I braise a chuck roast a couple of times a month in a Dutch oven, usually somewhere around 300F for a little under four hours. I sear it hard on all sides first, and I keep the liquid about two thirds of the way up the meat and barely moving, no real bubbling at any point. It pulls apart easily by the end, so the collagen has clearly done its thing, but the strands themselves come out dry and stringy rather than soft, and giving it another hour only makes that worse. What's actually causing the dryness when the connective tissue has already broken down? submitted by /u/Minute_Review_5580