I have only had my new smokette for a few cooks so far, and everything has turned out pretty good up til now.
But today I decided to try a chuck roast, just for something to do on my new cooker, and because I had read alot on this forum about how good chuck roasts can be if cooked properly on a cs.
So I bought a 3 lb boneless chuck roast and picked one out for good marbling. Decided to set the cs at 225 degrees and cook it until internal temp went to 190-195 degrees. The plan was to then pull it and foil it and let it rest for a while (I know many people here say pull at 160 degrees or so, then foil, add juice, then put back in cs until the 190 degrees). I just fingered I would try one without foiling half-way through the cook and see what happens.
Well, my thermo read progessing rising internal temps until the last time I checked at 174 degrees (about 4 hours into the cook). I went back to watch the old ballgame on tv for about 1/2 hr and when I checked again the internal temp read 154 degrees. Couldn't believe it, sat next to it to see what was happening, and sure enough a few minutes later my internal temp read 153 degrees, and the internal temp was dropping.
I first thought the cs blew a fuse or something, took the chuck out and was going to finish in the oven while I tried to finger out what just happened. When I pulled the chuck out, the fat had not even begun to render and even though it looked good, it was barely warm to the touch and was tough as hell. I tried to pull apart part of the chuck just to see how done it was, and it was dried out and crap.
When I first noticed the problem, I pulled the meat, and turned off the cs by turning the dial to off. After getting pissed off at spending money on dinner that I wasn't going to eat, I went back outside and turned the cs on again to 250 degrees and stuck two different thermos down the top hole to see if my beloved cs was working (this was only about 10 minutes after I originally turned it off). It was. It warmed right up in about twenty minutes and was churning out the temps I set it for.
So what happened? Did my cs turn itself off for some reason during the cook and by me actually turning the cs dial to the off position and then restarting (to see if it was still working-had it blown fuse, etc.?), it reset itself?
Did i just drain all the moisture out of the meat, dried it out, and screwed it up somehow, and the meat couldn't reach a higher internal temp?
Dazed and confused!
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