Brisket - round 2

[smarkley]

Good job... mystery solved somewhat!

[fzxdoc]

Wow that looks delicious, ghipes. I'm glad to hear that this was a successful brisket cook for you. The key must have been the quality of the meat, compared to your last (first?) brisket cook. Dry brining might have helped with the more moisture that you were looking for, but if you and your wife loved it, maybe you shouldn't mess with perfection.

I know Meathead says to trim the fat cap down to 1/8 inch. I think he says that the smoke ring won't penetrate areas thick with fat. Your slices bear that out. The briskets I bought were already trimmed that closely, so I lucked out.

Interesting that your coals were spent after 7 hours. I've never had that happen to me, and I've done 9 and 10 hour cooks, with the coals still going at the end. Maybe scooting the basket closer to the vent caused the fire to burn so hot that it burned itself out in 7 hours? I seem to recall Noah saying that a basket will last 8 hours (at his elevation), but I'd have to check on that to be sure.

Congrats on a successful and satisfying cook! You've got some good eating ahead of you this week.

Kathryn

ETA: maybe when extra coals are needed the basket could be set on a couple of bricks to lift off all that ash. I never heard about anyone having to do that, but maybe the temp would have been closer to what you wanted if the new coals got more air from underneath. It's food for thought, anyway. Thanks for writing your observations on maintaining the temp throughout a long cook.

[ghipes]

Well with all the good advise I just couldn't wait to get another brisket on the PBC. This time I got a "Supreme" Choice 13lb packer. The meat manager said the supreme was better than a choice but not a prime....so I went with it. Change a few things in the cook as well. I used a simple salt and pepper rub and didn't dry brine as I didn't have time. I'll dry brine the next one. Injected with beef stock. I hung for about the first hour, then I went to the grate with the fat side up. I was thinking I could render the fat down into the meat helping to keep it moist. After 5.5 hours the temp was at 165 and it was time to wrap. Instead of foil I used parchment paper and didn't add any extra liquids. This brisket stalled for a long time, 4 hours , before the flat hit 198 and the point hit 203. Time to rest for 45 minutes. Total cook time was just over 9 hours. Slicing I could tell right away a big difference from the last one. Very tender but not falling apart. I did achieve a good smoke ring, good flavor, tender, and juicy meat (although not as juicy as I would liked). The pull test was also successful. I didn't get all the fat to render so I'll just have to trim a little more next time. I think I'll also put it fat side down next time as I don't think it helped to be up. My wife and I both loved this cook. She said it was the best she ever ate...but isn't that what she's supposed to say?
Thanks again for all the advice on such a great site!!

I also moved the coals closer to the air vent as another member posted. My experience is that it helped keep a steady temp, ~270, for about 5 hours. The outside temp dropped to the 50s and the pitt dropped to around 240s at the 7 hour mark. I checked the coals and they were all burned up at 7 hours. I added more coals, a full basket, a it seemed to struggle to maintain 250. Perhaps too many ashes in the bottom. Not sure on that, but the PBC wasn't keeping temps at all after a new set of coals.

Ready to hang.



Ready to wrap. Used parchment paper.

Ready to eat. Felt like the flat was a bit dry, but really good.