Obi-Dan had a post the other day about smoking his first brisket, and Jerod commented something like, "prime brisket and the PBC, how can you mess that up?" I am here to attest - not a way I've discovered.
I smoked my first brisket on Sunday for company. I had picked up a 10lb prime from Costco a month or so ago, but I'm not allowed to cook for "practice", wife doesn't want to deal with that much leftovers. So I had to wait until my friend came over with his wife and three kids to cook it.
So I dry brined Friday night after trimming, and I was real happy with myself - no weird shapes, point was identifiable, got a bunch of the fat pockets out without separating the point, and the fat cap was already at 1/8-1/4", no trimming of that required. I even cut off a little notch so I would know where the grain ran per Noah's video. I'm thinking, "I got this."
Saturday night I pulled it out and applied the rub, BBBR with a little cumin added, a half batch made the perfect amount. I also set up my charcoal basket with the OCD method a la Spinaker so I could get it started right after I woke up and would have plenty of briqs and a good light. I went to sleep with the future praise of my wife and friend already in my ears, ready for a perfect cook after so much research on this site - it was going to be glorious.
So I woke up at 6 am and got the PBC going, temp started off a little low so I cracked the lid until it got to around 320, then put it back on. I couldn't get all the leaks taken care of by twisting the lid, so I put a couple cinder blocks on top to seal it off. It settled in to 275 and stayed pretty solid. Perfectly according to plan.
If you've made it this far, here's where it starts getting interesting. I play piano at my church, so I had to be gone from 7:30 until 12:30. Hence the OCD method and blocks, I didn't want anything to happen while I was gone. I had never left the house while it was cooking, so I was nervous about that. I had my wife text me the temperature once she got up at 9- still solid at 275. And then, just as she was heading out the door to come to church herself around 10, she looked again - 225. Stress levels immediately jumped a number of notches.
I raced home as soon as I could, and my fears were confirmed. Temp of the barrel was now at 170; a bunch of coals had failed to get a good light. The brisket was only at 146, but the bark looked ok, so I pulled it, left the lid off, wrapped the brisket with a little beef broth, and put it back in. Temps were around 320 and didn't drop below 300 for the rest of the cook. Thankfully the briskey rose steadily to 195 when I started checking tenderness around 2:30. By 203, the point was butter-tender, the flat was not but I was out of options so I pulled it. It was tender, but there was a definite difference between the two. I drained the juices into a pan and the meat went into the FC. Except - I couldn't find my FC towel anywhere! Oh well, it should stay above 150 in the cooler with just foil, only 2 hours until dinner.
I fixed the sides while waiting, asparagus and corn on the cob. Friends arrived, I pulled the brisket out, and sliced it almost with the grain, forgetting all about the notch I made.
Results though, everyone loved it! Passed the pull test perfectly, had great flavor, everything worked out! Even when my guests kept slicing and cut the point exactly parallel to the grain, it was still tender and excellent.
En fin, I learned a lot, conquered my fear of brisket, and ended up with some great food to share with my family and friends, even if they did eat it with barbecue sauce
Pics!!!
I smoked my first brisket on Sunday for company. I had picked up a 10lb prime from Costco a month or so ago, but I'm not allowed to cook for "practice", wife doesn't want to deal with that much leftovers. So I had to wait until my friend came over with his wife and three kids to cook it.
So I dry brined Friday night after trimming, and I was real happy with myself - no weird shapes, point was identifiable, got a bunch of the fat pockets out without separating the point, and the fat cap was already at 1/8-1/4", no trimming of that required. I even cut off a little notch so I would know where the grain ran per Noah's video. I'm thinking, "I got this."
Saturday night I pulled it out and applied the rub, BBBR with a little cumin added, a half batch made the perfect amount. I also set up my charcoal basket with the OCD method a la Spinaker so I could get it started right after I woke up and would have plenty of briqs and a good light. I went to sleep with the future praise of my wife and friend already in my ears, ready for a perfect cook after so much research on this site - it was going to be glorious.
So I woke up at 6 am and got the PBC going, temp started off a little low so I cracked the lid until it got to around 320, then put it back on. I couldn't get all the leaks taken care of by twisting the lid, so I put a couple cinder blocks on top to seal it off. It settled in to 275 and stayed pretty solid. Perfectly according to plan.
If you've made it this far, here's where it starts getting interesting. I play piano at my church, so I had to be gone from 7:30 until 12:30. Hence the OCD method and blocks, I didn't want anything to happen while I was gone. I had never left the house while it was cooking, so I was nervous about that. I had my wife text me the temperature once she got up at 9- still solid at 275. And then, just as she was heading out the door to come to church herself around 10, she looked again - 225. Stress levels immediately jumped a number of notches.
I raced home as soon as I could, and my fears were confirmed. Temp of the barrel was now at 170; a bunch of coals had failed to get a good light. The brisket was only at 146, but the bark looked ok, so I pulled it, left the lid off, wrapped the brisket with a little beef broth, and put it back in. Temps were around 320 and didn't drop below 300 for the rest of the cook. Thankfully the briskey rose steadily to 195 when I started checking tenderness around 2:30. By 203, the point was butter-tender, the flat was not but I was out of options so I pulled it. It was tender, but there was a definite difference between the two. I drained the juices into a pan and the meat went into the FC. Except - I couldn't find my FC towel anywhere! Oh well, it should stay above 150 in the cooler with just foil, only 2 hours until dinner.
I fixed the sides while waiting, asparagus and corn on the cob. Friends arrived, I pulled the brisket out, and sliced it almost with the grain, forgetting all about the notch I made.
Results though, everyone loved it! Passed the pull test perfectly, had great flavor, everything worked out! Even when my guests kept slicing and cut the point exactly parallel to the grain, it was still tender and excellent.
En fin, I learned a lot, conquered my fear of brisket, and ended up with some great food to share with my family and friends, even if they did eat it with barbecue sauce
Pics!!!
Attached Files
congrats!
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