My First Big Brisket

[HotSun]

Instead of trying to squeeze this into a SUWYC post, I want to put this particular cook here and add to it as I wrap things up, pun not intended. I finally picked up a copy of Meathead's book (the one on the right side of this webpage 👉👉👉) and used that as a reference, but I did not follow the recipe/method. I am using a lot of what I learned here, particularly from Kathryn ( fzxdoc ) and Huskee .

I am not an expert in smoking brisket and this is only the third I've ever smoked (though I've done a lot of corned beef using other methods). I still don't know a point from a flat, so please excuse in advance my fumbling around with this exercise.

Software:

• ~11 lb. Brisket, cryovac
• My own all-purpose beef rub and seasoning (I use it on everything beef related); it has salt

Hardware:

• Char-Broil Kamander (kamado knockoff)
• Kingsford Pro Briquettes
• Japanese maple chunks
• Inkbird controller
• Thermo-Pro thermometers

The plan:
Overnight smoking starting at 11pm
No crutch (I like to sleep)
Wrap it when I wake up to let it finish

I pulled the brisket from the fridge last night, rinsed, and trimmed.


It did not have a lot of surface fat, so that was easy. I tried to trim as much of the silvery connective tissue, but that was difficult, so I just did my best. I seasoned with my rub and gave it 4 hours in the fridge to settle in. My rub has salt and I haven't made a salt-free batch yet, so I did not have the luxury of dry brining first, so there you have it.


I don't have lighting outside at the Kamander (I have it backed up to a brick chimney stack), so I made sure to mise en place for

the setup before the sun set:


I put in my Vortex, charcoal, maple chunks (you can see one above), homemade starter (foreground), with the heat deflector (with water), and drip pan.

Preset the Inkbird to just plug in when the time came.

At 10:40pm, I went outside and lit the starter, waited about 10 minutes, then got the brisket out of the fridge and put the probes in place. I decided to use on of my cooling racks to transfer the brisket to the grill rack, which made things easier.

No pic, because it was dark. I shut the lid, plugged in the Inkbird, then went to hang out with the family. Smoke was already billowing nicely. Checked the temps on the remote monitor from my couch and it looked good.

To be continued....

[HotSun]

I did not get to bed until 1am, but I awoke at 6:45 and figured I should check the brisket. The weather was perfect last night, mid-60's, clear skies. I went downstairs, checked the temps on the monitor, and both probes were 176F, with pit temp of about 230. Good enough for some more sleep....back to bed.

I awoke at 10am with a start...I overslept. I went down, checked the monitor, whew, no harm:


Gave my DW a good morning kiss (priorities, right?), grabbed some coffee, went outside and saw this beautiful site:


Opened the lid:


Wrapped in foil to finish things:


I always try to wrap around my probes (don't ask, I'm mental), but that was awkward, so I removed them and inserted after wrapping:


The pit temp spiked to 275 because I had the lid open too long, but the Inkbird did it's job and we were back in the 230's within an hour. At that point, I wasn't concerned anyhow about the temps.

As I write this, the probe 2 alarm just went off, at 203F. Probe 1 is sitting at 201F. I'll give it just a little while longer, then pull it and move to our warming oven.

To be continued...

[captainlee]

I used to do the same wrap around the temp probes until I got brave enough just to poke it through.

[jecucolo]

Off to a good start….

[J-Melt]

Sounds like everything is going great!

[Alan Brice]

Sounds spot on. I have done umpteen briskie since I started smoking.(First one in an electric box smoker, 41hours)
I only wrap if I have time constraints. Unwrapped=great bark, no need to remove probes or lookin aint cookin syndrome.
Refining my fuel, rub, trimming technique is getting me closer every cook. Had one fall in the fire on the PBC. My Thermoworks alerted me to the situation and was able to recover. Now I double/triple hook, depending on total weight. Flat vs point. easy peasy. The flat ain't fat das all. Can not wait to hear your thoughts. Ate everyone I cooked! ;-)

[Alan Brice]

Just don't get near when I am eating some briskie, Panhead John You might draw back a nub.

[fzxdoc]

Ah, but J-Melt , with the Bronco you don't get the flavor boost of the drippings directly hitting the coals. FWIW, I've had my PBC for going on 10 years and have yet to have the meat fall into the fire. It's all in the hooking technique, I think. That said, the Bronco is something that I certainly would consider, should my PBC ever roll over and die, sad though that may be. I'm happy to hear that you like your barrel choice. You're in really good company in these parts!

Kathryn

[J-Melt]

All of my falling meat has been me dropping it when trying to hang…mostly because I have foolishly not purchased high heat food safe gloves. I have the ones y’all recommended sitting in my Amazon cart, but need to hit buy.

As fzxdoc notes, as long as you hang correctly with a daisy chain of hooks, only butter fingers like mine should cause a fall.

[DaveD]

Wow, this looks great!!! Glad you put up a thread for this, I love following along (and obviously I do the same thing all the damn time, you'd think I get paid by the word or something). Can't wait to hear how it comes out! Sure looks like you are on the glide path to a great hunka beef right there.

[Jim White]

I could hear one of Dave's posts saying "nominal" in my head as I read the first two parts of this page and am very disappointed he didn't say that here. Just a wonderful cook going straight down the sweet spot of your setup.

[DaveD]

Jim White I LOL'd! I wouldn't want to presume to apply my labels to someone else's cook...!

[WayneT]

HotSun Great and sustainable use of limited resources.

[Draznnl]

It’s looking nice. And you thought there was some mystery to a good brisket cook.

[HotSun]

Draznnl , thanks! Well, sure, there is a mystery. Point or flat, left side or right side, crutch, rub, dry brine, oh my. 🤣 Seriously, though, my first brisket a few years ago was one of those tiny ones from the supermarket that shrunk to the size of a postage stamp after smoking, but was sooooo good, then I did another small one about a year ago. I tend to over think things.

[RonB]

It does look like ya got this.

[Finster]

Looks good brother.

[HotSun]

Finale.... I let the brisket rest for 4 hours in the warming oven. Here is the unwrapping (you can see by the rack lines that this is the bottom):


Here is a slice; I don't know if there is a good smoke ring or not, because I'm color blind. I asked my DD if there was pink and she hesitated, because she wasn't sure pink was good. When I assured her that pink is good, then she said yes. You can decide for yourself:


Plating; I totally screwed up and forgot to use the drippings. This really could have used it at meal time. Very embarrassing and glad I didn't invite the neighbors:

It looks like a mess on my plate, but it was good, nice and smokey, but a bit dry. I may inject my next brisket, but we'll see. I used some Eastern Carolina BBQ sauce and a little KC style sauce. Both were good with this. Yeah, I made some angel hair because that's all I could convince the kids to have as a starch. I had rolls in the wings just in case, but no one wanted any.

After dinner I took the drippings, added some water, and doused the rest of the meat, which I sliced (I froze some of it). The drippings were divine.

Hardware Aftermath:

The smoking lasted exactly 13 hours. The Kamander is so efficient that I always have plenty of fuel left. The weird thing is the unburnt chunk of maple; it was sitting right next to the fire starter but wasn't touched. For whatever reason the coals burned in a clockwise direction instead of both directions. Maybe the airflow of the Inkbird caused this. Anyhow, I could have smoked a lot longer. Crazy.

Thanks for reading and the encouragement! There are some lessons learned, not the least of which is don't forget the drippings. I'll probably be doing a couple more in coming weeks.

[fzxdoc]

I'm curious as to why there is very little (looks like) smoke ring on your brisket. I'm guessing the wood not burning may have been part of it. Do you usually get a smoke ring on the things you smoke in your Kamander?

When I first started using my WSCGC in kamado mode, I didn't get a smoke ring. Now I know that smoke rings mean nothing but aesthetics, but I love them just the same. When I went from adding 2 chunks to 4 to 6 chunks of wood (3-4 oz each) to the coals I got pretty smoke rings.

K.

[HotSun]

fzxdoc , I didn't see much of a ring either, but my DD said it was there, though she doesn't have a trained eye. There was plenty of smoke flavor to go around, so I'm as curious as you are (and a little confused). I had 7 chunks of maple in there and all but 1 were used. I got smoke right away after my starter took hold. Compared to a pork butt I did a few weeks ago, that had a deep and very noticeable smoke ring. The Kamander has been reliable in that respect. Doing another soon, let's see.

[Alan Brice]

Finishing in a foil boat after the stall could help avoid dryness. You are on the path to many fine briskie. Soo many opt.

[HotSun]

Noted, thanks Alan Brice .

[realdocBBQ]

I would also suggest not going as high on the temp. I've come to believe the "203 wisdom" is too high. Pull it earlier, rest it longer. I typically try to go to 192-195 if I have 12 hours or more (to rest alone, not counting cook). And 195-198 if I have 2-4 hours or so. I'm no brisket expert, and it often frustrates me, I've seldom done one I thought was really great - I'm always my own worst critic. But these are where I have gotten my best results so far, and I've still got work to go.

But the one thing that I have found frustrating when going to 203-ish, was crumbling. And dry flat, though that is often hard to overcome, but I hate crumbly brisket, and this is often from cooking to 'fully cooked temp' and then immediately holding AT THAT TEMP for hours - it continues to cook while that temp slowly SLOWLY comes down from 203 to 199 to 195 all the way to 180F and below - this is still cooking. Better, I think, if you're going to immediately wrap and hold, to only bring it to 192-195 at all, OR if you're GOING to go over over 200F, then let it rest (wrapped) at room temp a couple hours to bring it down below 180F before really putting it in the true holding/warming chamber.

Just a few things I've learned. And again... I'm still learning. But these are where I've gotten my best results so far.

[HotSun]

Thanks realdocBBQ . Yeah, there was some crumbling that was frustrating me when slicing.

[jfmorris]

Looks great! Good job if that was your first attempt.

Is this a big 11 pound flat? It doesn’t look like a full packer based on the shape I see in the photos…

[HotSun]

jfmorris , I have only done two other briskets, both of which were better than this one. This was, I believe, a flat, given the leanness. It was somewhere around 11 pounds or so, big honkin' piece of meat.

[Bad Hat BBQ]

Good lookin' Hunk-O-Meat!! Esp. the pic when it was just un-wrapped (beautiful color!!)

Appreciate the detailed post & pics...very helpful

I will echo realdocBBQ , pulling at lower than 203 works for me (190-195ish)
It has been tooo long since the last brisket.....I am waiting for cooler temps, prefer shorter cooks in the summer.

Nicely done!

[HotSun]

Yeah, I'll have to consider and earlier pull, and thanks for the kind words, Bad Hat BBQ .

[Alan Brice]

HotSun read what you can in here and you will understand the diff btw the flat and the point. The Deckle, a band of white fat separates the two. Generally on a whole packer, Flat and Point still together, you will cut your finished product across the grain starting at the end of the flat.
Cut your slices until you begin to see the grain running the other direction, this is the beginning of the point. This is usually cut in half, again, across the grain or cubed up for chili or burnt ends. Soo much to learn! soo much fun, soo much good food to eat!
You've got this. Many options. Many techniques. Many fine cooks here to answer your questions. Go forth, be proud, eat well and above all start a log. Dates, times, temps, rubs, lenth of cook, pull temp, amount of time to rest the meat after the cook. Don't complicate things. Just use this as a reference to be able to duplicate what you like and avoid what may have created an issue you were not happy with. It is all good! You are doing it!

[HotSun]

Thanks for the encouragement and great advice Alan Brice ! Leftovers were really good tonight, as they tend to be. Yeah, it really is fun.

Funny you mentioned the log, I just got the same advice from Meathead's book. I really should be documenting everything, but I just wing it so often. Thankfully I have a lot written in SUWYC, so that's been helpful. Well, time to start writing it down. 😀

[Alan Brice]

Once you get a few years behind you the memory will play tricks you will not find soo funny.