First things first: these classes are OUTSTANDING. If you live close enough to South Central PA (Gettysburg area), I would strongly encourage you to attend the class of your liking (same day brisket, overnight brisket, whole hog, ribs & chicken, tailgate turkey, and mini-classes of pizza and sausage making). They’re $300 each [edit: pizza and sausage are less, maybe $35, but are less hands on], but you get about $150 worth of hardware and product to take home, about $50 worth of food and drink in two meals, and far more that $100 worth of knowledge, entertainment and networking. And if you’re a bit farther away, you might want to make it a weekend trip with a tour of the Gettysburg battlefield, which is something every American should see; it is a jewel in the crown of the National Parks Department. And Gettysburg itself is pretty damn cool; it’s tourist-aware, but not kitschy by any means.
I didn’t bring my camera, and I wanted to concentrate on the information rather than the experience; I did the photo essay for the chicken and ribs class last year, and this one would look exactly like that one, with minor differences.
The gist of the method is:
1) Cut out almost all of the deckle, and only trim the fat on the top where it needs to be trimmed to make the whole packer as even as possible from end to end.
2) Inject the brisket with A FULL QUART OF BEEF JUS, with about half a cup of whatever rub you were using mixed in.
3) Smoker set to 350°. Anywhere from 325° to 375° is fine, though.
4) At meat temp 155°-165°, pull the brisket, and either wrap it in foil or put it in a hotel pan covered with foil, with about a half a cup of beef jus. Then back in the smoker until it is probe tender, typically right where it usually is, 200°-210°.
There are nuances and tweaks, and little things, but that’s the basics.
Briskets went on the heat at 9:30AM, and got wrapped around noon. Some briskets were probe tender around 2:30PM, one (mine) went to almost 4PM (more on that later). When our briskets were done, we separated points from flats, rested the flats while we made burnt ends from the points, then sliced up the flats.
Eh.
I didn’t walk around and ask everyone what they thought, but I asked half a dozen people, and I got mostly, “It’s okay.” For myself, my point was at 210° and probing like butter while my flat was stubbornly in the low 190s; we finally separated the two, and I wrapped the flat and put it back in the smoker while I made the burnt ends; even when we pulled it, it was marginally “ready”. It probed better than it had 45 minutes earlier, but not as good as I would have liked.
I had a 3 hour drive home, so I took that as an opportunity to give the flat a 3 hour rest in the RTIC cooler (along with the burnt ends). When I got home, I sliced it up, and bagged the burnt ends.
The flat is… eh. The bark is mushy; the meat isn’t dry, but it’s a bit crumbly. The far right just shredded as I sliced it. The taste is… pot-roasty. It’s okay, but it isn’t outstanding. Eric (owner of Mason Dixon BBQ and class instructor) says that can be restored to tenderness by reheating in the jus. He’s probably right.
The burnt ends are pretty good. I think they’re a little overcooked; they should be a little more pillowy. But they’re pretty good. They’re sweeter than I would make them, but I was following orders. The sweetness doesn’t factor into my assessment. These are “within spec”. Not right in the middle of spec, but in the range.
All in all this yielded 4 lbs of sliced brisket, 1 lb of shredded brisket (I’ll probably make beans with it), and 2.5 lbs of burnt ends, which I’ll probably serve next weekend at our cookout.
I’m only partially a believer. I can see where this would work, but the margin for error is much smaller than it is for a longer cook, and it’s not foolproof to the extent where you can take two dozen people who have never tried it and get two dozen perfect results. Again, I didn’t canvass the class, but there were an awful lot of people figuratively shrugging their shoulders. No high fives.
My guess is that I could figure it out here at home by maybe the third cook or so, this counting as the first. I’d be okay on the first one at home, and happy with the second one. It might take one more? Idk. But for me, brisket is so infrequent, and is such an investment in money, time, and reputation, that I’ll stick with what I know: overnight, low and slow. To get this right will cost two briskets, half a reputation point, and 10-12 hours… or I could just make a brisket like normal and it would only cost one brisket, it would gain a reputation point, and take 10-12 hours.
Loved the class, though. I’ll sign up for more of them.
I didn’t bring my camera, and I wanted to concentrate on the information rather than the experience; I did the photo essay for the chicken and ribs class last year, and this one would look exactly like that one, with minor differences.
The gist of the method is:
1) Cut out almost all of the deckle, and only trim the fat on the top where it needs to be trimmed to make the whole packer as even as possible from end to end.
2) Inject the brisket with A FULL QUART OF BEEF JUS, with about half a cup of whatever rub you were using mixed in.
3) Smoker set to 350°. Anywhere from 325° to 375° is fine, though.
4) At meat temp 155°-165°, pull the brisket, and either wrap it in foil or put it in a hotel pan covered with foil, with about a half a cup of beef jus. Then back in the smoker until it is probe tender, typically right where it usually is, 200°-210°.
There are nuances and tweaks, and little things, but that’s the basics.
Briskets went on the heat at 9:30AM, and got wrapped around noon. Some briskets were probe tender around 2:30PM, one (mine) went to almost 4PM (more on that later). When our briskets were done, we separated points from flats, rested the flats while we made burnt ends from the points, then sliced up the flats.
Eh.
I didn’t walk around and ask everyone what they thought, but I asked half a dozen people, and I got mostly, “It’s okay.” For myself, my point was at 210° and probing like butter while my flat was stubbornly in the low 190s; we finally separated the two, and I wrapped the flat and put it back in the smoker while I made the burnt ends; even when we pulled it, it was marginally “ready”. It probed better than it had 45 minutes earlier, but not as good as I would have liked.
I had a 3 hour drive home, so I took that as an opportunity to give the flat a 3 hour rest in the RTIC cooler (along with the burnt ends). When I got home, I sliced it up, and bagged the burnt ends.
The flat is… eh. The bark is mushy; the meat isn’t dry, but it’s a bit crumbly. The far right just shredded as I sliced it. The taste is… pot-roasty. It’s okay, but it isn’t outstanding. Eric (owner of Mason Dixon BBQ and class instructor) says that can be restored to tenderness by reheating in the jus. He’s probably right.
The burnt ends are pretty good. I think they’re a little overcooked; they should be a little more pillowy. But they’re pretty good. They’re sweeter than I would make them, but I was following orders. The sweetness doesn’t factor into my assessment. These are “within spec”. Not right in the middle of spec, but in the range.
All in all this yielded 4 lbs of sliced brisket, 1 lb of shredded brisket (I’ll probably make beans with it), and 2.5 lbs of burnt ends, which I’ll probably serve next weekend at our cookout.
I’m only partially a believer. I can see where this would work, but the margin for error is much smaller than it is for a longer cook, and it’s not foolproof to the extent where you can take two dozen people who have never tried it and get two dozen perfect results. Again, I didn’t canvass the class, but there were an awful lot of people figuratively shrugging their shoulders. No high fives.
My guess is that I could figure it out here at home by maybe the third cook or so, this counting as the first. I’d be okay on the first one at home, and happy with the second one. It might take one more? Idk. But for me, brisket is so infrequent, and is such an investment in money, time, and reputation, that I’ll stick with what I know: overnight, low and slow. To get this right will cost two briskets, half a reputation point, and 10-12 hours… or I could just make a brisket like normal and it would only cost one brisket, it would gain a reputation point, and take 10-12 hours.
Loved the class, though. I’ll sign up for more of them.
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