Newb to WSM, help w/ point burnt-ends

[jjdbike]

Hello everyone,
I’ve done several whole packers on my BGE.
Ive only used WSM to smoke beef ribs. Came out great.
I found a butcher who agreed to sell
me 2 prime brisket points.
Spending a week w/ our two sons and their families together in a hour on all Michigan. I want to further introduce them to what real barbecue can be. Unfortunately I won’t have access to a stick burner, but will have that WSM. I also have a Flame Boss w/ two meat probes, pit probe & fan.
Can you please help guide me through smoking these two prime brisket points to make Kansas style burnt ends.
Remember, while understand brisket, I’ve only ever used the WSM once.
Thanks much, in advance!
JD

[Huskee]

I don't personally have much to offer about a WSM other than the obvious basics which probably won't be too helpful to you. But, Harry Soo talks about using the WSM in one of our first ever video interviews, if you have the time to view it you may find lots of helpful tidbits directly from Harry: https://pitmaster.amazingribs.com/fo...untain-1hr-24m

[ecowper]

It was a Harry Soo interview where I got the donut from, maybe even this one.

[radiodome21]

I’ve only done pork belly burnt ends on my WSM which I did on Christmas Eve. I cubed them up and coated them with Meatchurch’s Holy Gospel rub. I did it low and slow with my Billows plugged in but I didn’t need it. My range was 250 range but I’m pretty sure I overshot the temp. I always fill my charcoal basket and do the minion method with it. I bury a few chunks is in the pile. I put 50 coals in my starter, which was probably a full load and dump them in the middle on top of a chunk of wood. Nowadays I’d maybe start with half of that. It was 50 degrees In Chicago that day. I kept the vents open until I got close to my range and then shut them all off except the top. Once the temp stabilized I then opened one of them a little. Cook time was about 5 hours and it was delicious. I pulled these notes from my cook log, the one my sister makes fun of me for carrying. Who’s laughing now?

[bbqLuv]

My Big takeaway is don't over-clean the pit.

[jfmorris]

I've only made burnt ends AFTER smoking a whole brisket, and separating the point. When I did it, I cubed the already smoked point up into 1 to 1.5 inch chunks, then used my cast iron skillet to "brown" the exposed sides, tossing them around a bit in the hot skillet. I seasoned them well on all sides with the rub - basically tossing them, and then smoked for 1-2 hours in a disposable foil pan (or two) on my smoker at 225F. Put the cubed meat in the pan, drizzle BBQ suace over it, sprinkle with brown sugar, and cut up a stick of butter and put the "pats" of butter all around the pan. Smoke until its a nice caramelized sweet sticky mess of morsels of goodness. I've also done this with a point smoked the day before until probe tender, pulling it out of the fridge, cubing it and making the burnt ends as a day 2 appetizer on a long weekend.

If doing a point from scratch for this, and if you want to speed the process up, you might get away with how I do pork belly burnt ends:

First - dry brine the points overnight. Then, cube the RAW meat up into maybe slightly larger peices - 1.5 inches or slightly larger. It will shrink as it cooks. Toss all of those in your rub, and put them on the smoker until your instant read thermometer says they are about 160F internally. This should take a couple of hours with small peices. They should have bark on all sides. THEN skip the browning process in skillet, and go directly to foil pans with the sauce, brown sugar and butter, and smoke until bubbly and goes, and about 205F or more when probed - probably 1 to 2 hours.

I've done this and folks were fishing them out of the hot pans, still on my kettle or kamado...

Temperature does not matter much as long as you can keep the WSM somewhere between 225 and 275 you will be fine.

[ecowper]

THis is how I do pork belly burnt ends also. The key is going to be getting the WSM running at a nice steady 250F. That's pretty easy to do.

[ecowper]

First, let's get your WSM set up to run at 250F, give or take. It doesn't have to be perfect. Anywhere from 225 to 275 is great. The key is stable temps in that range.

The way I do that on my WSM is to fill the basket full of charcoal, then remove a coffee can sized circle worth of charcoal from the center of the basket. Or, alternatively, put a chimney or coffee can there, then pour the charcoal in. WHen you remove the can/chimney/charcoal, you will have a donut. take the charcoal that would have been in the donut hole and light it. Once it's ashed over nicely, dump it in the donut hole, add your wood chunks, and assemble the WSM. Leave all vents wide open until you hit about 200F and then close them down to about 1/3 to 1/2 open and let the temp come up the rest of the way. Make sure you have the water pan filled. Cook on the top grate. No need to use the fan, in my experience, but that pit probe set up for the top grate is perfect.

Here's some pics of how I set mine up. Bear in mind, I have a WSM 22.5" .... if you have the 18.5 or 14.5, the amounts of charcoal and vent settings will be different. But the concept is the same.

[Henrik]

I'm 100% with ecowper here, this is how I run it too. Rock solid, works every time. No need for a fan and controller, the WSM is holding temps like a champ.

[jjdbike]

I've only made burnt ends AFTER smoking a whole brisket, and separating the point. When I did it, I cubed the already smoked point up into 1 to 1.5 inch chunks, then used my cast iron skillet to "brown" the exposed sides, tossing them around a bit in the hot skillet. I seasoned them well on all sides with the rub - basically tossing them, and then smoked for 1-2 hours in a disposable foil pan (or two) on my smoker at 225F. Put the cubed meat in the pan, drizzle BBQ suace over it, sprinkle with brown sugar, and cut up a stick of butter and put the "pats" of butter all around the pan. Smoke until its a nice caramelized sweet sticky mess of morsels of goodness. I've also done this with a point smoked the day before until probe tender, pulling it out of the fridge, cubing it and making the burnt ends as a day 2 appetizer on a long weekend.

If doing a point from scratch for this, and if you want to speed the process up, you might get away with how I do pork belly burnt ends:

First - dry brine the points overnight. Then, cube the RAW meat up into maybe slightly larger peices - 1.5 inches or slightly larger. It will shrink as it cooks. Toss all of those in your rub, and put them on the smoker until your instant read thermometer says they are about 160F internally. This should take a couple of hours with small peices. They should have bark on all sides. THEN skip the browning process in skillet, and go directly to foil pans with the sauce, brown sugar and butter, and smoke until bubbly and goes, and about 205F or more when probed - probably 1 to 2 hours.

I've done this and folks were fishing them out of the hot pans, still on my kettle or kamado...

Temperature does not matter much as long as you can keep the WSM somewhere between 225 and 275 you will be fine.

Thanks JF, much appreciated!!
Sounds like exactly what I was picturing.
Gonna give it a try!
Funny you mentioned kamado, I’ll have my BGE w/ me. I may use that as I’m much more familiar w/ using that than the WSM.
Ill def post a report.
Best regards.
JD

[jjdbike]

First, let's get your WSM set up to run at 250F, give or take. It doesn't have to be perfect. Anywhere from 225 to 275 is great. The key is stable temps in that range.

The way I do that on my WSM is to fill the basket full of charcoal, then remove a coffee can sized circle worth of charcoal from the center of the basket. Or, alternatively, put a chimney or coffee can there, then pour the charcoal in. WHen you remove the can/chimney/charcoal, you will have a donut. take the charcoal that would have been in the donut hole and light it. Once it's ashed over nicely, dump it in the donut hole, add your wood chunks, and assemble the WSM. Leave all vents wide open until you hit about 200F and then close them down to about 1/3 to 1/2 open and let the temp come up the rest of the way. Make sure you have the water pan filled. Cook on the top grate. No need to use the fan, in my experience, but that pit probe set up for the top grate is perfect.

Here's some pics of how I set mine up. Bear in mind, I have a WSM 22.5" .... if you have the 18.5 or 14.5, the amounts of charcoal and vent settings will be different. But the concept is the same.

Thanks!!!
JD

[ecowper]

Happy to help. Let me know if you need more input.

[jfmorris]

jjdbike Here is the last time I made brisket burnt ends, on the kamado. We had a whole packer for lunch, that I had smoked overnight, and after lunch, I separated the point that was left from the flat, cubed it up, and put it back on the kamado with the burnt end treatment...

Took two pans to hold all the cubed up point from one moderate size packer (probably 16 pounds or so). Note this is the SNS Kamado, and on this cook, I was running it with the SNS basket in there, rather than the fire in the bottom and the ceramic deflector.



Here's the approach I was talking about with my pork belly burnt ends - I smoke them as separate hunks for about 2 hours, then into the pan(s) for about 2 hours.

[jjdbike]

jjdbike Here is the last time I made brisket burnt ends, on the kamado. We had a whole packer for lunch, that I had smoked overnight, and after lunch, I separated the point that was left from the flat, cubed it up, and put it back on the kamado with the burnt end treatment...

Took two pans to hold all the cubed up point from one moderate size packer (probably 16 pounds or so). Note this is the SNS Kamado, and on this cook, I was running it with the SNS basket in there, rather than the fire in the bottom and the ceramic deflector.



Here's the approach I was talking about with my pork belly burnt ends - I smoke them as separate hunks for about 2 hours, then into the pan(s) for about 2 hours.

Hello everyone,

I want to extend my gratitude to everyone here for your invaluable tips.
The Harry Soo interview was very enlightening.
When I went to the butcher shop, I had a change in heart. I'll follow up with another post. if you can, please contribute to that one too.
Thanks again!
Best regards,
JD

[jjdbike]

Sorry for such a long time for report. Traveling, family around (both sons, their wives and 5 grandkids), and wife & I got covid. A lot going on. Anyway, here's the report.

• Got WSM stabilized at 225 w/ good clean smoke (seasoned - not dried oak & cheery chunks)
• Slathered and rubbed flat & point went on WSM. Let roll for 2 1/2 hours. Spritzed and flipped.
• Rolled for an other 1 1/2, spritzed again.
• Temped at 170. Put in pan submersed in preheated (to 200) beef tallow.
• Cooked at 200 for another 2 hours till 205 internal and very probe tender.
• Drained fat, wrapped in butcher paper, double foil, three beach towels for 2 hours.
• Cubed the point (left the flat resting), tossed in Kansas City style sauce, back in oven in pan at 300 for 40 mins, tossing several times.
• Served burnt point ends & sliced flat, smoked pulled pork, slider buns, cole slaw, cowboy beans, potato salad, pickled red onions, jalapeños, hot dill pickles.

Was a real BBQ feast. Big hit. The brisket, even though way small, was so juicy and tender. The confit was a very successful experiment. The only added effort was acquiring the fat, rendering it down to tallow and straining out the bits. Next time I'll smoke the tallow along w/ the meat.

Next up, smoked ribs and sausages.

Best regards!

JD

P.S. A reflection of my second time using WSM, it easy, need to really limit lit coals used in minion, so air leaky, needed to shut the intake vents way down. Does need some gaskets and new upgraded door.