Boys & Girls,
   Here's the report on the #114 clod shoulder clod:

Raw weight:  20.3 lbs.
After Cooked Wt:  11.5 lbs. (57% yield, 43% shrinkage).
Actual yield for Serving Table after cooked and trimmed of fat...9.6 lbs.
(47%).
Cooking temperatures: 225-250 degrees with a couple of short term spikes to
265.
Cooking Time: 14 hours, 15 min.
Internal temperature when pulled from pit:  180 degrees.

The clod was very tender and moist.  I used my Forschner roast beef knive to
slice it.  A sharp knife is a must to slice this cut of beef when cooked to
the tender stage.  The connective tissue that connects the two large muscle
groups were very tender and not offensive.  This cut of beef reminds me of a
bottom round and chuck roast combination, for it has a few stringy sections
as well as a lot of solid packed, non stringy sections.  It taste more like
a roast, even though it was smoked for a long time and under constant smoke
most of the time.  However, it had a wonderful rich beefy flavor.  The down
side to me is that it is so thick that good smoke penetration way down deep
is not possible.  Cutting it in half would probably contribute greatly to
the smoke flavor, and I don't think any ill effects would occur from doing
this.  Make sure you have a good pair of heat resistant gloves when removing
this large cut of meat from your smoker, or a very large spatula to slip
under it.  A pizza peel would work great.  Catch you later.

Danny
www.dannysbbq.com

==================
BBQ List
Kevin Cleek


This discussion of clod made me turn to my butcher book by Merle Ellis.  He states: 
"I'm told by oldtimers on the West Coast that the regional variations in the methods of breaking beef stem from the different nationalities of the "old country" butchers who first began cutting meat in this country.  It seems, according to these "old butcher's tales," that the retail meat business in the eastern part of the country was first established by butchers of English descent.  They, following the English tradition, generally cut meat across the muscle, with the bone left in.  The retail business in Calfornia, however, was begun by Continental butchers from France and Italy.  Like their fathers before them, they made a practice of breaking beef by separating the various muscles, often removing the bones from a cut entirely.  The California method of "muscle boning" accounts for the fact that you seldom see "Arm Pot Roasts" in markets in the West, and that the term Cross Rib describes two different cuts, depending on the section of the country you live in.... 

"When the chuck is "muscle boned," the entire shoulder and arm muscle, down to and including the Shank, is lifted away from the ribs in one solid piece following the natural seams between the muscles.  The boneless shoulder "clod" is then separated from the arm bone and the Shank, and usually rolled into what Western butchers call the Boneless Cross Rib...A whole Boneless Cross Rib will weigh from ten to fifteen pounds, depending on the size of the beef it came from.  It is usually cut and merchandised as three separate roasts.  Since the most tender cut is always the one that comes off closest to the tender middle of the back (the Rib or Loin section), the most tender part of this Cross Rib Roast will be the tapered end which comes off right next to the rib.  This Roast can be very sucessfully cooked by dry heat.  Many markets which sell this type of Cross Rib Roast cut the center portion into steaks and label them "Fluff Steaks," Patio Steaks," "Family Steaks," "Barbecue Steaks" or some other tender-sounding term." 

Hope this isn't getting too technical. 

Mr. Ellis didn't have anything to say about the "corn dogs," but I guess they really do use them for herding the corned beef.  I've seen hot dogs, but they just lay around all day.  Maybe a corn dog is just a hot dog with a stick shoved up it's rear end.  I know that would surely make me run around chasing things! 

Kevin 

