PBC Brisket a success (so were the ribs)

[Catmandu]

Great looking brisket!

What are the details of the cook? Did you hang it or put it on the rack? Approximate temps? How long?

[Hugh]

Lit as per Kathryn's instructions. Cooked using hangers. After wrapping it went into kitchen oven because I couldn't get a stable temp. Pit temp started at 370 right away. Dropped to 320 after 1 hour. Opened lid to add second hook to brisket (forgot that initially) and temperature went back to 360. Here is my problem - it just slowly dropped below 250 degrees. With weight on lid it climbed back up to 330. It was a yo yo cook. 7 hour cook till put in the cambro.

[epope011]

Hugh, did you wrap with aluminum foil or butcher paper?

[Skip]

Great looking Brisket Hugh!

[TechSmoker]

That brisket looks juicy!

[MeatMonster]

You know you smashed it with that wet shine on a slice!

[fzxdoc]

Hugh , your brisket looks great. Congrats!

You're really giving your brand new PBC a good workout with ribs, chicken and brisket within the first week or so. It's such a fun little cooker that I don't blame you one bit for using it every chance you get.

Don't worry too much about the lighting/temps, just enjoy your cooks. You'll be a PBC Whisperer in no time, I'm sure. The best thing about the PBC is that the learning curve is quite short, to the point that you can usually just give it a whirl and the food turns out delicious no matter what.

Kathryn

[Hugh]

The inside story on so many cooks this week was that my wife was visiting our girls so what could a Dad do but BBQ and feed friends and family?

The temp stability is a bit of a mystery. My current theory is that the lid is a little lose and the temp gets away on me without some weight. The problem is, too much weight on the lid and it dies out. Sound too crazy to be true?

[fzxdoc]

Have you sprayed the lid's inside rim with a bit of cooking oil to help it gunk up and seal, Hugh ? I've never had to do that, but many people here, such as Spinaker suggest it and say it works great.

If your fire needs a leaking lid to get enough oxygen/air flow to the fire basket, then something else is happening. I'm assuming your vent is set perfectly and that you're not using a charcoal that produces a ton of ash under the basket. Usually, getting a good light to start with keeps the fire going nicely throughout the cook.

A few more cooks may answer the question. Try not to change too much between cooks until you narrow down what may be the problem.

Kathryn

[BRic]

Hugh Sounds like you are not getting enough oxygen /air flow to your coals. The vent settings they suggest are approximate .
other variables that can cause probiems is wind , damp charcoal can really create problems . a bad batch of charcoal . Are you getting to much ash under basket .
Problem with the vent settings is to wide of a opening cause the barrel to run hot which cause your coals to burn out to quickly . If the vent is closed off to much than you are not getting enough air to burn properly causing your coals to cool off . If your lid leaks i would fix that first . I used a green egg gasket on my lid , the leak on mind leaked bad . Once you have the leak fixed . than i would fool around with the vent settings . Remmember if you are looking you are not cooking . I am cooking ribs right now for 2hrs and my temp has been staying between 265 to 270 f temp outside 4C light wind . I hoped this helped you .

[Thomassen]

Looks great! When are you inviting us over?

[Hugh]

I want to seal my lid as a first step. Makes sense to start eliminating variables. Anyone got recommendations for a gasket? Is there some spray from Home Depot I can apply to inside of rim? Or should I just start with cooking spray as Kathryn has suggested?

[fzxdoc]

You may not need a gasket, Hugh. Have you looked closely to see if smoke is actually leaking at the rim? It's hard to see in the area of the rebar holes so hold a piece of dark cardboard horizontally between the holes and the lid rim and look closely when you're in the white smoke phase early on in the lighting/cooking process.

If you truly feel there's a leak, many people here say it sometimes resolves itself by doing a few cooks and/or using the cooking spray fix. Consider the gasket option as Lid Leak Fix 2.0 .

I put this Lava-Lok gasket on my PBC which didn't begin to leak at the rim until after about 18 months of use, as I recall. The leak was right at the area of the barrel seam. The gasket worked great.

Kathryn

[MBMorgan]

I want to seal my lid as a first step. Makes sense to start eliminating variables. Anyone got recommendations for a gasket? Is there some spray from Home Depot I can apply to inside of rim? Or should I just start with cooking spray as Kathryn has suggested?

Cooking spray ... it's food safe.

[fzxdoc]

One other thing, Hugh , it's perfectly normal for the PBC to run hotter than 300° for a while. I smoked 7 pastramis yesterday, 3 of which were done on the PBC. I place two ambient probes in the barrel, one on the vent side and one on the opposite side of the barrel.

For the first couple of hours of the cook, the vent side ran about 50 degrees hotter than the opposite side, staying above 300° while the opposite side hovered around 260°. So it averaged around 285° or so. Then gradually the probes got more into agreement around 275ish as the 8 hour cook progressed. I didn't touch a thing.

So two points can be made about that cook:
1. There can be a large variation in temps with respect to monitoring location in the PBC during a cook. In my experience, this doesn't happen all the time but it's not unusual.

2. Without intervention, the higher temp eventually comes down by itself. That may have been what you saw as you watched your 300°+ temps go down; it may be unrelated to the fact that you weighted the lid--if the temp decrease was gradual, that is. Usually sealing up a lid leak causes a pretty quick drop in barrel temps.

I still recommend determining whether there is a lid leak at all before you set about with a fix. If you determine, on your next cook, that you actually have a leak, you can always crimp a length of double layer aluminum foil around the outside of the lid/rim seal in the area. That works great. Then you could get through the cook and work on a fix before the next cook. Just a thought.

Kathryn

[pa317]

I haven't done a brisket on my PBC yet. The pictures here, and knowing it was done on a PBC give me encouragement

[Hugh]

epope011 - I used tinfoil. I've over steamed the meat in the past so this time I didn't wrap till 180 degrees internal and then remove the foil when I pulled the brisket. I let it stand for 20 minutes before re-wrapping to place in the cambro. Worked like a charm.

[Thomassen]

How many pounds?

[Hugh]

This was awhile ago now, and I didn't pay much attention to weight. It was a hunk of point, the butcher kept the flat, so I'd guess it was better than 1/2 the weight of a full brisket. The butcher also trimmed it so I'm guessing 5-7 pounds? Again, just a guess.