First time trying my hand at a Brisket

[jfmorris]

Your brisket had little to no bark because you wrapped it way too early. If I wrap a brisket, I don't do it until the meat in the thickest part of the flat is around 170F or so. You wrapped really before the stall, or right when it started, and you also pulled the brisket before it was done - that is why it was not as tender or juicy as you hoped for.

With a PBC do not worry with monitoring the pit temperature - just monitor the meat. Again, with a brisket, put your temp probe in the thickest part of the flat, avoiding the deckle - the fat layer between point and flat - and don't worry about the temp of the point - it has a high fat content and can take higher done temperatures than the flat can. The brisket is done when the flat reaches somewhere between 195 and 205. Most of mine, USDA Prime briskets, get taken to 205, as they are not yet probe tender at 195.

It is also important for a brisket to wrap and hold in faux cambro for 1-2 hours before serving. Doing this tends to lead to a much more tender and juicy result.

Your bark should look as good or better than the brisket below, if you wait until 170 or so to wrap (that's when I wrapped this one). PBC brisket should have really great bark.

Another tip - on the PBC, if cooking on the grate, put fat side down. You want the fat cap towards the heat source.

[BFlynn]

This!!

Holding in the cooler is clutch

[Alabama Smoke]

Exactly as jfmorris told you. You will be rewarded with a great hunk of meat!

[Alphatrex]

Thank you guys, knew this was the place to learn how to properly cook a brisket will definitely be keeping all the tips handy next time.

[zzdocxx]

Me too, going to attempt my first one in the next week or so.

I don't think my SV container is big enough for the whole thing, I was thinking about that medium rare thing that troutmant did.

I saw another guy at some bbq place showing how he trims the deckle fat out of there till the whole thing is more of a uniform thickness and therefore cooks more evenly. Maybe I can find a link . . . actually not sure I understood it properly but it seemed like he was dissecting in between the layers. I haven't seen this in any other videos, any comments ?

https://youtu.be/g_P7tiFtwkk?t=348

I like how some of the vids show that you shouldn't leave any corners sticking out that could get dried out, the perfect trim makes it look like sort of an oval shape.

[fzxdoc]

FWIW, Lipavi makes some great sous vide containers. Sold on Amazon. I have the Lipavi C10 (3 gallon) and the C20 (6.5 gallon) with the lids. Along with my stock pots, I've pretty much got everything covered. The big one is great for lots of steaks, chuck roasts, or brisket.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B014U596GO/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&th=1

K.

[fzxdoc]

What jfmorris and HawkerXP said. Also, the PBC cooking environment is already so moist that there is no need to spritz. It just washes off the rub.

In general, PBCs don't like running at 225°. Let yours do its thing at 250-280° or so, wrap after the meat reaches 170°, cambro for a couple of hours, and you'll have one tasty brisket with lots of barky deliciousness.

Inching one's way up the learning curve is part of the fun of BBQ. Your next brisket will be great, I predict.

Kathryn

[jfmorris]

Ah - I missed that he was spritzing, or I would have said no to that as well, haha. Spritzing in a PBC would also seem like a good way to put out coals...

[Alabama Smoke]

jfmorris Jim, naw.....you'd have to spritz with a water hose to put that inferno out especially if its fully loaded with coals. Mine got to running too hot to suit me. With intake vent as closed as the design would allow, I'd be running 300F to 315F, and that was with a fully gunked up lid, etc. I recently cleaned all that miss up, scrubbed and "brillowed" until I could literally rub the lid area that seats with the barrel with isopropyl alcohol and the pad would come away clean looking. Then installed a BBQ gasket. Haven't had a large enough cook since to fire the barrel up (been using the Jumbo Joe for the two of us) but am hoping to be back down in the 265F to 300F range I used to get. We shall see........Tom

[fzxdoc]

You'll see the difference immediately with that gasket, Tom. 300 plus deg is great for poultry, but a pain for cooking much else. The thing about the simplicity of the PBC is that there are not a lot of vents to tweak to offset a problem that can be easily fixed with a gasket. Or a temperature controller. To my mind that's a good thing because you go to the source of the problem for the fix.

Kathryn

[Alabama Smoke]

fzxdoc I am pulling for you to be right Kathryn! And I expect that you are indeed. Have not been doing large cooks and no big friend and family events due to the virus so have not used PBC much this year. But I do want to see what the gasket does so I will likely use it soon even if the JJ could have handled the job. Worth a little wasted charcoal to see.

[jfmorris]

I don't let the lack of company keep me from doing larger cooks - it just means we eat leftovers for a lot more days, or I portion it out and put BBQ in vacuum bags in the freezer...

[Joetee]

I prefer to have more temperature control. I don't want to fight to keep it at 225.
That's why I chose a different direction over the PBC. I'm sure it's a great smoker which many people acclaim.
I hope the gasket solves all your problems.

Oh yeah, I learned that with the Weber kettle after a good cleaning it also gave me a little trouble. So know I leave some ash behind.

[Alabama Smoke]

I hope so too Joetee. Thanks for your comment.