Beef Pot Roast

I really don't know cuts of meat. I do know when it looks good. This one looked very good, with a nice ratio of fat to lean. It had some bone, but not too much. Best of all, it was discounted because it expired the next day.

Today was the next day. I mixed garlic sea salt, seasoned salt (from the Dollar Tree), a bit of table salt and some black pepper in a bowl. After washing the meat I rubbed it with a blend of olive oil and vegetable oil I also found at the Dollar Tree. Hey, cheap is good. It's a discounted cut of meat! I seasoned the meat with my mixture, and slapped it on the barbecue.

My coals today were lump charcoal from K mart, because that is where I happened to be when I recalled that I needed charcoal. I hadn't looked around there before. They have some good stuff. Bags of hickory and mesquite wood chips. Things and stuff. I will be back.

I set my thermometer for 160 degrees, and fired up my coal starter chimney. I waited a bit longer before pouring the coals in the fire box this time. We did some grilled burgers a few days ago and I discovered that the fire was harder to manage when I didn't wait long enough for the coals to get going. It was a nice bed, with good ash and a workable distribution of heat. I added some more lumps and settled back with a Blue Moon Belgian White beer.

Once I had a solid fire going, even heat in the chamber, and the meat temperature was starting to rise, I went about my business for a little while. I estimated three hours to cook this roast, but scheduled four.

I periodically tossed in dry chunks of mesquite, since that is what I had left. I will probably be going with chips in the future, since they give me better smoke. Even so, these chunks worked out just fine. I turned the meat at an hour and a half. It was looking good.

The temperature inside the meat was hovering around 155 degrees after about two and a half hours. I had just thrown in the last of my charcoal, and I knew I had to finish with that. So, the hair dryer came to the rescue. I applied it off and on over fifteen minutes and easily achieved my target temperature at just about three hours of cooking. I ran the dryer on low for a minute or two at a time, then would let things just cook for about four or five minutes.

I pulled the roast out and covered it with foil to rest. I had seen this done on some YouTube videos, and gave it a try. Supposedly it allows the temperature to even out and the juices to settle. I don't know if that is the case, but when I uncovered this beauty it looked marvelous. I ate the first cut, and it was a winner.

Moist, tender, and beautifully done. The smoke flavor was distinct, but not overwhelming. I just cut it into serving chunks and we had at it. Served with a green salad. It was fabulous, I must say. I ate mine without any sauce at all. It was as close to perfection as I might hope.

There are some chunks left. We have plans to do a pork shoulder tomorrow, and we have a cooked chicken quarter left over from another meal that I might throw in to smoke a bit, as well. I have visions of chopped pork, chicken and beef blended and served on a bit of bread.

This is proving to be a lot of fun, and tasty, too!