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**Draznnl** · July 4, 2021, 03:49 PM

I keep saying I'm going to SVQ my next brisket and then chickening out and just smoking it. Yours looked great gdsim1. I think it has given me the kick in the butt to do it. Nice job!

**Santamarina** · July 5, 2021, 12:35 AM

Been eyeing that sous vide kit from Costco. Are you happy with it?

**Ahumadora** · July 5, 2021, 01:07 AM

Meathead needs to post this on the front page to promote the pit. Yep, there are some sleuth's who know how to produce excellent food lurking here..

**Elton's BBQ** · July 5, 2021, 01:26 AM

Thanks for sharing.. Will be tried!

**realdocBBQ** · July 5, 2021, 08:17 AM

So... some interesting info here, and I'd like to pick your brain a little.

In addition, some points I noted I'd like to bring up, and please don't take this as criticism in the least, as I am learning here as much (or more!) than anybody.

First, the 'critique'. Look at the pic above, there's not real close-up, so I take your word on the juiciness tenderness (not that you can tell tenderness from a picture). But I'll be honest that looking at those slices of brisket, they don't really get me salivating. I think the biggest part of it for me is that it looks like an oven-cooked brisket - no smoke ring. Probably I've just been 'conditioned' from all the world class Q pics I see here and other places, but how did it taste and smell in relation to a normally-smoked brisket? How about the smoke flavor??

Now, I'm no brisket champion, and I know it's a hard thing to cook... I've even done one sous vide that did not come out well for me. I can't remember now, I think I did that one as a "medium rare", so probably 132 or so for either 48 or 72 hours. It just didn't work, it did not break down the collagen and connective tissues and was not smooth, unctuous and tender. And that was a Prime from Costco - about all I ever buy.

So, secondly you mentioned you did a trial run earlier in the week and there was a major difference. Do you truly believe the only thing that made the huge difference was going from 24 hours on the trial run to 30 hours on the second one? Nothing else different? Both were just choice flats? I know, sometimes there is large variability between otherwise seemingly identical cuts of meat. I truly love the point meat so much more than the flat meat, typically, but I have in some cases had it so tender it literally fell apart and made it hard to eat or to make burnt ends out of. It just shredded when I tried to cut it properly.

Lastly, do you (or anyone else reading this novel

) think doing the QVQ method might help in terms of the smoke ring formation? Specifically, and I'm going from memory here, but I'm going to go back and look at some tutorials, I'm looking for a good smoke ring and good bark. I use a pellet smoker, so my bark is never super solid, unless I've overcooked the brisket and dried it out, which I have done more than once and been super unhappy. But it also seems when I wrap it, my bark just gets soft and mushy and will actually rub off when I'm trying to cut it. This is really frustrating, especially if you use something you paid good money for - like Harry Soo's rub I spent like $50 on. You said you pulled it at 191ÂºF because you were afraid you'd overcooked it, but did it take that long to get the bark back up to a decent texture? Did you feel the bark was mushy and slippery when you pulled it out of the SV bath? You said you did an ice bath, how long did you chill it, and did you take it all the way down to fridge temp before removing it from the bath? Was it cold when you put it back on the smoker, what wat the internal temp?

Sorry for all the questions, but I'm really interested in this and would love to be able to do an entire brisket this way, although I'm afraid a point would just fall apart. I've been trying to make a good brisket for several years. Other people say mine is 'great', but I know better - at best, mine have been just 'passable' up till now. It doesn't help that my wife isn't too fond of brisket, so I don't get to cook it that often. <sigh>

Hopefully I haven't overwhelmed you with my n00bnees.

**gdsim1** · July 5, 2021, 02:24 PM

Originally posted by tRidiot View Post

So... some interesting info here, and I'd like to pick your brain a little.

Hey pal! 😃 Cut your post down for brevity using the quote function so I don’t hit the silly character limit here. No need to apologize for questions (that’s how we all learn and get better, me included), and nothing you said was taken as criticism. You hit on a number of points I wanted to discuss, so this is a good thing. 👍

Diving in, and if I miss any questions (or you think of more) by all means let me know….

The smoke ring - you’re 100% correct that it is nonexistent. 😊 This was a surprise to me too, as well as a bit of a pucker moment when I sliced it. I think it resulted from one of my conundrums during the cook - this baby is only going to be in the smoker for three hours. To get that good deep smoke ring, the surface of the meat needs to have some moisture on it (smoke loves moisture) but that moisture also impedes bark development. 🤔

I had a choice to make, so I chose to keep the surface dry and go for the good bark - with the thought that I could go hard on the smoke (and Lord did I, with mesquite and post oak) and hopefully get a ring. The bark came out really well, and I’m pleased to report the flavor of the smoke was definitely in there and at an appropriate level, but the ring? Not a hint of it.

You also asked about the taste and smell compared to a normally smoked brisket - every bit as good, and possibly better.

You mentioned not being pleased with a brisket you did "medium rare" style - I chose not to go that route after watching a Guga YouTube video during which they did a side by side comparison and agreed that the traditional style was the winner. I also had the thought that "If you want a medium rare piece of beef, cook a nice steak - I’m cooking brisket here!" 🤣🤣🤣 Part of the challenge of making a good brisket is cooking it that deeply and still having it come out super tender and juicy, so that’s what I was working towards. 👍

The differences between the trial run cook versus the big win cook on Saturday - indeed the length of the cook was the biggest difference and it was a SIGNIFICANT difference. The 24 hour trial run turned out a perfectly acceptable brisket… good, but hovering just above the border of being dry… pull apart, but you had to tug a little. The 30 hour cook was perfection - so juicy it overflowed the juice grooves of the cutting board, pull apart was the same amount of tug as tearing a piece of white bread apart, but not so far that it affected the slicing (it sliced easily with no "flaking apart" for lack of a better term).

The only other differences were all on the finish. 24 hour brisket got no rub post-SV and was seared using a Searzall (weekday dinner cook, and I didn’t have time to smoke for three hours), 30 hour brisket got a light sprinkle of Meat Mitch all purpose rub and was smoked for the 2:45 I mentioned. I have a hard time believing either of those things made as significant of a difference to the finished product as the additional SV time… but the PBC has been known to impart some magic during other cooks, so I suppose it’s possible. ðŸ¤·â€â™‚ï¸

Your final batch of questions hit on a couple points that caused my highest pucker factors during the cook. The first was the ice bath… I used plenty of ice and water and it was fully submerged, but it wasn’t in there very long - 30, 45 minutes or however long it took me to get the PBC fired up. When I went back in to grab the meat, the ice had all melted - uh oh, did I let this thing get cooled down enough?!? 😖 But being pressed for time to get the brisket plated at a decent hour I rolled with it. Got it down to about ~100F from the chart below… I think that’s probably considerably warmer than it should’ve been since you can put things in the fridge for up to a week before smoking, but I have no point of reference.

The second pucker factor had to do with the bark formation you asked about, with respect to the internal temp of the meat. Checked it at an hour, nothing. Hour and a half, nothing. Two hours, very little. Meanwhile I’m watching the internal temp go up and up and up… on one hand, I just capped this thing at an IT of 155F in the sous vide… is that what I should be shooting for? ðŸ¤·â€â™‚ï¸ On the other hand, I usually start probing for tenderness around 190-195F when I straight smoke a brisket. Again I had no point of reference… and no bark… and no choice lol… so I just let it go.

Two and a half hours, alright NOW we’re starting to get somewhere with the bark! 😊 2:45 and at 197F the color was right where I wanted it and the bark was looking good so I pulled it off, tented and rested for about 30 minutes.

Still had that jiggle we all look for when I set it on the cutting board before tenting (maybe I didn’t ruin it after all)… probed it with the meat thermometer and got that "hot knife into butter" feel we all hope for (hey, I MIGHT have pulled this off)… saw the bark hold true when I started the slice (another good sign, come on baby)… saw the juice come rolling out when I completed the first slice (OMG I really think I pulled this off)… tugged that first slice apart with everything but no resistance (OMG OMG OMG OMG)… then popped that first "pitmaster privelege" bite in my mouth and immediately started a happy dance! 😃🙌ðŸ•ºðŸ•ºðŸ•º

And I know where you’re coming from - I would always get compliments on (and requests for) my brisket over the years, but on every single one of them I ALWAYS felt there was SOMETHING that could’ve been better about a given brisket ("could’ve been a little juicier…", "bark could’ve been better…", "should’ve used a different wood…"). I’m always my own worst critic.

This one was THE first where I sat back and said "That’s it. There’s not a thing I’d change about it if I could." I reckon for a perfectionist / own worst critic type, when you blow yourself away? What else is there? 😊ðŸ’â€â™‚ï¸

Hope this helps some, and that I got all your questions answered. If there’s more or you just want to chat some more about it I’m game - like most folks here I can talk â€˜cue for days and never get tired of it. 👍

Attached Files

**realdocBBQ** · July 10, 2021, 04:26 PM

Very very helpful response, thanks a ton.

I'm still a bit flummoxed by your 24-hour cook - the fact it was actually less juicy than the real deal 30hour cook does make me think at least a portion of the difference was probably attributable to differences in the meat. That old tough cow we can't really plan or account for.

Thanks a ton for your response, it really helps me a lot.

**fzxdoc** · August 10, 2021, 07:57 AM

Originally posted by tRidiot View Post

Maybe I need to try this... I did sous vide pork butt this weekend and I was quite disappointed with the results. It was mushy, the meat shredded easily, but I was just... mushy and almost flavorless, in spite of me going very VERY heavy on both the salt AND the rub.

I'll never do pork butt that way again, and now I've got like 7 lbs of flavorless mushy meat to figure out if there's a way to salvage it.

BTW, I follow Guga's recipe on Sous Vide Everything on YouTube. I don't think he's ever had good pork butt if he thought that was good. UGH!

Smoking pork butts has spoiled my family for PB done any other way. Pork is essentially a blank canvas for picking up or being covered by flavors that we throw at it.

Last winter, in a fit of pandemic lockdown laziness, I Crock Potted a PB, following a recipe I thought might taste good. Meh. Very little flavor and stringy texture.

The good thing was that I packaged it up in 1lb vacuum sealed packets. We ate that thing up as BBQ PB sammies whenever I was in a crunch for what to make for supper over the coming weeks. I just pulled out a PB packet, popped the meat in a pan (usually fridge-defrosted first), added a fav BBQ sauce to the meat, whipped up some slaw, and served it all on buns. Quick and delicious sammies. That took the overcooked stringy PB to something quite tasty in minutes.

Lesson learned: I'll never not smoke a PB again.

Kathryn

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