I got a real good mind.

Before Cotton was King: http://www.grubseeker.blogspot.com

Lamb ribs, I had to give them a try, on my own terms though.

I was able to grab up 2 nice portions of lamb breast @ Caputos for $1.99/lb. I trimmed these as I would a pork spare rib, seperating the rib tips from the slabs of spares. A little more difficult than pork, but still pretty easy.

I rubbed these ribs and tips with mustard, and then a rub I whipped up(middle eastern themed). Ever since I hung a cone of pork shoulder in the WSM for a smokey al pastor I have been wanting to do more hung meat. I hung the slabs thickest part down from the upper rack of the WSM. I also didnt use a water pan. Only about 30 unlit briquettes and a 1/2 chimney of lit ones. A couple chunks of hickory were in the mix. The ribs hung over a cooler side of the fire below, still allowing for the meat to drip on the lit coals. No spritzing, moping, etc. A little over 4 hours later they were done.

Magnificent, smokey, tender, juicy, meaty..... mercy.









Lamb may be my 2nd favorite meat to smoke after pork.

_________________
I got a real good mind.

Before Cotton was King: http://www.grubseeker.blogspot.com

Jim,

This picture has me scouting lamb ribs for this weekend.

_________________
Steve Z.
Photographer/Pseudojournalist

"The only time to eat diet food is while you’re waiting for the steak to cook." - Julia Child

they were darn good, I bet you knock yours out of the park.

_________________
I got a real good mind.

Before Cotton was King: http://www.grubseeker.blogspot.com

Yeah man. I could go for some lamb too after those beauty shots.


Here are a couple of pictures of some smoked meats I did on Saturday.

Hot links:





Pork butts: (Normally I try to get a photo after they've been pulled as well but what can I say, I was hungry)







Last picture also featuring my cheap-ass Brinkmann smoker that was a Marlboro Miles prize.

All meats sourced from Peoria Packing. And boy were they packed Friday afternoon.

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Well I got drunk and I ate a chicken
I ate a chicken I found in my kitchen
Not just a leg and not just a wing
I'd like to let you know that I ate the whole damn thing

The day after a birthday party for my wife Karen where she requested BBQ chicken, which is technically grilled chicken with BBQ sauce, and since one couple was a no-show, I didn't cook all the chicken I had seasoned, and since I was smoking some pork hocks the next day, I thought I'd throw the uncooked chicken on the hot WSM to make maybe smoked chicken salad. I haven't liked the previous smoked chickens I've made, but couldn't think of anything else to do with it. Anyway, I pulled the chicken pieces off and my whole family insisted on trying it and it looked so good I had a piece. It was awesome! Now the next day, nobody is eating the leftover chicken with BBQ sauce, they are eating the smoked chicken. In fact, as I was writing this, I started smelling the chicken and I looked over and there is Karen eating two pieces. The next time I have company over and Karen wants BBQ chicken, I'm going to make the real thing.

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"Good stuff, Maynard." Dobie Gillis

chicken marinated in fish sauce, lime juice, cilantro, garlic, etc:





Glazed off the smoker with a mango bbq sauce I made:

_________________
I got a real good mind.

Before Cotton was King: http://www.grubseeker.blogspot.com

jimswside,

Great looking chicken below. However, I have a question...

_________________
"Skin that smoke wagon and see what happens..."
- Wyatt Earp, Tombstone

special bbq rub.

_________________
I got a real good mind.

Before Cotton was King: http://www.grubseeker.blogspot.com

hahahaha

He did say it was a jamaican-inspired smoke...

_________________
Ed Fisher
my chicago food photos

RIP LTH.

Im a big fan of themed dinners.

_________________
I got a real good mind.

Before Cotton was King: http://www.grubseeker.blogspot.com

Once upon a time before the invention of digital cameras there used to be a thing called film, and it was sold in small light proof canisters. That appears to be one of those ancient containers, I guess Jim needs to upgrade to a digital cmaera

Nice catch on that, I couldn't see past the great looking chicken!

_________________
It is VERY important to be smart when you're doing something stupid

- Chris

Soooo..........I wanna smoke an egg. Should I.........
A. Smoke it raw
B. Hard boil it, then smoke it
C. Other

Thanks for your opinions. I know it is going to come down to trial and error but Im looking for opinions

This is probably completely wrong but if it were me, I'd hard-boil it first, peel it and then smoke it at the lowest possible temperature -- cold-smoke it, if possible. I might try a few that weren't peeled, too. I'm guessing if you hot-smoke a raw egg in its shell, it will probably explode...but again, I've never tried it and could be entirely wrong about that.

=R=

_________________
I just wanna live until I gotta die. I know I ain't perfect but God knows I try. --Todd Snider

Spit out the gum, sister!

Twitter: ronniesuburban

HI,

Treat it like a tea egg, where the egg is cooked, then the shell is rolled to crack in many places to allow the tea to seep in and color. Instead of tea, it would be smoke.

I hope you will try several variants at the same time to see what happens. I know I will be looking forward to your report.

Regards,

_________________
Cathy2

"You'll be remembered long after you're dead if you make good gravy, mashed potatoes and biscuits." -- Nathalie Dupree
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