In article >, Denny Wheeler wrote:

> I've got a chunk of chuck out smoking now, over cherry wood. I should
> have the drippings available (sand pan with foil over it).

Well.. Just a quick followup (and thanks for all of the great replies!).. I
ended up following a recipe I found on a website that was sufficiently different
that I thought I'd try it (and it was easy too!).. I took a dutch oven, plopped
the washed chuck roast in it, emptied 1 can of beer into the dutch oven.. Then
you add a small jar (or 1/2 larger jar) of pepperoncinis with stem removed into
the beer. Then add beef (I used chicken) broth to just barely cover the top of the
beef. The last ingredient is a package of dry-mix for italian dressing -- sprinkle
that over the top of the roast (you can do this before adding the broth if you wish)

Once that is done, carefully put this over indirect heat at ~225-250 for ~3 hours
with the lid OFF of the dutch oven.. I added Cherry wood to my smoke pot to give
a nice aroma.. After 3 hours or so at ~225, put the top on the dutch oven and
cook for about 2 more hours..

This particular recipe worked great for us since I ended up having to take my SIL
to the ER for ~3 hours so my ceramic cooker just chugged along without anybody
keeping an eye on it.. The only odd side effect is that my (unsealed) ceramic
dutch oven now has a permanent cherry odor infused in it.. (8->

The meat was very good and my sister-in-law was even eating the smoked pepperoncini's
afterwards! The meat almost had a corned-beef texture to it -- I really liked it
and so did everyone else! I would like to dry cooking on though without the benefit
of the "bath" this one had to compare.. I've got one more of these in the freezer
to try out.. I'll let you know how it goes..