Ladies and Gentlemen, Start Your Coals! The Memorial Day Brisket Cook Begins….

[Panhead John]

Well folks, the big day is finally here…Amazing Ribs 2023 Memorial Day Brisket Cook! Here’s the place to post all your brisket pictures. From lighting the coals [or wood/pellets] all the way to your final sliced pics. Got pics of your trimmed brisket? Before and after? Show us! Something I think a lot of us might be interested in as well, is how much fat, in lbs., you trimmed off your brisket. If you’re able to, tell us how much your brisket weighed before and after trimming. If you want to take it even further, how much did it weigh after cooking? I’d be curious as to how much, as an example let’s say, a 12 lb. brisket weighed after trimming and cooking. I think this would be a great way to help people judge how many people their brisket might feed for future cooks!

As was mentioned in an earlier post, the brisket cook off will start today and go through the following weekend too, June 4th. This will give anyone who can’t make it now, plenty of time to participate. If you’ve already done your cook, go ahead and post it here for us to see. Also, we know there’s some people who just can’t do a whole or half brisket cook, just too much meat for them. That’s ok! If you’re doing pastrami or corned beef, post away! Beef ribs, Chuck roast…..aww, what the hell, go ahead! Just remember, NO DAMN CHICKEN WINGS!…….😂

[rlozinak]

Pick up a Angus brisket for the cook off.

[Livermoron]

Tri tip okay? I had a special request from a co worker...

[Panhead John]

If you don’t tell anyone…..ok. 😁

[Jerod Broussard]

I just transferred my Tri tip to the refrigerator for defrosting. I won't tell on you if you don't tell on me.

[Richard Chrz]

I cut off 4 lbs in trimming. It’s dry brining right now. Likely need to trim a bit more still. Should be going on tomorrow evening.

[Panhead John]

I’ll edit my comments….Good trimming job! Brisket looks good for being uncooked. 😂

[Clawbear57]

I have faith in you Richard Chrz .

[texastweeter]

I have same scale...well I have 3 different ones, one for general cooking (that ine) one for baking, and a fancy one for coffee.

[DaveD]

Ready to go! We are having spectacular weather here in northern Virginia with highs in the low 70sF/low 20sC, dew points around 40F/4C, and only a light breeze under lightly cloudy skies. Today is our 22nd wedding anniversary, and my lovely bride just knocked off for the day/week. Our plumbing disaster has been abated, we're dry and fully functional w/new HVAC, and no workers are coming into the house for at least a week. We've raised Deflectors To Full Intensity against any news, safely ensconced in our Bubble until Tuesday.

Here's my 11.5lb/5.2kg Choice brisket from Wild Fork, from which I trimmed a bit over 2lb/~1kg. I'll try to remember to get a weight when it goes to rest.






Dry-brined it yesterday afternoon, it'll have about 30 hours before it goes on. Shortly before I'll hit it with a 2:1:1 mix of coarse ground pepper, granulated garlic, & onion powder.



Got the SnS all set up to fire up about 9pm tonight. Running B&B charcoal with some hickory chunks. I'll aim to reach a range of about 200-225F/93-107C both to extend the life of the coals and to lessen the risk of something getting out of hand. B&B are very steady and slow burning, so I am confident things will be fine all night, even without a fan controller thingamajig. Then I'll fire up the Pit Boss pellet smoker first thing in the morning, put the brisket in a foil boat, and let the hands-free rig take it the rest of the way. When it's probe tender, I'll drop the set point to keep it between 150-175F/65-80C, cover loosely with foil, and let it rest until dinnertime.



Our fine weather is forecast to continue until late Saturday night/Sunday morning, so I am really lucking out there. See ya mañana!






I reserve the right to post a picture of fire late tonight...

[Michael_in_TX]

Absolutely! If anyone deserves brisket this weekend, it is Dave!

[Jerod Broussard]

I've cooked enough to know he deserved to have someone else trim it. Michael_in_TX

[DaveD]

Ah well, there was some zen involved in the trimming... a very straightforward task with a clear outcome. I enjoyed it

[captainlee]

Just trimmed mine, 14.63 lb, 3 3/4 lb of trim. I'll hold off pics until the cook. Going into the smoker tomorrow evening.

[Michael_in_TX]

And here I go! 18 lb Choice brisket ($1.87/lb....please do not suck!). I ended up trimming about 6 lbs off of it, perhaps more aggressively than I should have. I am actually thinking of rendering the tallow out tonight. Will dry brine the brisket in Holy Cow over night.

[Clawbear57]

Why use Holy Cow?

[Michael_in_TX]

Clawbear57 Of all of the commercial rubs I've tried, it is just speaks "Texas" to me. Very pepper forward.

[texastweeter]

Save that fat. Sausage is a wonderful thing.

[tstalafuse]

I will update my post on Monday since things are already kicking off. Hopefully, I will still be wearing my big boy pants..

This cook turned out to be a lot more difficult than anticipated and apparently the odds were not in our favor with no calls. The weather was forecasted to be partly cloud with low wind and no chance of rain. Instead, during the cook it was thunder/lightning, 3-4 inches of rain, hail, with 60mph straight line winds. I am not sure who was worse, me or the weather forecasters. Fortunately, the weather cleared in time for the turn ins, but we then got baked and sun burned....

Chicken thighs.


Pulled pork


Ribs.
Brisket


Finally, Panhead John, I am not wearing any pants today..

[Panhead John]

Please…..wear some type of pants.

[acorgihouse]

At least wear them in the photos, we don't want any accidental sightings!

[smokin fool]

Got Briskie McBrisket all trimmed up and dry rubbed fer this extravaganza.
Be up at 5:30 to spark up the Keg hope to have the coals ready so the meat goes on for 6.
Other that that....see where it goes....

[Panhead John]

Looks good, I like that 1836 rub! I bought some based on a recommendation from you and someone else.

[smokin fool]

Thank you, I actually ran outta the real McCoy for the 1836, did a bit of Goggling and came up with equal parts of Kosher salt and coarse ground black pepper.
Add to that a rounded tablespoon of garlic powder, onion powder and paprika.
May not earn me a cigar but its pretty darn close to the real thing.

[Clawbear57]

Looking forward to cook.

[Michael_in_TX]

Had to take a break after the trimming, but here is mine all seasoned up for a 24 hour dry-brine in the fridge. Light mustard binder (Whataburger mustard, because Texas), a good coating of 16-mesh, followed by the most glorious beef rub on the planet, Meat Church's Holy Cow.

[klflowers]

+1on Meat Church

[Michael_in_TX]

Ghawtho I like a heavily seasoned brisket, but even a cup is bit much for me. I use a yellow mustard binder primarily so that it is easy to see what is covered by seasoning and what isn't. This helps keep me from overseasoning. On this 15 lb (after trimming) brisket, I probably used 1/2 cup in total. And yes, I seasoned the fat cap as well....which after the 18 hour smoke, held on to its bark just fine.

[Ghawtho]

@Michael_in_TX
Thanks for the information on seasoning. My membership is up for renewal in August and at that time am going to leave the group. I went 4 months through fall and
winter and never visited the site.

[smokenoob]

I didn’t get the memo 😂

[Donw]

5%? I hear John has a pile of 20% off coupons for everyone from Bed Bath and Beyond.

[Panhead John]

Donw Good one!….😂

[texastweeter]

Some custom PJ plates?

[Alan Brice]

Nearly 17 lbs to start. Cut the flat off n SV appx 60 hrs. Saved the point for Chili. CharLogs n KBB after ice bath. 43 degrees back up to over 180. Pulled n sliced. One of my fav.

[TheCountofQ]

You speak of the B&B Charlogs?? I bought a bag of those once, but really preferred the briquettes to them for the HB. Having recently purchasing the KBQ, I was considering giving them another try. They look to be about the right size. Do you start with wood, then switch to Charlogs for a heat source later in the cook?

[Alan Brice]

TheCountofQ I start with 3-5 unlit CharLogs lining the outside wall of my kettle. Fill in with any un burned leftover toward the center and if I am not in a hurry, 10 - 25 unlit KBB for the head of the snake. I use one or two "Biomass Cubes" at the very head. light
those and place my wood for smoke on the top of the snake. Place grill let all heat up. Then on with the protein. See picture #2. the white briqs are KBB. The wood is leftover hardwood maple scraps. Works great. 235 - 250.

[TheCountofQ]

Cool. Funny though.... for whatever reason, my brain interpreted KBB as KBQ! Was thinking you used these in a KBQ, thus my question.

[DaveD]

Soon...

[DaveD]

It is happening.



NOW we'll see ya mañana.

[smokin fool]

Da bull is on da barbie....
Trimmed and dry brined Briskie McBrisket overnight with my rendition of Texas 1836 rub on one side and Pepper Palace Brisket rub my son brought back from Dallas a few weeks ago.
Trying something from Aaron Franklin's playbook, just a dusting of Lawrys seasoned salt one one side only.
Cooking on Visions lump with mesquite chunks and maple chips, combo did great on some pork butts I did last week.
She's cold crisp and clear up here, single digits for sure but just a wisp of a breeze.
Like to run the Keg at 280 to 300, see what kinda mood she's in today....theres a female cardinal on the fence about 2 feet way from me right now, just beautiful, try to move slow and get a pic