OBX Bound Brisket

[WayneT]

I’m smoking a small, 3.2 lb (after trimming) brisket flat to take to the OBX where my brother and SIL live. This is my first brisket on the Copperhead 5 and will be my longest cook yet on it.


This was a 4.1 lb choice brisket from Costco from which I trimmed 0.9 lbs of fat, leaving a 3.2 lb hunk o’ meat for the four of us over the weekend.


I used the MH BBB rub on it and have my Copperhead 5 set at 250F, with an expected grate temp of 225F. I plan to use just water in the water pan to keep it moist and see how that goes. I haven’t decided yet whether I will blow through the stall unwrapped or crutch it. I will let time and temperature guide me in that.

DaveD, any pearls of wisdom from you given your experience with the CH 5?

[DaveD]

Good luck Wayne! I've done just one full brisket and one point thus far, so it's a very limited database. I'd do just what you're doing, aiming for a 225F grate temp and let it run. I did use a foil boat on my brisket and it came out fabulous, but I've not done one wrap-less for comparison. I did my full brisket overnight as well, but you likely wouldn't need to do that for a cut this size.

Looking forward to seeing how it comes out!

[WayneT]

I’ve never done a foil boat so I’ll add that to my options. Thanks!

[RonB]

Lookin' good. We have been going to the OBX every summer - sometimes twice for over 35 years. Still haven't found any great Q down there...

[WayneT]

Oddly, the best Q seems to be at least 90 minutes inland and due west from Whalebone Junction. Not sure why it’s never migrated further east up in that area of NC.

[rlozinak]

Sounds like you have a good plan! Good luck

[RiverJeff]

Please keep the notes and pics coming! Looking Great! I also have only 2 under my belt!

[WayneT]

The pellet pooper is holding temp extremely well.


About 1.5 hours into the cook.

[WayneT]

About 3.5 hours in, it’s stalled around 160F.



Bark is looking good.

[WayneT]

Foil boat deployed.


Since this is my first attempt at this method, I have to ask, how is a foil boat different than a shallow foil pan for this application? I’m guessing the sides of the boat should ‘hug’ the brisket closely. That’s the way I designed it.

[WayneT]

Into another stall around 185F.


But that bark is looking strong!

[CHNeal]

That looking great! May I ask what OBX is?

[Jfrosty27]

The Outer Banks.

[WayneT]

What Jfrosty27 said. It's a strip of barrier islands off the coast of NC that extend from the VA line all the way to Wilmington, NC. It forms a treacherous navigational challenge to ships and is known as the Graveyard of the Atlantic because of the many shipwrecks strewn up and down the coast. It is rumored that Blackbeard himself (Edward Teach) visited the area and there is a small town about 75 miles inland named Teachey, in his dubious honor.

[WayneT]

At 200F IT, this brisket is probing tender all over.


Time for a 2 hour rest in the small oven.

[WayneT]

As an epilogue to the brisket part of this post, it was delicious but I would have liked for it to have been more moist. I'll chalk it up to be a small and thin flat although I did have water in the pan the entire cook.

[DaveD]

I somehow missed this when it was happening...! Agree with your assessment. And yep, the boat is meant to hug the meat as you did it, that's the idea. These cookers are extremely stable, that's for sure...

[WayneT]

Agreed Dave. I was really impressed with the performance. I'll either spritz a small flat next time of maybe inject.

[WayneT]

On the way home...

We stopped by here to see what all the hoopla is about.


This is the original in Greenville, NC owned by Sam Jones, the 3rd generation of his family to cook whole hog, pit smoked BBQ with eastern NC sauce. He's a direct descendant of the founder of the Skylight Inn in Ayden.


Where the magic happens.


Where the magic is plated and served up. That table directly in front is loaded with probably 20-30 lbs of chopped BBQ.


In all my years of growing up in eastern NC, I never ate at a BBQ joint that served beer, until today. It's in the bible belt so not surprising but beer with BBQ is heavenly. Can I get an amen?


Mari Jo and I got a two meat combo plate - chopped/pulled BBQ pork and ribs with house made chips and sweet cabbage slaw as a side. In addition to never having a beer with eastern NC BBQ until today, I'm pretty sure all the BBQ I've ever eaten there was hickory smoked. Jones' is smoked with NC oak and has a much milder flavor profile. I actually had to ask about this because if I hadn't read about it I would have thought that it wasn't smoked at all. This was good but I will have to work on my acceptance of oak-smoked pork Q. Overall it was a great experience and the hoopla is justified.

Since we were so close to my hometown of Goldsboro, we decided to go to the largest, most ostentatious display of pork products anywhere in the world, Nahunta Pork Center.


If you want something made from a pig and this place doesn't have it, it ain't fit to eat. Seriously, they have anything from cured hams, to chittlins, to souse meat, to tom thumb, to whole pig quarters.

On the trip back from the OBX, we also stopped by a local seafood place in Columbia, NC. The complete shopping haul is shown below.


From top right going clockwise: Six lbs. of pork neck bones, a pound+ of liver pudding (liver mush), tuna steaks, snapper fillet, 3 lbs of NC shrimp and 2 grouper fillets. I broke the neck bones down into two de-boned 1 lb vac-sealed bags for grinding and using in Bolognese ragu and one larger bag of bone-in. I'll quarter the liver pudding; my wife is not a fan. Broke the shrimp down into 5 vac-sealed bags and froze the snapper and grouper. There is definitely some surf and sty in our future.

[DaveD]

You clearly made the most of your road trip...

[RonB]

The Skylight Inn has been on my bucket list for a long time, and I have wondered if Nahunta would be worth a stop too.

[WayneT]

RonB If you’re headed to Greenville/Ayden, Nahunta is only another 30-45 minutes southwest along some pretty hard core back roads. Bring a cooler! Their website doesn’t do justice to the selection of what you can buy there. I paid $2.19/lb for those neck bones if that gives you any indication of comparative pricing.