Poor Mans Prime Rib (Chuck Roast)

 (OP-2015) What's interesting about this post is my timing. I usually start writing these posts before I even start cooking. That way my opinions are being formed slowly. This one starts out at the end. I already know how this tasted and what I did step by step. Not my favorite way to start out on a post. My preference is to always hit the store, snap some photos, do some prep work and start writing. Anyhow here you go. This came out great!!! End of post….. Just kidding. I've made Chuck Roast and Shoulder Roasts a few times and have been trying to dial in the Time and Temps.  

You must be wondering what that little cup contains? Well, that's Red Boat Fish Salt at 1%. I've decided to Faux Age the Roast. If you want to read about Faux Aging, click the link. Had I not Faux Aged the Roast I would have dry-brined the meat with .60% salt for at least 24 hours. What do I mean by 1%? If the roast weighs 1000 grams, you need 10 grams of Fish Salt. Here's a link to why you need to salt. Ahh, how about herbs and spices in the bag? Yea you can and under certain circumstances, and I'm not opposed. Just know that anything other than salt will not penetrate the protein. And for those of you that have strong opinions, either way, I wrote about it HERE…Clash of the Aphorist.

Anyhow, I rubbed the Fish Salt all over the roast, vac sealed and tossed in the refrigerator for 72 hours. Pretty dang easy to do. Can you dry-brine (adding salt or fish salt) without the vac? Yea you can but why would you. Makes no difference at all. 

 So I finally dialed in the right Temp and Time. Drum roll, please!! I SV at 133 ℉ for 40 hrs. Boom done!!! The Caveat to the 133f is 136f which will render just a little more fat. I love both temps but you will have to decide for yourself. To mitigate overcooking during the sear, you need to shock a bit. I would suggest placing it on a cold counter for about 15-20 minutes flipping at least twice. Ultimately you want to bring down temp 30-40 degrees and then sear. If I were going from the fridge to a sear, I would retherm a bit due to the size of the roast. If it were a steak, I wouldn't need to if the thickness was about an inch. I'll touch on the subject of the purge later on in the post. 

Ok, now on to the sear. You need to dry the surface!!! If you want a great sear, the surface needs to be perfectly dry. This has always been my go-to technique. It was first dried with paper towels then place on a wired rack on a tray with a fan blowing across the surface. Rotate it a few times, and boom it's dry. Do you know why it had to be perfectly dry? If it's not adequately dry the sear will evaporate the surface moisture hence overcooking the protein. 

On to the sear. I've done this many different ways. This is a pretty cool way to create a great crust. Coat with mayo and add the rub of your choice that contains no salt. We have already dry-brined the roast, so we don't need to add additional salt. Depending on what flavors you're going for, you could add BBQ sauce to the mayo too. The sugar in the BBQ sauce will create a great bark. Heck, you can add sugar to the rub also. The mayo creates an excellent canvas for the rub to stick to.

Chose your searing method. You could use your broiler, BBQ grates, skillet,, or even a torch. It really depends on what you want. I wanted a lot of surface browning, so I went with my BBQ and a searing griddle using the flat side. If it were a steak, I would have used my BBQ grill to create fancy searing marks (which does not generate better flavors). Oh, and if it's an option, you are better off doing this outside to avoid all the smoke. 

Review- Out of this world. So in the past, when I SV at 48 and 56 hours I was not happy with the texture but at 40 hours it was perfect. At 40 hours, it was not mushy and gave you a clean bite and felt better between my teeth. It's not just now about the color but how the muscle fibrils feel in your mouth. So to review it was SV at 133 ℉ for 40 hours and Faux Aged with Fish Salt for 72 hours. 

Now on to the purge. I wanted to make a sauce so I saved all the juices in the bag and microwaved them first to coagulate all the proteins. After they were congealed at the surface, I strained them through cheesecloth and made a sauce. You can read more about the purge HERE and HERE.  The creamy white sauce can be found HERE. 

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