First Brisket on the PBX!
I'll be upfront before anybody gets upset - I neglected to take pictures until everybody dug in, so you will have to use your mind's eye.
Bought some KBB (I'm normally a lump user) and the smallest brisket I could find at costco, which was still a 17lb monster. It was a bit of a pain to trim, lots of deckle. Aside from the new cooker, the only variable I altered compared to my normal brisket method was to use a mustard binder. Used my SPG blend (which also has onion powder, paprika, cayenne, and MSG) and dry brined for a day.
Starting the cooker, I followed the pit barrel website instructions (I don't have their little baby chimney so I just put 42 briquettes in my full-sized one instead). I had some issues with my starter cube going out due to it being a cold, wet, windy day, so I didn't abide by the typical 12 minute burn time on the chimney, instead dumping them in when the top briquettes had some ash around the edges, probably more like 18 minutes. I also neglected to let it burn for a bit with the lid off once it all was dumped in. I just chucked 2 chunks of pecan on and left all the rebar out with the lid on while I went inside to put the hooks in the meat. When I went to hang my brisket, I found that it touched the coals so I instead opted for the grate!
During the cook, I had some difficulties with temperature control. I kept having to mess with adding/removing foil to the rebar as temps would climb up to 350 and duck down to 275 (I was aiming for just shy of 300 but not being too granular about it). I think this probably had to do with my weird lighting experience. Additionally, any time I removed the lid the temperature would jump at least 20 degrees, one time over 60 degrees (up to 400, which was very hard to come down from). This didn't happen when I cooked my turkey last week. For my next cook I'll follow the stickied advice more closely, as that also got my wood burning much nicer than this time (lots of billowing white smoke for the first two hours). I don't know what exactly I did wrong with the fire this time, but it didn't happen last time, so I feel like I made a mistake somewhere. Now that I type this, I wonder if it was just hotter on the grate where the brisket was, as opposed to the turkey I did last time which was hanging from the rebar higher up in the barrel.
Temps eventually stabilized around 315 and steadily declined for the rest of the cook, ending around 215 right when the brisket was ready to pull. I was pretty happy with how quickly it cooked it. I didn't even bother to wrap it because it pushed through the stall. The bark was very crispy and flavorful as a result, but it probed very tender so I called it good.
I stuck it in a 170 degree oven for an hour and served it. This was easily the most thorough fat render I've ever produced on a brisket, and I really really dig the almost burgery flavor from the drippings on the coals. I thought you guys were exaggerating, but the flavor of the burning drippings was really very nice and unique, definitely emphasized the beefy flavor of the brisket quite nicely.
I was a doofus and cut it with a chef's knife instead of a bread knife so in the less structurally sound areas it sort of pulled itself apart. No matter, everybody enjoyed it and I was very happy with the cook. I decided to trust the process, and I was rewarded for it.
Does anybody have any tips or insight as to what I could do better with temperature control, just for the sake of improvement? Particularly to do with the instability and spiking when the lid was off. Was I maybe choking the fuel? Who knows!
Thank you!
Bought some KBB (I'm normally a lump user) and the smallest brisket I could find at costco, which was still a 17lb monster. It was a bit of a pain to trim, lots of deckle. Aside from the new cooker, the only variable I altered compared to my normal brisket method was to use a mustard binder. Used my SPG blend (which also has onion powder, paprika, cayenne, and MSG) and dry brined for a day.
Starting the cooker, I followed the pit barrel website instructions (I don't have their little baby chimney so I just put 42 briquettes in my full-sized one instead). I had some issues with my starter cube going out due to it being a cold, wet, windy day, so I didn't abide by the typical 12 minute burn time on the chimney, instead dumping them in when the top briquettes had some ash around the edges, probably more like 18 minutes. I also neglected to let it burn for a bit with the lid off once it all was dumped in. I just chucked 2 chunks of pecan on and left all the rebar out with the lid on while I went inside to put the hooks in the meat. When I went to hang my brisket, I found that it touched the coals so I instead opted for the grate!
During the cook, I had some difficulties with temperature control. I kept having to mess with adding/removing foil to the rebar as temps would climb up to 350 and duck down to 275 (I was aiming for just shy of 300 but not being too granular about it). I think this probably had to do with my weird lighting experience. Additionally, any time I removed the lid the temperature would jump at least 20 degrees, one time over 60 degrees (up to 400, which was very hard to come down from). This didn't happen when I cooked my turkey last week. For my next cook I'll follow the stickied advice more closely, as that also got my wood burning much nicer than this time (lots of billowing white smoke for the first two hours). I don't know what exactly I did wrong with the fire this time, but it didn't happen last time, so I feel like I made a mistake somewhere. Now that I type this, I wonder if it was just hotter on the grate where the brisket was, as opposed to the turkey I did last time which was hanging from the rebar higher up in the barrel.
Temps eventually stabilized around 315 and steadily declined for the rest of the cook, ending around 215 right when the brisket was ready to pull. I was pretty happy with how quickly it cooked it. I didn't even bother to wrap it because it pushed through the stall. The bark was very crispy and flavorful as a result, but it probed very tender so I called it good.
I stuck it in a 170 degree oven for an hour and served it. This was easily the most thorough fat render I've ever produced on a brisket, and I really really dig the almost burgery flavor from the drippings on the coals. I thought you guys were exaggerating, but the flavor of the burning drippings was really very nice and unique, definitely emphasized the beefy flavor of the brisket quite nicely.
I was a doofus and cut it with a chef's knife instead of a bread knife so in the less structurally sound areas it sort of pulled itself apart. No matter, everybody enjoyed it and I was very happy with the cook. I decided to trust the process, and I was rewarded for it.
Does anybody have any tips or insight as to what I could do better with temperature control, just for the sake of improvement? Particularly to do with the instability and spiking when the lid was off. Was I maybe choking the fuel? Who knows!
Thank you!
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