Kamado Smoked Rump Cap
Kamado Smoked Rump Cap
Not sure what to make of this cook yet, left feeling puzzled.
My wife and I wanted to cook a special meal for her mum and dad as a thank you and as a part of a belated fathers day. Sounds simple right? Well, unfortunately, my father in law is stuck fast on what he will and won’t eat and how he likes his steak. Pork is off the menu unless it’s bacon, no chicken and beef needs to be “well done”… Grrr could be worse I guess they both could have been vegan.I had cooked them lamb for Australia day so didn’t really want to repeat the lamb again.
Infographic by FuriousGrill.Com
I really wanted to do something beef and that way I could potentially accommodate three prefered steak doneness levels (Med Rare, Med, Well Done.) In my mind, I settled on trying to find a nice looking standing rib roast, either a 3 or 4 rib size would probably be perfect.
My plan was that I could cook the complete rack to Med Rare and then separate one end and sear it off to be well done and the other end would most likely be around medium by default and if not I could sear it off to reach the desired temperature. I had a plan now to get it sorted.
Even the best-intentioned plans need to flexible. My local butcher didn’t have anything suitable and I didn’t have the time to drive all over town to try and find one. So change of plans. I spotted a nice looking rump cap, had seen a couple of recent posts and a quick google for a rough idea on how to cook it – Sold.
Can I impress?
Now to try and turn this awesome looking piece of beef into something that can impress our guests.
I decided to approach it with a similar theory in terms of getting the doneness levels correct. Cook to medium rare and slice a couple of “steak” sized pieces and sear them to the desired doneness.
Set up for this one was for an indirect cook for around 4 hrs. Was planning to run the kamado at around 122C [250F] till the internal temp was 60C [140F] and then rest for close to an hour.
For the meat prep, I simply trimmed some of the really hard fat off the rump cap but ensured that I left a nice layer of fat across the top. Added my favourite rub for beef – Lane’s Ancho Espresso
and that’s it. After I coated the rump cap with the rub I wrapped it in cling wrap and let it sit in the fridge for a couple of hours. Once I was ready for the roast to go onto the kamado, I unwrapped and then added another sprinkle of the rub.
The cook progressed well, this was also my first use of the new Maverick ET-733 remote thermometer. The kamado held steady, and the meat continued a nice steady temperature increase until the desired temp of ~60C [140F] internal.
Total duration was around 4 hrs
So far so good
One would be tempted to say that this cook was perfect. At least that is what I thought. In some ways, I guess it was, at least from the “process” side of things.
But unfortunately, the meat was quite tough. It looked awesome. The flavour was there and there was plenty of juiciness to the meat, it was just way too chewy. Even the rarest portions were quite chewy. As far as I know, I cut it across the grain so that shouldn’t have been an issue?
I guess this is why we love BBQ, to learn, to experiment and to have fun.
The total meal was done on the Kamado Joe – Rump Cap, Hasselback Potatoes, Corn, Apple Pie.
This time around for the corn (in husk) I tried something different, I literally just put them underneath the meat on top of the deflectors. The corn acted as the catch pan for all of the rendered fat and juice from the rump cap. The only downside is that the contact side did get a bit scorched. I just cut these areas away prior to serving and added some delicious lurpak butter.
Dessert was a real winner, from scratch apple pie on the Kamado – delicious. Here is the recipe.
I do want to try this one again, and see if perhaps this was just a tough piece of meat and nothing I did or could have done would have affected the outcome.
What do you think? Have you cooked a Rump cap like this before?
Leave your comments and suggestions below.
Till next time Joe ON !!!
