$2/lbs Brisket and Time Management

So two weeks ago I saw Kroger was having brisket on sale for $1.99/lbs. Finally!  My time has come to smoke a brisket.

I picked up two packer cuts. Both were a bit larger than I wanted (15 & 16 lbs, and I wanted more in the 12 lbs range) but these were the smallest they had. I think that's why it was on sale to deplete their inventory. But hey, I was happy.

Time Management

So, my younger son works now and he's been the one egging me on to do brisket on the smoker.  Since my availability to use the smoker is on the weekends, and he (more or less) works on the weekend, coordinating this so it's ready for a family meal before he rushes off to work can sometimes be a chore. When he told me he had to work at 6pm on Saturday I did some quick calculations and realized I would have to start about 2am.  Figured 12 hours on the smoker, 1 hour rest, time to eat, clean up and get ready.  Should work out.

But this also means I had a 'hard stop' for cooking at 2pm, regardless how ready it is.  More on that later.

The Smoker

See? I remembered this time!

Before I go any further, if you read my last post you know of my struggle with keeping the fire going.

This round I remembered to add back the grate. Now oxygen can get underneath the fire and it won't smother like last time.

Also, it was cold Friday night when I was preparing everything.  Close to (but not quite) freezing overnight.  Since outside temperature can have an effect on the smoker as well, I decided to do two chimneys of charcoal, instead of just one to get a pretty goof fire going. Lots of heat. And get the main chamber up to temp a lot quicker.

So, after lighting the chimneys, it was time to trim and season the brisket.

The Meat

Trim away! Trim away! Trim away!
(Apologies to Enya fans)

I chose the smaller 15 lbs packer because with the larger one I'm going to split the flat from the point (flat is the leaner chunk of muscle and the point is the fattier chunk, sort of sitting on top of the flat, connected by a good amount of fat) and make pastrami with the flat and barbacoa with the point. But that's another blog post.

I trimmed as much as I dared.  Some areas are easy. Some parts of the fat was just unusually hard and you can tell it won't render when cooked, so those pieces to cut were easy. For everything else, my patronus, Aaron Franklin, says try to trim to about a 1/4" of fat. That should be enough to fully render during the cooking.

Ready for the Smoker!

For fun, I tried weighing how much fat was trimmed, just to see what the final result of a 15 lbs brisket.  So first, we started with a 15.75 lbs brisket.  The trim pieces came to about 1.6 lbs. So now we're at about 14.15 lbs of brisket. Not bad.

Now, to season it. Again, my patronus suggests a 50/50 blend of salt and cracked black pepper. In the past I've used store bought rubs and made my own adding garlic, onions, cumin and sugar. All are good, but I wanted to try Central Texas barbecue this round and see how it goes. So, loaded up the shaker and rubbed generously all over the meat.

The Cook

See you in about 4 hours.

Coals: in the firebox. Oak logs: igniting. Brisket: trimmed and rubbed. Smoker: nice 275 degrees. Time to get  the meat on the grill.

Set the meat, close the door aaaannnndddd....wait. (And drink beer - Shiner Blonde this round)

Don't worry. I only had two. It was already 2am when I started cooking.

Fire management was a LOT better this round. But that's not to say I still didn't encounter problems.

The wood I got was oak cut for firewood. The pieces were huge. Some pieces wouldn't even fit in the firebox. But even the ones that did, they were so large pieces it caused its own issues of smothering the fire, or when it finally catches it would get the temperature too hot, meaning cut the oxygen and choke the fire.

4 Hours cook time

I separate all the wood pieces from smallest (about 2-3" diameter) to largest, with the hopes when I get to the larger ones enough time will have passed I can break out the electric saw and cut these without it being too early for the neighbors.

My routine that night was pretty simple. Check temperature, add/stoke wood as necessary, set time for 30 minutes, power nap, repeat. After a few hours of this I was able to increase the time to 45 minutes, but wouldn't dare go longer than that.

Four hours in, curiosity got to me and I had to check (and take a picture). Looks good so far. Plus I had two smaller pieces in there I was using to make pinto beans to go with lunch today, so I retrieved those.

How Cold Was It?

Inner Space Cavers got nuttin' on me

So, to give you an idea how chilly it was overnight, my grease drippings I collected in a tin was cooling before collecting and I had a sort of beef tallow stalagmite.

8 House Later

8 hours later

Eight Hours passed and it was getting close to wrap for the final leg of the cook. I did a quick temperature check: the point was about 175 and the flat was about 160. I expected this difference since the heat direction hit the point side first (it has more fat so it can take the 'brunt' of the heat in the cook) but was a little concerned the flat was a bit low for me.  So I wrapped the meat and placed back in the smoker, this time flat side facing the firebox.

Another 4 hours and it should be ready...

...should be.

The Final Hour and Rest

So, eleven hours in and I started checking temperatures.  Point was at about 190 and the flat was hovering about 180.

So, real quick. Lots of people know that when cooking, say ground beef, you achieve an internal temperature of 165 and it's done. Not the case with brisket.  I don't know the magic that's involved, but basically the answer to this riddle is "If you overcook it, it gets tender" which goes against every cook's fundamentals regarding when a piece of meat is done.

And apparently, about 203 degrees is done.

As I mentioned above, I'm on a time limit. Son has to be at work by 6pm. It's 1pm. I've got another hour before pulling from the smoker, and there's another hour of rest and roughly 20-ish minutes to prep everything else for lunch. So, 3:30pm for dinner is the goal.

And right now it's underdone.

I won't bore you with the details, but basically the next hour was spend closely monitoring the temperature and by the time it was ready to pull, it was at about 195 for the point and 188 for the flat. It'll have to do.

I pull, bring into the kitchen and let it rest for an hour.

New Toy

Say 'Hello' to my little friend!

So, after it rested for an hour, it was still plenty warm to the touch.  In the meantime I finished the beans and cornbread and got everything ready, waiting for the brisket at the last minute.

Now it was time to unwrap and slice. I got me a new 12-in stainless carving knife specifically for slicing brisket.

And let me tell you, it cut through like buttuh! Nice smoke ring. Juicy. Smokey goodness,  And I really like the 50/50 salt/pepper blend. It really highlights the meat instead of masking it.

Now, those little 10-20 degree differences in the point and flat?  Flavor was there, but there was definitely some toughness still I could tell (You're your own worse critic as they say) but the family really enjoyed it.  And any barbecue you can still eat is always a success.

Takeaways

The end result!  Smoked carcass!

So, overall it was a success. There were some missteps along the way, but nothing detrimental. Just little tweaks needed here and there.

And that's the point of the blog.  To record my experience and learn from my mistakes and missteps along the way.

So, what did I learn?

• Wood needs to be smaller pieces (no wider than 2.5" in diameter)
• Try to use a smaller (12-ish lbs) brisket. 15 lbs was just too much.
• Take into account longer cook periods. Especially if you're trying to have it ready by a specific time.  Easier to start earlier and be done and keep warm, than to have to pull before it's ready.