The Setup
There has been so much chatter about brisket this week that I just had to post the one I did Wednesday. I had a mid week dinner party with some old high school buddies (yeah, long time friends are we ARE old now) and decided to make brisket. I got a 13 pound prime packer from costco and it sat in the cyro in my fridge for a week.
The Prep
I trimmed about 2 pounds of fat and stuff to clean it up. I did the dry brine 48 hours before cook, and rubbed with BBBR just prior to cook. I used double hooks and ran with barrel temps between 250 and 270.
The Cook
I really wanted barrel temps somewhere between 250 and 260 for this cook. When it dipped a bit low I cracked the lid, and when it went a bit high I foiled a hole or two closed. Once it stabilized and fat started dripping it stayed pretty constantly in the 250-260 range. There was, surprisingly, no stall. It reached 190 IT in about 6 hours and had BEAUTIFUL bark. I pulled it and wrapped it in butcher paper after checking the IT with my thermopen. I found the IT was a bit lower than the Maverick probe was reporting. Put it back on the grate and reinserted the Maverick IT probe. At this time the probe reporting the barrel temp started bouncing all over the map*, so after about 30 minutes I took it out of the barrel and put it into a 325 degree oven until it was probe tender. This didn't take long as it was close to probe tender when I removed it from the barrel initially for wrapping. It was in the oven for about 45 minutes then into the cambro until it was mealtime. Typically I like the cambro rest to last at least two hours, but had to make due with one. It didn't matter.
* When this happens with my probes i know they have been moisturized beyond their tolerance levels. Cooking a prime brisket makes for a VERY moist cooking environment. To rectify the problem I put them into a 350 oven (making sure the plug ends are NOT in the oven) for about 20 minutes to dry them thoroughly. I haven't had one completely fail yet and this typically returns them to normal service, but at some point in time I suspect I'll loose one. When that happens I've convinced myself that it's time for an updated version - one with probes for multiple hunks of meat... There are some beauties on the market now!
The Result
The bark was perfect. The butcher paper wrap didn't hurt it in the least. The meat was dripping with moisture, and the smoke ring was intense. I sliced up the flat "on demand" and cubed up some of the point for my version of "Quick Burnt Ends". Once plated it was "slurpin' 'n burpin'" time! Dinner attendees looked like true wild carnivores! Gotta say this is my best brisket cook to date. Kept detailed notes as always so I can learn from all of the past cooks... Enjoy the before cook and after cook eye candy.
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Now I can hear ya'all asking, what the heck are "Quick Burnt Ends". At the end of the cook my patience is worn thin. I'm ready to flippin' stuff my face with what I've been smellin' all darn day! So I've devised this quick burnt ends recipe to speed things along. This works for me because the point is SO dang tender it doesn't need a whole lot more cookin', and I don't separate the point from the flat until the last minute.
I render most of the fat I trim off of the brisket for uses down the road. I like to freeze it in ice trays. If you don't do this you really should. The uses are endless, but my fav is for this recipe and for "painting" steaks and other pieces of beef like tri-tip prior to a sear. Also good in sauces, but I digress.
So I put some of the rendered "beef love" in a cast iron skillet on the stove top. When it's nice and hot (not nuclear, just hot) I toss in the cubed point pieces and toss them around a bit to get a bit more crispy - not too much, just so much. Don't want 'em crunchy! I then toss in some sauce I describe below and let it caramelize a bit - again, not too much. Ya don't wanna burn this stuff, just get it good and sticky! The whole process doesn't take any more than about 5 minutes and I can't tell the difference from the "long version"!
I have a standard BBQ sauce I make that I thin down about half with "Texas BBQ Mop Sauce", the recipe for which you can find under "tested recipes", and which I highly recommend. I LOVE this stuff and always have some in the fridge. You can use any of your favorite sauces and thin as described or not. I like to make my own sauce so I can avoid ingredients I can't spell or pronounce!
At my recent shindig described above the battle over the contents of the skillet was intense! I hid some of the point after making two batches, and after the guests left I cubed it and bagged it. You can take the stuff right out of the fridge and have fresh hot burnt ends any time. It takes a wee bit longer because the cubes start out cold, but not much... Hehehe. Hopefully none of my guests are members on this forum or I'm in trouble.. "What, you want more burnt ends? Oh so sorry we've used all of the point up"...
BBQ on fellow BarrelHeads!
There has been so much chatter about brisket this week that I just had to post the one I did Wednesday. I had a mid week dinner party with some old high school buddies (yeah, long time friends are we ARE old now) and decided to make brisket. I got a 13 pound prime packer from costco and it sat in the cyro in my fridge for a week.
The Prep
I trimmed about 2 pounds of fat and stuff to clean it up. I did the dry brine 48 hours before cook, and rubbed with BBBR just prior to cook. I used double hooks and ran with barrel temps between 250 and 270.
The Cook
I really wanted barrel temps somewhere between 250 and 260 for this cook. When it dipped a bit low I cracked the lid, and when it went a bit high I foiled a hole or two closed. Once it stabilized and fat started dripping it stayed pretty constantly in the 250-260 range. There was, surprisingly, no stall. It reached 190 IT in about 6 hours and had BEAUTIFUL bark. I pulled it and wrapped it in butcher paper after checking the IT with my thermopen. I found the IT was a bit lower than the Maverick probe was reporting. Put it back on the grate and reinserted the Maverick IT probe. At this time the probe reporting the barrel temp started bouncing all over the map*, so after about 30 minutes I took it out of the barrel and put it into a 325 degree oven until it was probe tender. This didn't take long as it was close to probe tender when I removed it from the barrel initially for wrapping. It was in the oven for about 45 minutes then into the cambro until it was mealtime. Typically I like the cambro rest to last at least two hours, but had to make due with one. It didn't matter.
* When this happens with my probes i know they have been moisturized beyond their tolerance levels. Cooking a prime brisket makes for a VERY moist cooking environment. To rectify the problem I put them into a 350 oven (making sure the plug ends are NOT in the oven) for about 20 minutes to dry them thoroughly. I haven't had one completely fail yet and this typically returns them to normal service, but at some point in time I suspect I'll loose one. When that happens I've convinced myself that it's time for an updated version - one with probes for multiple hunks of meat... There are some beauties on the market now!
The Result
The bark was perfect. The butcher paper wrap didn't hurt it in the least. The meat was dripping with moisture, and the smoke ring was intense. I sliced up the flat "on demand" and cubed up some of the point for my version of "Quick Burnt Ends". Once plated it was "slurpin' 'n burpin'" time! Dinner attendees looked like true wild carnivores! Gotta say this is my best brisket cook to date. Kept detailed notes as always so I can learn from all of the past cooks... Enjoy the before cook and after cook eye candy.
Now I can hear ya'all asking, what the heck are "Quick Burnt Ends". At the end of the cook my patience is worn thin. I'm ready to flippin' stuff my face with what I've been smellin' all darn day! So I've devised this quick burnt ends recipe to speed things along. This works for me because the point is SO dang tender it doesn't need a whole lot more cookin', and I don't separate the point from the flat until the last minute.
I render most of the fat I trim off of the brisket for uses down the road. I like to freeze it in ice trays. If you don't do this you really should. The uses are endless, but my fav is for this recipe and for "painting" steaks and other pieces of beef like tri-tip prior to a sear. Also good in sauces, but I digress.
So I put some of the rendered "beef love" in a cast iron skillet on the stove top. When it's nice and hot (not nuclear, just hot) I toss in the cubed point pieces and toss them around a bit to get a bit more crispy - not too much, just so much. Don't want 'em crunchy! I then toss in some sauce I describe below and let it caramelize a bit - again, not too much. Ya don't wanna burn this stuff, just get it good and sticky! The whole process doesn't take any more than about 5 minutes and I can't tell the difference from the "long version"!
I have a standard BBQ sauce I make that I thin down about half with "Texas BBQ Mop Sauce", the recipe for which you can find under "tested recipes", and which I highly recommend. I LOVE this stuff and always have some in the fridge. You can use any of your favorite sauces and thin as described or not. I like to make my own sauce so I can avoid ingredients I can't spell or pronounce!
At my recent shindig described above the battle over the contents of the skillet was intense! I hid some of the point after making two batches, and after the guests left I cubed it and bagged it. You can take the stuff right out of the fridge and have fresh hot burnt ends any time. It takes a wee bit longer because the cubes start out cold, but not much... Hehehe. Hopefully none of my guests are members on this forum or I'm in trouble.. "What, you want more burnt ends? Oh so sorry we've used all of the point up"...
BBQ on fellow BarrelHeads!
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