Two kilo chuck roast, seared first, into the cooker with an onion, a cup of stock and some carrots, lid on, low for eight hours. It was hot all the way through and completely edible but it sliced rather than pulled, and it was chewy at the edges. Every recipe says eight hours on low so I assumed I had overcooked it and dried it out. Should I have gone shorter, or is something else going on?
Second thing to check: your cooker. There is a lot of variation between machines and newer ones from some brands run noticeably hotter than older ones, while some run cool enough that low never really gets to a proper simmer.
Cheap test. Fill it two thirds with water, put it on low with the lid on for four hours, and stick a thermometer in. You want to see something in the 90s Celsius. If yours is sitting at 80, that explains everything and you should be using high for braises or adding hours.
This is worth doing once for any cooker you own. Mine was 12 degrees cooler on low than a friend's identical looking model from a different decade, and we had spent an evening arguing about recipes that were both correct for our own machines.
One more variable: the cut. Chuck is a big muscle group and some parts of it are much leaner than others. If your butcher gave you a piece from the leaner end, it will never pull the way a well marbled piece does, no matter how long you give it. Ask for chuck with visible fat running through it rather than the neatest looking piece in the case.
Cut it in half next time. Two one kilo pieces get to temperature far more evenly than one two kilo lump, and it also gives you more surface for the sauce. It is the easiest change on this list and it costs nothing.
Also, do not lift the lid to check. Every peek costs you a chunk of heat and these machines are slow to recover. If you must check, do it once late in the cook rather than every hour out of anxiety.
@braise_and_sear · 4mo ago · 4 replies
It is undercooked, not overcooked. This trips up almost everybody because tough meat feels like a sign you cooked it too long.
What makes chuck pull apart is collagen turning to gelatin, and that needs the meat to be up around 90 to 96C and then to stay there for a while. Reaching temperature is not enough, it is time at temperature that does the work. A two kilo roast that is still sliceable at eight hours has simply not spent long enough in that zone.
Put it back on for another two hours and check again. On low, a piece that size often wants ten to twelve hours, especially if it went in fridge cold.
The test I use is not a thermometer, it is a fork. Push a fork into the thickest part and twist. If it turns with almost no resistance, it is done. If it grips, it needs longer. Meat at 88C and meat at 94C feel completely different to a fork and identical on a probe.
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@seasoned_saul · 4mo ago
The fork twist is the only test worth teaching a beginner. I stopped using a thermometer on braises entirely. Once you have felt the difference twice you never go back.
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@rest_day_rita · 4mo ago
Worth saying plainly that putting it back on works. Meat that has cooled and gone back into a hot cooker for another two hours comes out the same as if you had run it straight through, so a tough roast at dinner time is not a lost dinner.
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@flaxseed_fran · 4mo ago
Worth adding that meat can go through a phase where it seems to get tougher around the middle of the cook before it relaxes. If you check at hour six and panic, you will pull it at exactly the wrong moment.
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