This weekend I practiced doing another brisket. This was the third one I've done now and it turned out decent like the others. This time I injected it with no sodium beef broth (about 2oz. worth) and salted it 24 hours in advance. Previously I had only done the dry brine alone. It was also the first time I got a full packer from Sam's and trimmed it into 3 pieces. The point is still brining to turn into corned beef which will then become pastrami. The flat was cut into two pieces and one of these was the one cooked. The last piece is vacuum sealed for another day.
I put it on the Weber kettle with Slow-n-Sear at 8:30am and it went from 40° to 150° in about 2 hours if I remember correctly. At 2pm with the temp just reaching 160° I wrapped it in butcher paper to help it along. The temp dropped to 149° and it took a little over an hour to get back to 160°. At 4pm, I cranked the heat up from around 240° to 350° and the temp started slowly rising again. It hit 200° at 5:30pm and I pulled it off and put it in a cooler wrapped in a towel for an hour.
When sliced up it had a great bark and the thinner edges made for some good burnt ends. It had a slight smoke ring but not as much as some other cooks, but it tasted great. I didn't notice that the injecting made any difference as it was still a bit on the dry side. Not horribly dry but I was thinking it would be a bit less dry than the two previous attempts. It seemed about the same in that regard.
It still made a great meal and there are leftovers for other meals this week! I suppose I'll just have to keep practicing some more (oh darn!). But that will wait a bit more as this weekend it should be time to try the pastrami.
I put it on the Weber kettle with Slow-n-Sear at 8:30am and it went from 40° to 150° in about 2 hours if I remember correctly. At 2pm with the temp just reaching 160° I wrapped it in butcher paper to help it along. The temp dropped to 149° and it took a little over an hour to get back to 160°. At 4pm, I cranked the heat up from around 240° to 350° and the temp started slowly rising again. It hit 200° at 5:30pm and I pulled it off and put it in a cooler wrapped in a towel for an hour.
When sliced up it had a great bark and the thinner edges made for some good burnt ends. It had a slight smoke ring but not as much as some other cooks, but it tasted great. I didn't notice that the injecting made any difference as it was still a bit on the dry side. Not horribly dry but I was thinking it would be a bit less dry than the two previous attempts. It seemed about the same in that regard.
It still made a great meal and there are leftovers for other meals this week! I suppose I'll just have to keep practicing some more (oh darn!). But that will wait a bit more as this weekend it should be time to try the pastrami.
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