14th Q: Reverse Seared Beef "Lean Meisel of Kalbin" on WSM + African Cow Dung Charcoal Grill [EPIC FAIL][w/ pr0n]

[This is not your pork!]

Featured products:

• A lean cut of beef called "Mageres Meisel von Kalbin" with a weight of 3 lbs
• Self made rub
• Self made sauce
• Foil-baked potatoes

Setup:

• WSM 22.5" with 2nd charcoal grate for use of lump
• African Cow Dung Charcoal Grill 15"
• Al Fakher Pure Natural Lemon Tree Lump Charcoal
• Charcoal ring filled with 4.41 lbs of lump for Minion Method without depression lit with Gloria One-Hand Flame Stick
• Five fist-sized apple wood chunks
• Cooking scheme: L&S till IT 110°F + reverse seared till IT 130°F
• Actual cooking temp for L&S 225-300°F and for reverse sear ~375-400°F
• Maverick ET-732 & SuperFast WHITE Thermapen for temperature supervision
• No-Stick Grill-Mat on upper cooking grate
• Foiled 18" clay saucer in foiled water pan without water

To clarify which cut of beef this really is, have a look at the following map. The lean "Meisel" is number 4 in this picture.

I don't know exactly how to translate the meat category "Kalbin", the explanation is something like this:

Young full-grown female cattle which did not give birth to a calf yet. Light red meat, fine texture, marbled, very good meat quality.

Beef before unpacking

Beef unpacked side A

Beef unpacked side B

Beef unpacked side C

Beef unpacked side D

For this short cook I filled the charcoal ring of my WSM with "just" 4.41 lbs of Lemon Lump and nevertheless added five small pieces of apple wood for a good smoke flavor

Of course it had to be fired up with my fancy Gloria On-Hand Flame Stick

Beef with foiled potatoes on upper cooking grate with no-stick grill mat

It took exactly 1 hour for the beef to reach IT 110°F, I then moved the hot charcoal from the WSM to the African Cow Dung Charcoal Grill and gave it a little after burn with Gloria

Closeup of Gloria in action

And one more even closer

Beef on African Cow Dung Charcoal Grill with Maverick probes attached

Beef getting reverse seared closeup

Beef moved around for even searing on all sides

Beef supposedly ready with an IT of about 130°F throughout the meat (showing my new SuperFast WHITE Thermapen)

Beef after resting for about an hour in the cooler

Beef sliced

Beef closeup

Beef sliced closeup

Beef on plate with self-made sauce and foil-baked potatoes

And more beef on plate with self-made sauce and foil-baked potatoes

Result:

What an EPIC FAIL, as my wife said after eating the first piece! It was not done at all, nowhere near tenderness, and the juice from the meat collected in the foil from resting mainly consisted of blood. It was tough as leather and not even searing in a pan on the oven helped. We ate most of it except the middle part, the dog then had a feast with the left-overs. It all was a huge disappointment, not even the foiled potatoes made it, they had to be baked in the oven until finished.

Remarks:

• After reading up on reverse searing I really thought it's easy, but obviously it isn't. Different sources told about smoking to IT 110°F and searing to 125-135°F, be it loin or tri-tip, but that didn't work out with this cut of beef, and I have no idea what the reason could be. Any explanation for why this has gone wrong?
• Playing around with reverse searing without a proper grill is cumbersome, everybody else with an OTS / OTG / Performer would have done the whole cook on it, and not combined a smoker and a grill in one cook. So I better concentrate on smoking, till I have a proper grill in addition to my smoker.

Any comments / thoughts are highly appreciated. Thanks for looking.

 

[Teamfour]

Thanks for the post. I am scratching that off my list. :shock:

 

[twinsfan]

Looks like a shoulder roast, even if it's a more tender cow, probably needs to be taken up at least to 180 for slicing, further for PP tender. Still looked very good, despite I guess not tasting the best. Love the lemon charcoal though!

 

[fingerlickin']

I'm sorry it didn't work out for you. Judging by the photo's that virgin cow looked pretty darn tasty to me.

 

[This is not your pork!]

Yes, it's really mean, it looked and smelled SOOO good, I did not expect anything being wrong until chewing the first bite. :twitch:

My wife (who knows way more about cooking than I do) said, it's a cut of beef to be cooked S&L for several hours, one hour of smoking and that little searing just can't be enough to make it edible (and right she is :wink.

It looked kind of marbled, so it may survive S&L smoking for several hours till IT 190°F, most likely I'll try that cut again, it nevertheless is supposed to be a really fine piece of beef.

 

[This is not your pork!]

I am scratching that off my list. :shock:

Don't! The epic fail was definitely my fault with the way I cooked it. That fine cut should really be given another chance.

Can anybody tell if that cut is available over there and what it's named?

 

[Boshizzle]

Sorry it didn't work out. It looks good though. The cut reminds me of what we would call a chuck tenderloin.

 

[Arg1129]

Do you think it it a cut of meat that would benefit from a marinade as well as low and slow of would it be a flavorful cut with the smoke alone?

Looks like the truckload of Farker lemon charcoal is working out well. Good to hear.

 

[This is not your pork!]

Do you think it it a cut of meat that would benefit from a marinade as well as low and slow of would it be a flavorful cut with the smoke alone? Looks like the truckload of Farker lemon charcoal is working out well. Good to hear.

Yes, the Al-Fakher is really great, money well spent! I can't tell about the meat, it is supposed to be good, so I'll try again. That beef is marbled, so it really should be suited for L&S, but I have no idea if marinating has any influence. I would not smoke it without proper rubbing, but that goes for all products. My wife has the idea of larding instead of injecting, so this is also something to look into.

 

[Phubar]

I don't know that cut but I Googled it up and as Boshizzle said it's probably a chuck tenderloin.

 

[This is not your pork!]

I don't know that cut but I Googled it up and as Boshizzle said it's probably a chuck tenderloin.

If that's what is shown as number 4 in the provided beef map, I tried to search for "chuck tenderloin" but nothing useful came up, and my favorite translation service (dict.leo.org) does not recognize "chuck" related to food, but "chuck" seems to stand for a wider range of the neck area. Is such a cut available in NL?

 

[SmokinAussie]

G'Day TISNYP!

You have what is called a "Chuck Crest" in my country, although it is never really sold on its own. It IS part of the chuck and as such, it is a muscle group that does a lot of work in walking around and it is very tough, requiring long cooking / smoking times. The Chuck though, IMO gives you the best beefy flavour there is... well, I have not had a good brisket yet... But only one cut really beats it for mine, and that is the Tri Tip.

Here is a chart of Australian Cuts of Meat in a pdf file. If you download this, you can enlarge it quite a lot. Importantly, this chart has a lot of American Cuts named as well... cuts like the tritip and the Brisket, which ae mainly for our export market, and not seen in our local butcher shops.

If you print this out, you might be able to take it to you butcher and show him exactly what you want.

I have to say your preparation and execution of the cook was absolutely perfect. It's just a shame that it was the wrong cut of meat.

I have no doubt at all that you will get it nailed very soon!

Cheers!

Bill

 

[This is not your pork!]

So yesterday evening the dog had his final feast on the left-overs of that beef, which was waiting in the fridge. We took a look at the final slices, and tasted the smaller parts from the other end of that cut, and those were REALLY tender and just delicious! I couldn't make a photo, it was gone so fast, but those pieces seem to have been from another muscle strand, which was not tough at all. Looks like we ate from the wrong side of that beef on Sunday. :twitch:

BTW Yes, the dog had his feast nonetheless, there was enough bloody meat from the middle section left. :wink:

 

[FlCracker]

In the USA it is called a "mock tender" or "chuck tender" there is on muscle in the chuck called a "chuck eye" . Also a full grown bovine that has not had a calf is called a "heifer" pronounced "heffer"

 

[MS2SB]

Looking at the pics I would say your technique was right on. It just probably wasn't the right technique for the cut of meat you were using.