Now I've done it

[tdimond]

I have had a moment of insanity.

My sister is getting married at the end of September, and she asked me to be the grillmaster for her rehearsal dinner. She wanted burgers and brats.

Then I got to thinking - maybe I want to step it up a notch. So I asked her if she wanted something smoked, like pork butt or brisket, instead. She voted for brisket.

So now, I get to take my PBC two states away and do brisket for 30. Based on what I found on the free site for cooking for a crowd, Huskee suggested 1 lb uncooked, trimmed brisket per person in the comments. So now I get to do my first two-clod cook.

Like I said, I'm only slightly insane. Planning starts now!

[boftx]

Be sure to allow extra for the dogs that are sure to be present.

[JeffJ]

I'm confident you'll pull it off. FYI - last fall I cooked a 10 pound pork butt for a 15-person party and we ended up with a lot of leftovers. Are you making only brisket, or will the meal also have sides and accompaniments?

[JeffJ]

Another anecdote. I smoked 50 pounds of pork butt for my son's graduation party, which was about 140 people in total and we had some left over. Better to be safe than sorry, of course, but you might consider a full packer plus a 3 pound chuck roast in lieu of 2 full packers.

[DeusDingo]

i think it's 1/2 pound, trimmed, precooked, per person. i've done that with pork butt and came out with plenty of leftovers.

[tdimond]

My sister is doing the sides herself. Mac and cheese, baked beans, slaw, and corn avocado salad.

I saw Meathead's general guidance of 8 oz uncooked per person also. I may split the difference and shoot for 3/4 lb uncooked weight apiece.

Thanks for all the feedback!

[Scout789]

I think you have a good plan. If you have leftovers, leftover brisket rocks! Sliced or chopped sandwiches or simply reheated. Hard to go wrong.

[treesmacker]

Better to make more than be sorry and not have enough. At my daughters wedding, the caterer screwed up and didn't have enough. Imagine this: guest are called to eat by the tables, those up front first, working way to back tables. After waiting to be last, the back folks find no food left. Very embarrassing! Needless to say, the caterer didn't get his final check.

[TechSmoker]

You will always have people like myself that would rather eat a meal of just good brisket rather than waste precious stomach storage space on sides.

[DoubleUpOrQuit]

You've got this tdimond.

[gabulldog]

Pbc can handle it, just use plenty of charcoal!

[Spinaker]

Make sure you allocate enough time, in case the brisket takes longer. And always allow time for the hold in the faux cambro.

You've got this one!

[smokenoob]

You are brave, I would drink to much at my sisters wedding! (and so would my brother, so he was not placed in charge of the pit!)

reminds me of my brothers wedding.........Priest took us aside and said no funny biz, dressin up the car, pranks and all.........well, that went in one ear and out the other......dressed up the wedding chariot nicely with writing and cans (my responsibility as the best man). When wedding was over, brother and new wife drove off in a squeeky clean car....WTF.......opps, did the wrong car......turns out ot was the Priest's car.....gotta go!

[wu7y]

Now that's funny! I don't care who you are.

[BourBonQ]

Solid plan and advice, you've got this. (oh, and Go Tigers!)

[tdimond]

I did a practice run yesterday to test a couple of things. We had some friends over, so I wound up cooking for 17 total, 7 adults.

I used the America's Test Kitchen brisket rub recipe, without salt. I think they put that recipe behind their paywall. Salt came from dry brining two days ahead of time. The ATC rub isn't as aggressive as BBBR, and I wanted something for varying tastes.

Trimmed weight was 10.5 lb. It was a prime brisket, wet aged 20 days, but I had to take it to about 203 to get to probe tender. Total cook time was about 10 hours. Then I held it in the oven warming drawer for about 5 hours to serving time.

I used hickory wood for smoke. The biggest issue I had was initial load out of the meat. It took me too long to run probe wires, and the cooker spiked above 425. I foiled two holes, and it took over an hour to get it back in the 250-275 range. Then I pulled the foil and went to sleep for a few hours. The rest of the cook was uneventful. I wrapped with butcher paper at about 185 IT.

Anyway, enough post-mortem - time for pics
The pull test seemed about right in the flat. The flat meat under the point was a little overdone and wouldn't hold up to slicing. The point itself was delicious.

I happened to see my son's plate a little later and had to grab this pic for the smoke ring. I was impressed.


I think this was my best brisket yet. Now I just need to replicate it at the end of the month.

[New2Cue]

That looks great! Funny, I cooked a brisket overnight last night and ran into the same issue with spiking temps.

[tdimond]

I almost forgot - I made up a batch of Meathead's Texas mop for anyone who wanted it. No one did, but I tried it in case someone insists on sauce at the rehearsal.

I was a little skeptical when I tried the sauce after cooking it, but it works really well on the meat. In this case, though, it was gilding the lily..

[Elton's BBQ]

Looks grand!
Yeah that Texas Mop Sauce is great.. i've made it with pulled beef.

[Donw]

Looks great. You will knock it out of the park when the big event comes.

[tdimond]

Today was the last test before the big event next week.

I wanted to try out Jerod Broussard 's Trifecta Rub 2.0 method and see if I thought it would go over well with the people I'm feeding. I figured the easiest way to do that was with chuckies.

I did the chuckies today. I had planned on two days of dry brine, but the schedule put me behind a day, so I wound up with a three day dry brine. I used hickory again for smoke.

I had much better luck running probe wires today - I ran the wires first, then set the rebar. I also grabbed a pair of swim goggles to keep the smoke out of my eyes - which worked really well. The barrel peaked at about 360, though I did have to foil a couple of holes and tweak the bottom vent to get it locked in between 250-280. I let it go unwrapped until about 180 internal. I was happy with the bark at that point, and I wrapped in aluminum foil. Probe tender was at about 203-205. Then I held it in the warming drawer for about 2.5 hours before serving.

I'm going to commit a heresy - I think the Trifecta rub is better than BBBR. I'm going to use it next week. The test was very successful!

And now, the chuckie pics!

[Elton's BBQ]

Looks good!

[Jerod Broussard]

The rub is a small part of a cook laying the bark down!!