Shared by Jeffrey Ryden

Mon Sep 5 - Labor Day Chuck Roast

8 hours, 1 minute

Having the family over for Labor Day. Smoking a chuck roast and then some chicken breasts, hot dogs, and burgers closer to showtime.

Starting off a banner year for Jeffrey Ryden at the high school. Classes are going great and the A/V club is rebuilding. Liam just passed his driving test a couple days ago and Eva is still a nutty ray of sunshine.

It's good to be king, and it's good to live in this house, and it's good to smoke.

Time to fire it up. Tanara got this umbrella to try to help deal with the rain that's been predicted but keeps being pushed back on the schedule. I could have brought the grill down to the covered patio off the basement again, but my left foot has some kind of small fracture or other injury and I don't really want to go up and down the stairs all day.

Inside the house Tanara is frying a few eggs for kids who got to sleep in for the holiday while Martini and Freya grow increasingly interested in the mix of smells mingling in the air. It's hard to beat the cozy feeling of being a kid on a 3-day weekend, or just being a good dog who knows she's going to get scraps fit for a queen.

Meat for the Heat!

We have a chuck roast from Walmart that weighs about 3 1/2 lb.

Fireboard Drive is set to 225° with a max speed of 80%. We'll see if we can get a more even temped cook overall this time.

Breakfast for Eva and Avery. Avery spent the night as usual. These cousins are inseparable for now. Can't wait to see what kind of damage they do once they're in the high school together.

Chuck is on the roast.

Inside Tanara puzzles over the puzzle while Freya peers through the glass, contemplating the mysteries of the meat machine.

Liam awakens to feed.

Edit: it is important to him that I state that he's actually been awake for some time and he only just now came upstairs.

How did I forget to rub it with pepper?

Added a few more chunks of applewood and adjusted the top vent to 1/2.

Eva busted her lip jumping on the hammock swing in her room downstairs. She says it tastes like metal, and learned that there is iron in her blood.

The girls hear danger approaching. Perhaps some interloper covets our meat. They shall keep us safe.

The view from my front window still reminds me how lucky I am to live in this lavish home. Maybe someday I won't feel like we took it over while the owners were on vacation overseas like we're in some kind of sitcom trying to trick old friends or lovers into thinking we made it big.

The Honorable Princess Fluffy Butt, growing less feral as the days go by since the big move, exits her tiny home on the master bedroom porch. She craves rubbins.

The temp has been lagging back here and there a little bit. Obviously I still haven't mastered the Drive, but it's only the second time I've used it. I flipped the meat and checked the coals, and while it was open I decided to add a few extra briquettes of Kingsford along the fuse.

There she smokes.

Tanara is making a family gathering favorite: veggie pizza. The smoke is humming along and seems to be more steady than last time.

It's definitely operator error that is giving me issues in holding temp. I've never used a blower at all before, and I think my first hurdle is the charcoal setup. I've been using the charcoal fuse method for about a decade with long smokes at 225° in the Webber oversized kettle. Time to learn some new tricks.

I tried a pile of briquettes with just a few hot coals from the chimney on top last time and that didn't work out at all. It spiked too quickly and went way over temp.

Did a little rearranging and used the cheap instant read and got ~160°-175° (some example temps in pics) on the satellite chunks.

I gotta get me a Fireboard Spark. I'd love to have those readings added to these logs (mostly because I'm a big dork and it would be super fun). Definitely would like to use it for remote locations like camping and canoe trips if for no other reason than I can log sessions on the river while also capturing the memories surrounding the cook and the people I'm taking joy in feeding.

Tanara is putting together a big bowl of pico de gallo.

That stall is pulling down the temp and tempting me to turn up the heat. Was hoping to pull it off not too long after 4:30 (never gonna happen), and this grill is about to get crowded with chicken and burgers.

We're going up to 250°.

Putting on Wildflowers by Tom Petty while Tanara entertains Stephani and Ethan. It's about time to really throw the grlll into chaos with some breasts.

Sorry, Chuck. I'm going to do you dirty.

Chuck is hitting temps in some spots, but still sub 160° in others.

I rearranged the coals a little bit into sort of a thicker fuse. Hoping it'll burn a little more even overall while avoiding the big flare up I had last time, but allowing a bigger bed of coals for the airflow to work with.

Chicken breasts are on and everything is rearranged and we're going to see if we can't get some meat for some people.

Dad brought some snacks, drinks, and Sydney. Grandpa's Snack Shop has gone mobile!

I'm lucky to get to feed these people and have them in my life. Now's the time to remind yourself that these are the best days, Jeff.

The rain arrives. The umbrella Tanara got for the occasion is working out so far.

Flipped the breasts a little early. I usually would put a probe in the thickest breast so that I could track them casually without opening the lid, but I got distracted and forgot.

The Fireboard is doing pretty well in the rain under the umbrella and tucked away in this here towel. Gotta protect my baby!

Putting the breasts over the flames to finish them out and brown them. I'm pretty boxed in by the rain under this lil' umbrella over the grill. It's a sloppy method for sure, but the meat is still getting cooked.

It's a bona fide torrent outside now. The good thing is that, while it's a heavy rain, there is not much wind. Getting a little messy on a grill that I was already being sloppy with. Either way, I have the chicken right over the coals and it's about to temp.

I'm also about to pull off these two satellite chunks of chuck. And I'm still pretty sure we're all going to get to eat.

The clouds have absolutely broken loose, but it's nice and cozy inside.

The satellites are done. Gavin does not approve and insists it is burnt.

Some Chuck for Gary. I'm certain it might be less dry in better hands, but I think dad'll like it anyway.

Down to one last chicken breast inching up to 165°. Time for burgers to start sizzling.

The chuck roast is just going to have to wait to get any real heat. It'll be really nice at around 7:00 p.m. tonight, I suppose.

Me: We got a Total Recall of chicken breasts here.

Family: ...

Me: Anybody? Where's Kevin? He'd get it.

Steph: I got it...

(Tough room.)

My poor, neglected little chuck roast. We got to char some burgers before we get you back into the smoke pool, my beefy friend.

Burgers are done and wieners are close behind. Got a sirloin or some kind of bottom round left over in the fridge from a few days ago that I was going to throw on as well. Pretty much back down to smoking though. We might finish this Chucky chuck roast after all.

Tanara put on Come on feel the Illinois by Sufjan Stevens a bit ago.

Today we are learning how far back a roast can drop when you open your grill lid for half of the previous hour. Probably doesn't help that, because of the coal fuse setup earlier, we landed in a spot far away from the blower for our pile of briquettes. But whatever; it's not a competition.

I added a good amount of coal and am getting the same temperature spike as last time, but I'm not exactly being careful. I have to balance this with talking to family and drinking beer, so I've got a full plate here!

This should be the last addition and maybe we can get that chuck roast to some kind of edible point. This is a mystery steak. I think it is some kind of bottom round.

I added a pretty good chunk of applewood for the steak. I'm certain I'm oversmoking the chuck roast at this point, but one reason I like applewood so much is that you can use a bunch of it and it doesn't seem to ever go too far. I've never oversmoked meat with applewood, yet I have definitely tried.