Hello from Northern Michigan

[morairtym]

So I have always loved BBQ but it was not until last year in November when I cut carbs out of my diet that my BBQ craze started. I stumbled on this website back in February and have tried out a few things on my Weber grill. So far i have made some of the best pulled pork and ribs I have ever tasted. I have also smoked some wings.

I ended up building an 55g drum smoker, used it once and the thing about drove me insane the thing could not hold a steady temperature to save my life. I picked up a BBQ Guru Cyber Wifi and now it can hold 225 without keeping me up all night.

I smoked 2 pork shoulders for the office, and made some of the KC Classic Barbecue Sauce. They almost drank the stuff out of the bottle, I have requests to make extra for some people the next time I need to make more. I pointed them to the site but they still want me to make it go figure.

I was given 2 small 2 lb brisket flats, needless to say the flats came out a bit dry.

I ended up picking a whole packer brisket last weekend to smoke Thursday night for a party on Friday. It's been trimmed and salted.

Now all that's left to do is rub latter tonight or tomorrow once I get home and toss it on.

Any recommendations? I have read meatheads guide to Texas Brisket. I think I'll inject it but not sure if/when I should wrap.

[fuzzydaddy]

Welcome to the Pit! I'm not experienced with briskets. I'm sure others will chime in.

[smarkley]

Welcome Aboard @morairtym

[Jon Solberg]

WELCOME! So cool to see Michigan rising to the top of the pit. What part of Northern MI you hail from?

[morairtym]

Traverse City Area.

[Huskee]

I live in Farwell, west of Clare 6 miles or so. TC is my wife & I's favorite MI city, we're there several times/yr. In fact, might be headed up there Mon to see Tonic & Toad the Wet Sprocket.

[Jon Solberg]

Very Cool. I'm an east sider. Standish and south. So glad you here!

[jcrouse]

Welcome. I did 12 years in GR. Have been gone for 5 now. Wife really misses the lake shore.

[DWCowles]

Welcome to the Pit

[Beefchop]

We've got Traverse City in the House! I grew up in Gladwin. BBQ is great for the paleo crowd. Welcome to the pit.

[Huskee]

Lol, I forgot you grew up in Gladwin, so did I. Small world. Two Pitmaster Club Members who grew up in the same small town, roughly the same time period. I know we had this conversation a year ago...Forgive me, there's been a lot of posts and a lot of meeting people since then.

[Spinaker]

If you bought a PRIME brisket, you don't need to inject. I always wrap mine, but that is just to cut down on the time. You can wrap at 165 F like Meat head says, but I usually take it to 175-180 F just to get extra bark and to prevent the BRIZ from turning into roast beef in the foil. I like really thick black bark on my briskets. So for me, its worth the extra time unwrapped. Just my two cents.
Good Luck, and Welcome to the PIT
-John

[Huskee]

I hear you Spin. I'm not a big fan of mondo thick chewy bark on pork butts, but for brisket when it's sliced thin you NEED that thin sliver of bark on each slice to take it from 7 to 10!

[The Burn]

Welcome. I also kicked into high BBQ gear when I went virtually carb free last fall. As my GF would say, meat is my life.

Everyone has different opinions on brisket. Having cut my BBQ teeth in Austin, my rub is just salt & pepper, fairly even amounts. I don't inject. I wrap when I've got a good bark formed, not necessarily at the stall. On my last good brisket, which was a 6 lb flat, I wrapped at 185 and it hit 205 in 90 minutes. Whole packers can be tricky since you've usually got such different thicknesses and fat content. I separate them and take them both to 203-205 individually.

Good luck. Take pictures.

[Usernamevalid]

Another Michiganderiteanian. Welcome!

[Huskee]

So THAT's what we're called...

[Usernamevalid]

I can never decide...

[smarkley]

That is a mouthful!

I cant even figure out how to pronounce .... I been imbibing too, that should have helped!

[Munch]

Welcome from another MI new guy. Diagonally south of you, just north of the town where the Tigers play. Or the Murder Capitol of Michigan. Whichever 😜

[Huskee]

Detroit is the most dangerous city in the entire USA per capita, according to this site: http://patch.com/michigan/birmingham...st-dangerous-0 although I make no claims as to which poll is most accurate.

[Munch]

I kind of thought so... In the top 3 anyway.

[JeffJ]

Welcome from another Michigander. I live in the Brighton area (between Ann Arbor and Flint) but my parents have a place in Boyne City on Lake Charlevoix and I will be up there for a 3 days this weekend for Boyne Thunder. Traverse City is fantastic and we sometimes make our way over there for a day trip. Glad to have you in the pit.

[morairtym]

Well keeping this a bit short because I'm on my phone. Last weekends brisket turned out great.

It was a usda choice packers cut. I keep mine whole and ended up injecting the fat separating the 2 cuts with beef broth.

Ended up tossing it on at about 10pm. I stayed up until 2pm and set an alarm for 8:30. It was already up to 182 at that point was kinda hoping it would have stalled out a bit so I could go back to sleep. I wrapped it and put it back on tell it hit 203. That was at 10am.

Party started at 5pm so it stayed in the foil got wrapped in some bath towels and went in a pre heated cooler for 7 hours.

I separated the flat and point. Wrapped the point backup and placed it in the cooler. The flat got cut into strips. I will say it's hard to cut it up without eating it.

The point was latter placed in the fridge and eaten over the course of the week.

All in all it turned out great. Im sorry I didn't have pictures but I do have another one @16lb that's getting smoked next week.

Some how this did not stay short.