I'm planning on doing my first brisket in the PBC this week, as I picked up a prime packer at Costco this weekend. I've only done ribs and pork shoulder in my PB so far, and I'm wondering what the general cook times are for a brisket. This one is 14lbs, although I'm thinking it will come down some after I trim it up a little. I'm just doing the salt-coarse pepper rub on it, going to let it dry brine for 24-48 hours. I've done brisket before, but usually in the 225-250 range, so I'm thinking the PBC will take less time from reading other posts. The one thing I worry about is my fire going out, as I know when I did my pork shoulder on it, the heat seemed to be getting really low around hour 4. This could have also been caused by it being an extremely windy day as well. Anyway, I'll post pictures before and after, hopefully this turns out well!
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Jerod Broussard is your expert for this one, among many others who I'm sure will help answer. -
I did a Costco Prime back in Sept and it turned out great. Probably my best yet. The prime in my opinion is much better than the choice I usually get. On my PBC, I try to keep my temps for brisket in the 270 range. I do this by coving my top vents and using a water pan.
I'm pretty sure that prime I cooked from Costco was done in about 10 hours, an hour or so rest...12.Comment
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I mainly use it for temp control. On my test cook Saturday, I had to pull it because there was a lot of water in the bottom.Comment
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I'd separate the point from the flat leaving the thin part of the point under the flat. Just cut off the thick part of the point.
Slightly over-fill one side of the basket and hang the point over that side. Put that side inline with the vent. Hang the rest on the other side.
Typically by 5-5.5 hours I go to the grate to bark things up, especially the top of the flat. With the great-grate I'll leave the point hanging until it is ready to wrap or ready for burnt ends.Last edited by Jerod Broussard; April 25, 2016, 08:09 AM.Comment
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Cook times are generally impressive, IF you are running in the UPPER 200's where the PBC shines. Personally, I don't take any extraneous measures to control temps, but prefer instead to let her rock. When you have a good fire in that baby, the incineration of drippings is more complete and flavorful and the food is unique and awesome. She ain't meant to run on regular unleaded... It's racing fuel for the PBC.
I have also found that slightly over-filling the basket does wonders to cook times and temps for a long burn. Should not be slowing down at the 4th hour unless your airflow is insufficient or you didn't quite fill the basket to capacity. If your temps fall below 250 in the first few hours, most likely you have a lighting procedure to work out or the bottom vent needs cracking open more. When running right, the temps will spike in the 300's early, but fall to 270-290 with no fiddling, just letting her do her thing. PBC = Pour a Beer and Chill!
I suppose "no rules" applies here and to each their own (absolutely encouraged and no offense meant to any person's cooking) but I would not look at cooking on the PBC like other devices and therefore, wouldn't treat it the same. Treat it like a PBC.
Welcome to the Pit!Comment
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They should be orders Jerod Broussard. I would still be struggling with PBC brisket cooks were it not for words of wisdom from the king!
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I've never separated the point from the flat before, I've always done the full packer. Is there an advantage to the separation? I guess i'm worried that I might end up screwing up the cut if I do it that way, so I might just stick to doing the whole thing together.Comment
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I'll try separating it, I'm going to look through the forum for some good advice on how exactly to do so, as I've never separated the point from the flat before. Thanks for the advice!Comment
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I end up with the peak of the flat that would have been sitting on the point (you can see it kinda flared up). I just fold it over against itself going towards the fat cap side and put the hook through it. I trim just about all the visible fat where the cut is made. More area for bark.
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Do you find the cook time for the two pieces to be fairly different, or pretty close? I'm thinking of using the point for mainly burnt ends, then slices from the flat. -
net_introvert They generally run pretty close to normal. I like the fact I can leave the point hanging unwrapped until it gets to 200+. Even together the point needs a little more rendering when the flat is probe tender. Unless I rest 3-4 hours.
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I just did a full packer in the PBC, my first one and only the second cook on the PBC. I didn't separate the point from the flat, but it was such a long hunk of brisket, I did have to cut off about 6" of flat just to have it fit. I was a little worried that it would be dry as a bone, I shouldn't have....it was amazingly tender! I trimmed off most of the fat, guessing about 2# worth, so I wound up with about 10.6# in the PBC. Standard lighting with a chimney, coals went in and meat went on...
I let it run initially without caring about the temps so they were between 280-300. I then let all the reading I've done go to my head about low and slow, takes 12-16 hours, yadda, yadda. So I throttled it back with foil around the rebars, dropped to around 235ish...Meat temps that were initially rising quite quickly stabilized, nice slow rise...Temps stalled around 163, so I pulled both pieces, wrapped them, added about 1/2 cup of beef broth and put it all back on the PBC until the temps hit 200. Packed them in a cooler with towels that smell so good I may never wash them again...Hopped on the motorcycle and went for a two hour ride, pulled them out, sliced, and my oh my was it ever good! Tender, juicy, these would have worked on the piece of brown paper, nekkid for sure! Beautiful smoke ring...Total cook time was around 7 hours. My bride loved it, and she's the pickiest eater on the planet!!!!
Next cook I'm just going to let the PBC do it's thing as fzxdoc suggested. Not going to try and make it into something it's not, and that leaves more time for short bike rides anyway as I'm not fussing over a few degrees one way or the other.Comment
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I'm going to try my first ever brisket on Thursday. I picked up a small flat (5.5lbs) from BJ's today. I'm going small because it's my first try at this and I also only have a few buddies coming over. I'm seeing a ton of great info on the site and in this forum for what to do but one question I have is how long should I plan on this being on the PBC prior to throwing it in a cooler and waiting for the guys to arrive? I understand that every piece of meat is different but I'm seeing people mention that they are cooking 10 pounders and this is literally half that size so I don't want to expect it to be on for 6hrs and I'm getting done way too early. As it is, I'm planning on having it resting in the cooler for 2hrs prior to cutting.Comment
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Well, I trimmed it up and dry rubbed it tonight, should get a good 24-36 hours before I throw it onto the pit. I ended up using Jerod's advice and splitting it in two, I think that will definitely give it more surface area for bark. I was surprised by how much I trimmed off, the 14lb packer is probably down to about 10 lbs total now. Hopefully I didn't trim too much fat, but I tried to leave some on each piece and didn't trim really any meat off. Hopefully it turns out well when I put it in the PBC in a couple days.Comment
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net_introvert the last 3 briskets I cooked were all prime grade from Costco in the 14 - 16 pound range and took 8.5 - 9 hours to hit the target temp of 203 degrees cooked at 250. I hope this helps.Comment
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Man, I gotta go kick the meat guys at my costco in the pants! All I find are flats, and that's fine if I'm makin' corned beef or pastrami (though I really prefer points for both). I asked one of them if they ever get any "packers" in, explaining exactly what that means, and he looked at me like I was from another planet. Sigh.Comment
I offer advice not orders. 
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