Beef Chuck Arm Roast Questions

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rbranstner

Smoking Guru
Original poster
OTBS Member
Oct 18, 2007
5,698
39
West Fargo, ND / Northern MN
Well my wife and mother-in-law are out of the country for two weeks in Egypt so the father-in-law and I are bachelors. Well he doesn't cook so much so he took me out for prime rib supper at the local KC's club tonight now I want to pay him back with a meal one night this weekend or next week and I wanted to try something new/different. I stopped by the store and they had Beef Chuck Arm Roasts on sale so I picked up a 3lb roast for us for supper. Now how the heck should I cook it? My thoughs were to rub it in salt and let it rest then wash it off and apply smoke to it. I want to try out my A-Maze-N-Smoker so I figured this would be a good time. I figured I would cold smoke it for a few hours then put some heat to it and bring it up to 130-135 (we like stuff med-rare to rare) and slice it. My question is will this cut of meat work for that or should I try something different with this? I would take a picture but the wife took the camera to Egypt.
 
I should add that it is a boneless piece of meat so I was hoping to do it in a prime rib style if possible. I'm just not sure if this cut of meat will be good for this method or if it needs to be taken to 200 and pulled instead. I am getting mixed results when researching. Some say pull it and some say you can cook it to 130ish and slice it like prime rib.
 
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Honestly I've never had a chuck roast that didn't require lots of cooking to make it tender but maybe thats just me
 
Yea I hear you when I do my chuckies I take them to around 200 but this cut of meat looks different like it wouldn't be tough if cooked to med. I just don't know that much about different cuts of meat.
 
Send a PM to Pops6927 he can answer the question for sure and would be happy to
 
Yea I hear you when I do my chuckies I take them to around 200 but this cut of meat looks different like it wouldn't be tough if cooked to med. I just don't know that much about different cuts of meat.
I thought all meat that came off the grill, pan, smoker at medium were not so tough?  Am I mistaken?  Oh, & this is now your excuse to by a new camera without the approval of the boss.  (She will understand that you have to take those "Drool" qview photo's or we will give you grief.  ha ha.)
 
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The shoulder arm roast is from the chuck and is a tasty cut if done right. Now the salting then washing  off sounds good but why not go for some deep flavor and rub with some cbp, rosemary, thyme, and crushed(or granulated) garlic. that is what I put on my prime rib when I make them and they are out of this world flavorful. I have used this same rub on chuck shoulder blade roasts and its awesome.

Now as for the temp question...I have cooked a chuck tender to 135* and pulled, cooled and sliced for sandwiches. But not sliced right away for hot sammies. It could be ok but remember its not prime rib. I would take a chuck to 185*-190* then slice for hot sammies after it has rested for a bit. it wont be med rare but it should be tender without being fall apart shredded beef. I have a couple 5 lb chuck blade roasts I am going to smoke this weekend I think I will try one as sammies and one as shredded beef but Im going for a heavy garlic flavor on these...lots of fresh crushed garlic.

SOB 
 
Depends on which end of the arm shoulder you're using.  There's the arm bone end and the english or boston end or it could be left together as one.  Let me give you some pix to explain:

Whole Arm Shoulder:

4cd7291d_beef%20arm%20shoulder%20roast.jpg


Short arm shoulder roast, round bone:

20c04a54_round%20bone%20shoulder%20roast.jpg


Boston or English shoulder roast boneless:

3d0ac8e6_arm%20shoulder%20beef%20roast.jpg


Basically you're just cutting the arm bone from the rest of the roast. 

The arm bone end is tougher and well served for either pot roast or soup.  The english or boston end is very versatile and can be grilled or smoked to medium rare London Broil style.  It won't be sirloin but served as London Broil (sliced thin across the grain) it'd be hard to tell.  We've grilled these many many times and they're delicious!  I'd go for the 130° instead of the 200°, you'll enjoy a great meal!
 
Pops to the rescue!

OK RB, I would have played it safe. With a guest for dinner, I'd have stuck with something I have done to perfection in the past.

I hope you don't have the "Short Arm" roast. I guess that would call for the dreaded "Short Arm Inspection"!!!
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Bearcarver
 
I thought all meat that came off the grill, pan, smoker at medium were not so tough?  Am I mistaken?  Oh, & this is now your excuse to by a new camera without the approval of the boss.  (She will understand that you have to take those "Drool" qview photo's or we will give you grief.  ha ha.)
I like the way your thinking there caveman.
 
Pops to the rescue!

OK RB, I would have played it safe. With a guest for dinner, I'd have stuck with something I have done to perfection in the past.

I hope you don't have the "Short Arm" roast. I guess that would call for the dreaded "Short Arm Inspection"!!!
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Bearcarver
I can do no wrong with my father in law so anything I put out he will love. Like I mentioned he doesn't cook much at all so any time he can get a good meal of meat especially smoked he loves it no matter how bad we may think it turned out with our higher expectations. I am going to rub with salt and let it sit in the fridge for a while then wash it off and put a light seasoning of pepper, garlic/onion powder and maybe something else I can find but keep it simple. Any suggestions on how long I should let the meat sit in the salt rub. Last time I did steaks they got a bit on the salty side but I didn't wash the salt off either before I cooked them.
 
 
RB,

I never did the salt rub, but I'm betting your length of time was probably OK, but not rinsing it off before cooking caused them to be too salty. I don't remember how long you left them sit in the salt, and I can't seem to find that thread. I think I remember reading it. I'm sure somebody else can help on that front.

Bear
 
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Personally I would do the salt thing like you are saying and that should help on the tenderizing I would think. Now that would be almost like a dry aging right?? Then Just use your usual rub salt, pepper, garlic and maybe some rosemary and thyme. Then smoke it to about 135°ish and slice it for dinner and keep the rest for hot open faced sammies for the next day. Now to me that sound yumO. Now I would really like to see this one and how you finally do smoke it. Now if the wife has the camera it really doesn't matter to much for the quality of the photos it just seeing what it turned out to be. You have some crayons you can draw some pictures if you most. But we need Qview of some sort on this one.
 
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Personally I would do the salt thing like you are saying and that should help on the tenderizing I would think. Now that would be almost like a dry aging right?? Then Just use your usual rub salt, pepper, garlic and maybe some rosemary and thyme. Then smoke it to about 135°ish and slice it for dinner and keep the rest for hot open faced sammies for the next day. Now to me that sound yumO. Now I would really like to see this one and how you finally do smoke it. Now if the wife has the camera it really doesn't matter to much for the quality of the photos it just seeing what it turned out to be. You have some crayons you can draw some pictures if you most. But we need Qview of some sort on this one.
Don't worry I will get some Qview I have another camera around somewhere.
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I am going to rub it and take it to 130 and see what happens with this cut of meat.
 
 
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