This brisket is driving me bonkers. <looooooong-winded> Sorry!

[realdocBBQ]

Ok, now first - and some of ya'll have figured this out by now - I'm a bit of a data nut. A techno nerd. A gadget freak.

So for this brisket cook, I broke out a Fireboard and 3 TempSpike wireless thermometers. When I fired up the Smoke Vault, I had ELEVEN different temperature readings going for this one brisket. Maybe that's a bit overkill, maybe a bit of a confounding variable, but you'll see where this leads me in a few moments.

This brisket was a nearly 18-pounder from Costco, probably packed about the first week of August, been aging in my fridge in the cryovac. Call it about 50-60 days total, give or take. Definitely felt nice and floppy when I pulled it out of the cryo. I called The Wife into the kitchen to observe the phenomenon of a properly Limp Brisket () - she didn't seem as overtly impressed with it as I was.




Anyways, moving on...

I decided to try something new, seasoningwise. I went with a light to moderate coat of Lowry's Seasoning Salt and plain black pepper - the table grind, I don't have any of that fancy 16 mesh stuff. Lowry's has a lot of salt in it, so I didn't bother to salt it. And I did a pretty light trim on this brisket, leaving a good solid fat cap. My plan was to smoke it fat cap down, since I'm going on the Smoke Vault and the heat is from the bottom, albeit with a water pan in between the heat source and the meat.

Here's the meat after seasoning - no binder. Maybe I should have. I dunno. I've always been a bit ambivalent about binders. Rub seems to stick fine to wet meat to me.
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And now, on to the data and the confounding part...

[realdocBBQ]

I put the brisket on the Smoke Vault about 6PM. Some may not know, the Camp Chef Smoke Vault 24 is a vertical propane smoker with a pan just above the flame for wood chips or chunks, and another larger pan above that you keep filled with water. The shelves start potentially about 8-10" above the water pan, I usually run things about 12-16" above the water. I've been pretty happy with the smoke color and flavor I've been able to get out of this smoker, it definitely allows a much stronger smoke flavor than I get out of my Yoder YS480 pellet grill. And once you get the temps dialed in, it'll hold rock solid for hours. Opening and closing to add or adjust wood chunks for maximum smoke lets air and heat out quickly, but it usually quickly comes right back up to temp and stays solid. It can take a little while to dial in the temp where you want it, though, as the variables of the propane burner, wood chunks smoldering and adding BTUs and the water in the pan all combine to lead to a slow thermal rise early in the cook, sometimes I have to back it down as it creeps upward. And when you add water to the pan later, this is also soaking up some BTUs until the thermal sink saturates. Overall, it's interesting, but kind of neat to mess around with and tweak if you're used to the set-and-forget pellet smoker style. And I've enjoyed my forays into wood chunk management, though I could wish the knob on the bottom for the propane burner didn't have so much play, was a bit tighter and easier to finesse. Small tiny adjustments can lead to 30-40ºF temp changes.

This time I added another new variable - mesquite.

I've been using mostly maple wood chunks and some apple. I like the maple alot, you can actually smell the maple syrup when it's burning. I don't know if it changes the flavor any on the meat, but I like it, and since I've taken to sitting out back and supervising my smoker and tending the wood smoldering (yeah yeah, shut up Stickburners, it's real wood this time!), I enjoy smelling the maple in it. I've probably only got another week or two to be able to sit outside comfortably before it gets too cold here, so I'm milking it.

But I digress - I've always avoided mesquite, because I've heard so many horror stories about how it can be so strong, have a creosote-like flavor and be overpowering, etc. I always associated mesquite with Texas BBQ, but I swear to God, not a single video I think I've ever watched (and I watch a LOT of Meat Porn, as my wife likes to point out) has anyone in TX been using mesquite. It seems like Texas is really all about post oak, not mesquite, after all. So I bought 2 bags (accidentally, actually) of mesquite chunks, and I gotta tell ya - I really really like the smell of this stuff! It's got a pungent aroma unlike anything else, but I can't describe it. A little sweet, a little... I dunno. Just pungent, I guess, but I really enjoy it! We'll see how I enjoy the flavor later on... if this brisket comes out worth a damn.

The problem - so with all my thermometers, I had 3 Fireboard probes and 3 ThempSpike probes in this brisket, and 2 Fireboard probes watching ambient temps on the sides on the shelf below my brisket - maybe 3-4" below? So I had 6 meat readings and 5 ambient readings. I tried to 'pair' my probes together to have a Fireboard and a TempSpike probe near each other, to create a checks and balances kind of system - fail safe, or confirmatory backup system. It worked out pretty well, but it seemed one of my TempSpikes in the flat early on was way higher than everything else, I have to attribute this to the thinner flat and the thicker probe, causing it to read more near the surface. I dunno if that's accurate, but it was my theory. And from previous experience, I have seen those variances kind of flatten out and come together near the stall and the end of the cook.

Tired of reading my novella yet?? The meat of the story continues below...

[GolfGeezer]

You must still be typing, so I'll get the "meat of the story" after golf this morning...

[realdocBBQ]

Yeah, sorry... I'm a long-winder storyteller. <sigh>

[DaveD]

As a fellow data nerd, techno junkie, gadget guy, experimentalist, I say, YES to more data! Bring it on baby! Looking forward to the rest of this story...

[Santamarina]

I also have the Meater, and it’s so nice to be able to monitor hold temps without touching anything.

[realdocBBQ]

Noticed it doesn't work through foil - how it works through a metal or steel smoker, but not through foil, I don't know. But, oh well...

[DaveD]

Not through foil?? Have not had that experience with my Meater...

[realdocBBQ]

Well, I better get to it before the batteries on my wireless keyboard give out.

The problem - I watched this thing cook, sat outside and read on my tablet, drank a couple of beers, added/stirred/changed out chunks of wood for about 5 hours before I gave up the cold and came in and went to bed. I left it with some alarms set on my Fireboard to alert me and it went off about 5.5 hours later at 200ºF on one of the flat thermometers, and the other flat looked within a few degrees. But the point was still reading 160 or so! BOTH the Fireboard AND the TempSpike probes showed my point to be 30ºF below the flat! Holy crap, what to do?

So, I needed more data points, right?? RIGHT!

Out comes the Thermapen!

Sure enough, the Thermapen confirms my greatest fear - the flat is probing like butter, jiggles like the silicone at Panhead John's birthday Hibachi and Cabaret get-together and reads around 200-203ºF. HOWEVER.... the point is reading 160s and 170s and is obviously still very tight!

NOW what do I do??? It's 5:30-6AM, and this is to be eaten in about 12 hours at a cast party/wrap party tonight for our theater group. I can't leave the flat on to dry out, and I can't pull the point at such a low temp, even with a very long hold - it just hasn't gotten high enough, it needs to get to the 190s before I can count on even a long long hold in the 150s to do it any good!

Here's my confirmatory pics and data:

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So what on Earth can I do??? I had planned to use the Smoke Vault as my holding oven, as I can get it down low enough and it holds super steady - but now I have to hold one half and continue to cook the other half.

And that's what I did, against every freaking fiber of my being screaming at me NOT to cut this brisket right now, I pulled out the butcher paper, laid down a couple of layers and separated my point and my flat. The point is wrapped and back on the smoker, with some wagyu tallow in the wrap, the flat is wrapped in towels and in a cooler for now. TempSpikes still running, showing 150s in the flat in the cooler and a total of 4 temp probes in the point right now showing from 172ºF to 184ºF. I just turned up the heat a hair on the Smoke Vault to try to speed things along, I think I'm going to need to put the flat in the oven for a bit, it is creeping downward and I don't want it to stay below 150ºF very long - I need this point to finish so I can turn the Smoke Vault down to 'holding oven temp'.

I'm really worried my flat is going to be uselessly dry. Luckily I'm planning on doing 3 racks of St. Louis on the pellet grill to take tonight as well. I had hoped to do them on the Smoke Vault for extra flavor for a couple of hours and then move them to the pellet grill to finish, but it looks like my Smoke Vault is gonna be tied up at the wrong temps all day for that.

So there's my saga - 12 hours in and the point is 30ºF lower than the flat, had to separate and try to salvage things, hope it works out. <sigh> My reputation is on the line with these theater folks, somehow they think I'm some kind of BBQ GOD because I made some pulled pork for one of our rehearsals and you'd think they'd never had halfway decent BBQ in their lives - never mind how hard it is to f-up pulled pork!!! lol

[WillTravelForFood]

Hibachi and Cabaret get-together --- need more info on this.

[DaveD]

Well, first of all, you're cooking for a theater wrap party. OF COURSE there has to be drama!

Can't think of any other approach than you're taking, to separate the pieces. I'd get some tallow on the flat too while it's holding (keeping temps food safe of course) to mitigate the drying. Having the spares on tap too is a good idea. At this point (sorry), you're gonna have to just wait it out and hope that flat stays in good shape. It might turn out absolutely fine!

Good luck! .....aaaaaaaaand SCENE.

[RiverJeff]

Man I'm on the edge of my seat don't stop now! Keep us informed all the way (Please!!!!)

[CHNeal]

Remember that no matter what its still going to be brisket even if its chopped / pulled on a sammich! The average member of John Q. Public has no idea what we do or how we do it. They just marvel at the magic that is BBQ! They will all be grateful that you took the time to do this for them, and there’s ribs so anyone thats unhappy should have to eat peanut butter and jelly!

[Sid P]

Man, BBQ really is a black hole. A guy gets a $400 propane smoker for an amazing $99, presumably so he can run it semi unattended, and a couple months later he has 11 probes running into god knows how many devices, a $77 brisket that now looks like a pin cushion, and presumably a giant headache from trying to make sense of the data. All before 6am on a Saturday! 😎👏👋👍😅. God, I really love this place.

BTW, it was too cold to golf this morning, so I’ll be following along. Keep up the good work!

[Clark]

I feel asleep while reading chapter 3.

[RonB]

What wass the temp of the flat under the point when you separated them? It seems to me that the part of the flat covered by the point should have been lower than the fully exposed flat.

[Richard Chrz]

What I’ve learned, everything generally works itself out in the end.I love probes and data, but I rely on experience to calm down any "what the heck’s" when watching data.

[STEbbq]

So how did it all turn out? We are all dying with suspense over here.

[texastweeter]

I laughed several times reading this. The vault runs hotter around the edges, did the flat get closer to the wall than the point? How much thinner than the point was the flat? Did you inject?

[Clawbear57]

Well...............!

[Santamarina]

…guessing things didn’t go so well with the theater folks. Dangerous lot, those thespians.