▶️ Play First Cook in the Pit Barrel Junior: Chuck Roast Burnt Ends
I like using my Weber 22-inch kettle grill. I like using the Slow ‘n Sear with it to do smoking of foods. But there is definitely, at least for me, a fiddle factor that sometimes is more than I want to contend with. Sometimes I want to get the food on and just let it go. That is the single biggest alluring feature of the Pit Barrel Cookers. I purchased the Pit Barrel Junior (PBJ) as the 14-inch diameter drum is likely more than big enough for anything I will do. The classic model, 18 inches in diameter, would certainly be more than enough but it felt like overkill to me. When the PBJ arrived a friend and I spent a bit of time putting the lid assembly together and then puzzling over the ring with the 3 horseshoe shaped pieces of metal on it that the grate had been sitting in in the packaging. This is where Pit Barrel could put a little more effort into the printed directions. They say nothing about what that ring is for and until I saw a picture online and referred to the more detailed online information I eventually found it just did not occur to either of us that the ring with its hotseshoe shaped pieces of metal was a stand for the PBJ. Obvious in hindsight like so many things are.
If I had gotten the PBJ even an hour earlier than I did I think my first cook would have been 4 racks of St. Louis style ribs. I bet they would have come out far better than the what I made on the WEber. Something definitely went worng with that cook and they just were not nearly as tasty as they should have been (a bit dried out; maybe keeping them in the oven set at a temperature of 170F to keep them warm was a mistake). My first cook with the PBJ would be with an approximately 3.5-pound chuck roast that I would turn into burnt ends of a sort.
My first version of chuck roast burnt ends made in the Pit Barrel Junior and finished in my oven. There is definitely a learning curve even with something so seemingly simple as the Pit Barrel Cooker.
I prepared the chuck roast with just a basic rub of pretty much equal parts salt, pepper, and garlic. I got the PBJ properly filled and lit (I hoped) and then hung the chuck roast with a single hook on one of the rods in the PBJ. I closed the lid and watched the temerpature rise. And rise. And rise some more. As I understood things the PBJ would run between 275°F and 310°F if I had the lower intake vent (the only vent there is assuming you put the lid on securely) open about one-quarter full. The temperature by the Meater probe was passing 325°F and I did not think it was going to settle down. This was about 30 minutes into the cook. I decided to close the lower vent to about what I thought would be 1/8 open (about one finger width on my right hand). The temperature stopped rising and began to drop. About 45 minutes later it was hoving around 260°F so I decided to tweak the vent open a bit and the temperature rose about 25 degrees. Maybe it is dialed in now for all future cooks.
As far as I could tell things were going reasonably well. That is until the ambient temperature shot pasted my temeprature alarm of 325°F shooting to about 440°F when I got outside to see what was up. What was not up was the chuck roast. It fell off its hook. Maybe the hook was in a part of the meat that rendered away. But the meat was laying on the coals. Not good.
I imagine all the smoke is from the portions of the chuck roast that are burning still a top the coals. It is a good thing I had a Meater temperature probe in the roast because otherwise I never would’ve known that the meat had fallen off. When the ambient temperature soared to 440° F that was certainly a clue.
I pulled it out and decided that it was time to bring it inside to cut into cubes. At this point the internal temperature of the roast was probably around 180°F though I ams ure it was higher in many places. It certainly cut more easily than I would have thought it would for that internal temperature. It was time to cost the cubes in a basic BBQ sauce and let them finish in my oven. The sauce is made of:
- 1/2 cup catsup
- 1/4 cup worcestershire sauce
- 1/2 teaspoon chili powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 2 dashes (maybe more) Tabasco sauce
- 3/4 cups water
After an hour the cubes were squeezably soft and looked great. My first taste was quite good though I can see m, more importantly taste, room for improvement.
