All Things Brisket

[AustinMT 952]

5 minutes ago, ChampKind said:

I don’t use prime or wagyu, or a remote temp gauge, or a pellet cooker. I don’t spend all night cooking briskets and tending pits, and I guess I cook a decent brisket.


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You don't have to. It just makes my life easier.  One way is not better, just different.

[ChampKind 1314]

Well aware. I've used just about every method there is, and it ain't the equipment that matters. It's the skill of the guy employing it. I'm just jerking your chain, don't mind me.

[AustinMT 952]

I understood that.  I agree with you completely -- you can screw up any grade of beef on any type of smoker if you don't know how to use it.  And you can make (almost) any grade of beef great on any type of smoker if you know how to use it

[mapplewhite132 309]

This brisket was pretty damn good. As you can see, I lost some of the rub when I wrapped/unwrapped the brisket. Any tips for avoiding that?

Cooked on a stick burner with a temp probe

[Johnny Sack 8397]

59 minutes ago, mapplewhite132 said:

This brisket was pretty damn good. As you can see, I lost some of the rub when I wrapped/unwrapped the brisket. Any tips for avoiding that?

Cooked on a stick burner with a temp probe

My tip is I wouldn’t worry about it.  That looks perfect.  

[luke duke 6414]

1 hour ago, mapplewhite132 said:

 As you can see, I lost some of the rub when I wrapped/unwrapped the brisket. Any tips for avoiding that?
 

Don't wrap it.

[mapplewhite132 309]

Don't wrap it.

That’s what she said, and it got me into trouble

[Mortimer 88]

You are overthinking it.  If you trimmed your brisket right -- cleaned up all the edges and took down the fat to 1/4 inch or so, all you need to do is wrap it in butcher paper after 4 or 5 hours (whenever it hits the stall around 165-175 temp) and put it in a low oven (225-ish temp) until it is done somewhere around 205-ish temp.  There is only so much smoke that a brisket needs or can absorb.  I think an oven is a much better way to finish the endeavor.  Drink a beer and go to sleep.  Wake up to a great aroma and some excellent brisket.  Make sure to let it rest for 30+ minutes before slicing the flat against the grain.  Don't separate the point, and slice it the opposite of the flat.   

Will be trying this method tonight.

Rocking another 11 lber. $3.29/lb prime from Cedar Park Costco. Threw it in the egg at 6pm. Wife and kids out of town until Monday. I don't report back to work until Tuesday. Going to be a great weekend.

I pulled back on the trimming significantly and am now watching the Thermoworks Receiver as I drink a few cold yellow bellies.

[Paco 1934]

That's right, it's a brisket thread. So quit being such a douchefuck. Because it's not a douchefuck thread.

What is “grilling?”  Thought this was a brisket thread

[AustinMT 952]

5 minutes ago, Paco said:

That's right, it's a brisket thread. So quit being such a douchefuck. Because it's not a douchefuck thread.

WIth your depth of vocabulary, you must be in MENSA, like Coach Herman

And by the way, I was yanking his chain, not criticizing...

Edited September 7, 2018 by AustinMT

[ChampKind 1314]

Don't wrap it.

Or don’t turn it upside down. Wrap the paper around the brisket. You ever seen a baby swaddled? They don’t turn the fucking kid upside down, they wrap the blanket around the kid.


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[AustinMT 952]

I never thought about that — that is a great tip

[dcbc 14509]

I'll jump into the "don't wrap it" camp.  The very end of the point might get a little dry, but the rest of it likely will be stellar and it probably won't take you but an hour extra to get it done.  The bark will be tremendous and smokey af.

[Sam Lin 3561]

1 hour ago, ChampKind said:

You ever seen a baby swaddled? They don’t turn the fucking kid upside down, they wrap the blanket around the kid.

 

Definitely seen some people turn the kid upside down.

[pops 7006]

18 minutes ago, dcbc said:

I'll jump into the "don't wrap it" camp.  The very end of the point might get a little dry, but the rest of it likely will be stellar and it probably won't take you but an hour extra to get it done.  The bark will be tremendous and smokey af.

I'll jump in...if I'm not wrapping, the end of the point gets foiled. Works for me. 

[dcbc 14509]

Just now, pops said:

I'll jump in...if I'm not wrapping, the end of the point gets foiled. Works for me. 

That's a good call.  But it would require me to wake up before 10 a.m. 

[pops 7006]

1 hour ago, dcbc said:

That's a good call.  But it would require me to wake up before 10 a.m. 

And that's fair.

[deft 6879]

Don’t put the baby in the smoker.

[utee94 15862]

8 hours ago, deft said:

Don’t put the baby in the smoker.

I gotta agree on this one.  Swaddling a baby on the grate of the smoker really doesn't make sense.  The hood of my truck is generally more accessible.

Also, agree on foiling Just The Tip.

Also, pick up the brisket using a towel or towels, same thing for beef ribs, if you need to move them around.  Won't mess up the bark.

 

[luke duke 6414]

Or you could just wrap like this

Paper is king.

[PantsTent 2002]

Tried something new last weekend. I have an offset so usually get up early and tend to it for most of the day. This time I smoked it 6 hrs, wrapped and threw it oven at midnight. Woke up at 5am and it was done. Slept some more and held it in the oven all day at 150F until dinner. I've never finished in oven or held that long before. End result was pretty solid.

[Mortimer 88]

My second brisket turned out damn good. Still improvements to make but I was really happy with the results. I used DalTxHornFan's method mentioned above.

11 lb brisket

11 hour cook

 

6pm - Placed in BGE, temp fluctuating around 270 or so

10:45pm - Wrapped in butcher paper, placed in 225 degree oven

• At this point, brisket seemed to be barely creeping out of the stall, sitting at 167 and the egg was holding steady at 255

5am - Brisket hit 203. Set on counter still in butcher paper for 30 minutes, then into cooler wrapped in towel for 3 or so hours

 

Was a much more enjoyable cook this time. I almost kept the brisket in the smoker, because it had stabilized and everything was running smoothly at the time of the stall, but  I wanted to try something new. After the fiasco that was my last cook it was nice to have the brisket safely in the oven steadily climbing in temp. No fuss. This method seems like it would be good if one were entertaining guests because it seems predictable and solid. The bark had an incredible 'tacky' texture to it -- caramelized goodness.

 

I'm looking forward to continuing with other methods. And I realized after flipping my brisket in the butcher paper that I spilled a pool of juice fr.om the top of the flat. Will be swaddling from here on out -- that was good advice.

 

imgur

My second brisket

imgur

[Braff Zacklin 13662]

1 hour ago, PantsTent said:

 

I want to have sex with this.

[crash_davis 23115]

19 hours ago, luke duke said:

Don't wrap it.

how the hell do you think you got bornt?

[mapplewhite132 309]

Looks good @Mortimer 

My 2 cents: I don't think your last brisket turned out dry because you trimmed it too much. Dry usually means you didn't cook it long enough. The thermometer probes are good for tracking your progress on the cook, but don't rely on it to decide when your brisket is actually done. It's done when it probes like butter in the flat (check more than one spot). Personally, I trim my briskets quite a bit, and they always turn out moist. Leaving the fat cap in tact on the point is just going to make the cook take longer. 

[Mortimer 88]

2 hours ago, mapplewhite132 said:

Looks good @Mortimer 

My 2 cents: I don't think your last brisket turned out dry because you trimmed it too much. Dry usually means you didn't cook it long enough. The thermometer probes are good for tracking your progress on the cook, but don't rely on it to decide when your brisket is actually done. It's done when it probes like butter in the flat (check more than one spot). Personally, I trim my briskets quite a bit, and they always turn out moist. Leaving the fat cap in tact on the point is just going to make the cook take longer. 

Good call -- I can see that the fat cap is excessive on this last brisket. I'm going to do more research on trimming.

Eventually, I need to figure out how to check the brisket for doneness without opening the lid too often. For this last cook, I opened the lid only once to wrap and transfer to the oven. 

 

 

[AustinMT 952]

8 minutes ago, Mortimer said:

Good call -- I can see that the fat cap is excessive on this last brisket. I'm going to do more research on trimming.

Eventually, I need to figure out how to check the brisket for doneness without opening the lid too often. For this last cook, I opened the lid only once to wrap and transfer to the oven. 

 

 

Franklin’s YouTube video on how to trim a brisket is helpful

[bigbevo76 64]

When buying a whole packer, 12+ lbs, you will want about a 1/4 inch of fat on the flat.  Remove any large hunks of fat around the edges.  I probably take around 2 lbs of fat off a 12lb brisket packer.   I've never had an end product where I've thought, "I trimmed too much fat off".

Good luck, and lets see some pics

[pops 7006]

The main thing is getting that big softball of fat between the point and the flat. You just can't render that. 

[NateHitch 1282]

3 hours ago, bigbevo76 said:

When buying a whole packer, 12+ lbs, you will want about a 1/4 inch of fat on the flat.  Remove any large hunks of fat around the edges.  I probably take around 2 lbs of fat off a 12lb brisket packer.   I've never had an end product where I've thought, "I trimmed too much fat off".

Good luck, and lets see some pics

2 lbs?  If you're taking a 12 lb brisket down to 10 lbs just by trimming fat then you're either choosing the wrong brisket or trimming just to be trimming.  Keep it simple.  Last time I was worried about fat around the edges I just told your mom to stop calling me, problem solved.

[luke duke 6414]

2 lbs?  If you're taking a 12 lb brisket down to 10 lbs just by trimming fat then you're either choosing the wrong brisket or trimming just to be trimming.  Keep it simple.  Last time I was worried about fat around the edges I just told your mom to stop calling me, problem solved.

lol4

[solamente73 1132]

From last Saturday.  ~11lb trimmed over hickory at 235* for ~17 hours.  Was fantastic.  Party attendees super-smashed it.

[kevwun 15897]

I re-heated 2 briskets in a 48 quart igloo on Saturday with my anova.  I started with tap water that wasn't heated and it took about 2 hours to bring the water temp up to 165.  I let them sit in the bath for about 3 hours and they were excellent.  You couldn't really tell that they had been frozen and reheated.  Will definitely do it again in the future.  Much easier than trying to do it in the oven.

[Dr Fear 1268]

2 hours ago, kevwun said:

I re-heated 2 briskets in a 48 quart igloo on Saturday with my anova.  I started with tap water that wasn't heated and it took about 2 hours to bring the water temp up to 165.  I let them sit in the bath for about 3 hours and they were excellent.  You couldn't really tell that they had been frozen and reheated.  Will definitely do it again in the future.  Much easier than trying to do it in the oven.

Did you vacuum seal them??

[kevwun 15897]

Yeah, they were vacuum sealed.

[Both Tacos 1806]

On ‎9‎/‎6‎/‎2018 at 11:45 PM, deft said:

Don’t put the baby in the smoker.

And nobody puts baby in a corner

[Mojo Hand 4580]

7 hours ago, kevwun said:

I re-heated 2 briskets in a 48 quart igloo on Saturday with my anova.  I started with tap water that wasn't heated and it took about 2 hours to bring the water temp up to 165.  I let them sit in the bath for about 3 hours and they were excellent.  You couldn't really tell that they had been frozen and reheated.  Will definitely do it again in the future.  Much easier than trying to do it in the oven.

I've got to reheat two briskets in a couple weeks, so I'll try this. Thanks. 

[Dr Fear 1268]

Yeah, they were vacuum sealed.

How did you seal them? They would be way too big for my foodsaver.

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[Anastasis 23485]

23 minutes ago, Dr Fear said:

How did you seal them? They would be way too big for my foodsaver.

How does the foodsaver roll take that length.

[kevwun 15897]

As long as it's not a 17 or 18 pound brisket, it should fit in an 11" wide bag.  I have a food saver too and it worked just fine.  Roll the end of the bag back a couple of inches and you won't have to clean the end of the bag before you can seal it.  I did have to double seal each end of the bag.  I bought some rolls of bags that were not foodsaver brand and they're not great.  I won't do that again.

[luke duke 6414]

2 hours ago, kevwun said:

As long as it's not a 17 or 18 pound brisket, it should fit in an 11" wide bag.  I have a food saver too and it worked just fine.  Roll the end of the bag back a couple of inches and you won't have to clean the end of the bag before you can seal it.  I did have to double seal each end of the bag.  I bought some rolls of bags that were not foodsaver brand and they're not great.  I won't do that again.

The FoodVacBags off-brand works great

http://www.amazon.com/s?marketplaceID=ATVPDKIKX0DER&me=AN5X2G5UN6UA3&merchant=AN5X2G5UN6UA3

Edited September 11, 2018 by luke duke

[kevwun 15897]

Just make sure never to get these.  The seal fails on them pretty often.  I had to reseal one of the briskets before I could put it in the water.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01CT9KZL8/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1

[HouTex 1894]

Just cut the brisket into pieces that fit the Foodsaver bags.

[thunderlounge 7935]

11 hours ago, luke duke said:

The FoodVacBags off-brand works great 

http://www.amazon.com/s?marketplaceID=ATVPDKIKX0DER&me=AN5X2G5UN6UA3&merchant=AN5X2G5UN6UA3

 

Edited September 11, 2018 by thunderlounge

[Anastasis 23485]

Offered without comment.

 

 

[utee94 15862]

That one never fails to bewilder and amuse.

[thunderlounge 7935]

[luke duke 6414]

Offered without comment.
 
 

Is that Champ on the right?

[SizzleChest 8284]

So, I'm glad they cut the part of the video where those two guys got raped by Meathead Goldwyn.

[Anastasis 23485]

How are there no comments to the youtube. What is wrong with you Surly.