Ended up with a bunch of beef from my grand parents since they had a steer butchered and didn’t have room for all the beef. Pulled out two “beef arm roasts” and decided to try one on the pellet grill. Couldn’t really find any recipes, for good reason. Cooked for 1.5 hours at 200 degrees until 145 internal temp. Set the grill to smoke while I finished the cornbread and potatoes. I feel like I nailed the cook and it tasted great. However, HOLY SHIT WAS THIS THING CHEWY. I know this is where all of you that know better will call me a dumbass. Fair enough. I’ve only had this grill a few months and have taken the “if it fits, it ships” approach to every other cut of meat with success. Anyway, the sides were great and the dogs will eat like kings tonight so not all is lost.
by Diesel380
35 Comments
Usually looking for 198°-205°F internal for a tough cut.
Also 200°F is a bit low. 225°F is usually considered the bottom end of hot smoking.
That’s how we learn. Chop it up fine and make sammiches out of it.
145 might be a little low. Next time try cooking at 225 and pull it at 195. You didn’t break down the connective tissue. We’ve all done this. It’s a learning process.
If it’s a muscle group that gets extremely worked on the animal, you have to cook it low and slow for longer lengths of time, i.e., a brisket. If there isn’t a lot of intramuscular fat, braising it also helps. I think that may be the reason why it turned out the way it did.
Rule of thumb is any cut from a muscle that does a lot of work is probably going to be on the tougher side. I’m not sure what an arm roast is, but it kind of looks like it comes from a leg maybe?
Cows don’t even have arms. You got duped!
Cut that bone out, slice that meat thin, vacuum pack it and freeze, enjoy sandwich meat the next few weeks
Beef arm roasts would be chuck, which is a heavily worked muscle and very tough. This needs a long time to cook to break down the muscle fiber and connective tissue. This is perfect for a slow cooker, instant pot, and probably best, low and slow on the smoker….Internal temp of about 200°.
It would be good to do some googling and watch some YouTube videos and learn about the qualities of the various cuts of beef.
This isn’t a cut that’s really ideal for a 145 temp, it needs to be pushed to the 200-205 F temp instead. There’s a lot of collagen that needs to be broken down, which happens in the higher temperature range. I’d recommend cooking it at 250-275 F next time, pushing it all the way until it’s probe tender. 200 F is very low for tough cuts, and doesn’t get them into that ideal temperature zone quick enough or long enough for the fat to render. Hope this is helpful.
It’s all part of the learning experience. When I was learning these things, barbeque and smoking recipes were by word of mouth mostly. There was no Internet to learn from. So you tried different techniques until you landed on one that worked for the particular cut then made little changes from there. You messed up a bunch. No Facebook, Insta or Reddit to research ahead of time or post your successes and failures to share with others.
Kind of miss the simplicity of those times but I also appreciate that people get an opportunity to learn so much more today about anything and everything.
Throw it in a casserole, full have way up with beef stock (or a concoction) and braise it for a few hours at 300.
I’d probably just throw in a crock pot or pressure cooker and take it to the finish line .
Not all is lost, chop it up and make some excellent chili!
200 internal minimum.
Keep the leftovers and resmoke lol
Happens to the best of us dude. You live to smoke another day though!
Look up recipes for “osso bucco”. This is not a cut of meat to smoke or grill. It’s best done low and slow…or braised in other words.
Connective tissues in off cuts consisting of collagen only begin to render into silky gelatin above 160. And the process unfolds very slowly. If you cook a chuck roast like a steak to 140 all the sinewy connective tissues will remain fully intact throughout the muscle when you eat it. So yes, very chewy.
I’ve never heard of a beef arm roast, but 10 seconds of Google search tells me it’s a tough cut, and needs to be cooked low and slow. Geez, you’ve got a phone with Internet for a reason!!!
Do what you did, then put it in a fairly shallow pan with some beef stock and sliced onion. Don’t cover the meat entirely with liquid, but do put a lid on the pan. Let it simmer on lowish heat until the meat pulls apart easily.
That’s is (like) a beef shank. You can smoke a bit but then has to be braised.
Chuck roast.
Treat it like a brisket. Rub it, Slow smoke to about 165, wrap it and run’er up to about 208, let it rest back down to 145 – profit.
Slice it just like brisket too. Make a Sunday out of it. Knock out about 5-6 brewskis, impress your family with your sweet grilling skills, then let them impress you with zero left over.
Is… that a French Horn made of meat?
Braise it now and make tacos
Not a waste of time, you got a cook under your belt, made some mistakes, and learned a thing or two.
A cut like that is like a big osso buco – if you have another one, try a nice slow braise.
Maybe make a smoky stock from the bones from this one.
Cook an arm roast like a chuck. It’s full of connective tissue that does well with a braise. You could smoke it for a couple hours and then throw it in a pot with some wine, stock, aromatics and herbs and cook it til it falls apart. Absolutely delicious.
You cooked it like a steak when it needs cooked like a roast
145? This should get brisket treatment and be more like 203
😂
Cooked shoulder to 145 and it’s chewy!
That’s a good one.
Meh, that’ll make the best Smokey chili of your life…
oh, man that would have made some good poor mans burnt ends. Season and then smoke at 250° until 170° internal. Then put it in a pan with a cup of beef broth and cover with foil and cook to 200° internal. Then let it cool for 30 min. Then cube the roast into 1″ cubes, season the cubes, dump the broth and rendered fat, put the cubes back in the pan, toss in bbq sauce, put back on the smoker for an hour and then enjoy.
If you have more, I have a great recipe for this. Cut it in 4. Season with your favorite rub. Put it in an aluminum pan (one time use). Cook at 225-250 for 3 hours. Then cover and cook for another 3 hours. I generally end up at an internal temp of 185 to 190. Comes out perfect each time (done it like 6 times now).
Good try. 15 hours at 225 and it would have been falling apart.
Braising is generally preferable to smoking for bone in cuts like beef arm. You can do it but all the intramuscular connective tissue takes a while to break down for that “melt in your mouth” texture and you run the risk of drying out the meat if it’s not wrapped. 145 internal is also too low for a cut like this. You want to aim for 190-200 so the connective tissue breaks down.
Low and slow that thing…..you pulled way too fast. It is a roast so you can braise it or smoke it and wrap it.