Anybody smoked or cooked a large top round?

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Also know as an inside round. I want to cook one in the smoker tomorrow, and I have never cooked that large a piece of meat before. I am getting conflicting information online. This one is 11.75 lbs, I plan on using a temp of about 230F, how long is this likely to take to get the internal temp to 145. Some say 1.5 hrs per lb, which would be about 18 hours, if that is the case should I wrap it at the start to keep moisture in?
 
If you wrap it at the start, you won't be smoking it. I would set the smoker up and let it go 4 hours, then check the temp.This is a good candidate for injecting some magic marinade in the meat. Apply any baste and let it go another 3 hours. Then check the temp. At this point you should be getting close, so at this point wrapping it with some liquid in the foil would help keep it moist. Then put it on for another 2 hours and check the temp. If it's close, you may want to set it in a cooler wrapped in the foil, and a towel. for at least an hour. The temp should go up a little in the cooler. Alot depends on how good your smoker holds the heat. and if your using a water pan. Sounds good, Have fun.,,,
 
I agree a good amount with big Cahona. Need exposure to smoke to get it in the meat.. And injection is a great idea he had too.. Also I would add getting a sprayer and spraying it with either a marinade or even apple juice.. Or maybe a good beer ??
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When I smoke my spiral hams or beef ribs or pork ribs I spray them every 20 minutes. I know other people do it different I am sure. For me this has worked extremely well for those mears that take 2 to 4 hrs to get up to temp. 230 is a fine temp but you could easily go up to 275... And it wouldn't dry it out if you hydrate it good. With my beef ribs I actually have the temp well up to 350.. And they are very very good and not dried out at all. Now given the large size if this round.. You got the temp figured well
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But don't stress if you check your temp and its 275.. You will be fine. I will go now and grab my really nice Smoking meats book and check how long it is for a large cut like this one..
 
I used to smoke these years ago for the county show 1200 lbs or so at a time. It took about 10-11 hours for it to be well done using wood charcoal from a huge fire we would build. I don't know the temps we cooked at but I would be surprised if it was above 300.

We also put an oil based marinade on them every hour to keep them moist and they always turned out pretty good.
 
I tend to put the meat in and leave it. Opening the door every 20 minutes would lose too much heat in this electric smoker. I think I'll get up at 3am and take the meat out of the fridge, start the smoker, then add the meat at around 4 or 4:30, then go back to bed. Thanks for your help guys, I'll let you know how it turns out.
 
Why would you be opening the door every 20min?

Do you not use a probe thermometer so you don't need to open the door?
The cost of this tool is inconsequential to the cost of your food as well as your sanity.

Just about every single bbq/smoking site will says you need to get and use a good thermometers as a tool. Amazingribs puts it as 1st sticky post in every discussion.
 
Well it turned out a little dry, but with a good flavor. Made sandwiches out of it with some home made sauce and coleslaw and it was universally enjoyed.

I do have a thermometer probe built into the unit, even a remote control so I can monitor it from in the house. bbhero indicated he sprays his meat every 20 minutes or so, I don't know how you do that without opening the door.

Thanks for your suggestions everybody, you got me through it.
 
I did use a water pan for the first four hours. At 4 hours (when I woke up at 0830) the probe temp was already 157F. And the meat looked shriveled up and was tough, so I removed the water pan (water and apple cider vinegar mix) and wrapped the meat. I called a buddy who smokes on a Treagar, he said he runs beef to an internal temp of 192F so that became my goal, I figured since the meat was tightly covered it wouldn't dry out. After about 5 more hours the probe temp was 182F and I removed the wrap and set on a charcoal BBQ real how for about 5 minutes while basting then removed and rested it. It was tender enough, with a good flavor (although weaker than I expected) but it was dry. That was my first attempt at that cut and size of meat and it didn't go smooth. I am going to stick to much smaller cuts for a while.
 
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