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Brisket help?

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    Brisket help?

    Brisket help? Been smoking a lot of pork butts lately, any time I get enough people together at once to help me finish it, and it's been great. Decided to change the pace a little this past weekend for mother's day and tried a brisket after a long spell of not dealing with many. Trimmed the fat to about 1/4'' and removed the large fist sized hunk between the point and flat, expected the first one to be a pretty sharp learning curve of course. But what I didn't expect? Was the large pool I ended up with of rendered fat under the smoker. I used a cabinet style smoker that has two burners fueled by LP and kept it steady at 225-230 F, and once the brisket got to about 150-170 internal, I noticed a small puddle of liquid rendered fat under the smoker. I expected a little dripping, so not a problem, just hit it carefully with a well aimed burst from the garden hose. But after 30 minutes from that there was a large puddle that was big and growing, even after wrapping it was like somebody was sneaking back there every time I turned away and just pouring glasses full of liquefied fat. Is that something that I should just expect with brisket? I feel like I almost need to layer the concrete with painters plastic before the next one (and there WILL be a next one). Just wanted to ask around to see if this was one particularly wet brisket or if this is just something that comes with the new territory.

    #2
    I had quite a bit of fat off of the one brisket that I've cooked. Way more fat than off the pork butts.

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      #3
      Is there any way for you to get a drip pan or two under the meat?

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        #4
        Is there not a drain hole that you can put a small bucket or a coffee can under to catch the fat? Or could you make one? Sorry but not at all familiar gas units.

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          #5
          There is always a ton off fat that renders from a brisket, even well-trimmed ones. i use a wsm and cover the water pan in foil, but sometimes i have to soak some up as it can puddle up and drip down onto the coals if i dont put enough slack in the foil to accomodate a cup or more of fat. also depends on the size of the brisket and whether or not you wrap! i usually lose a fair amount of fat in the oven after wrapping if i go that route

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            #6
            Thanks everyone. There is a drip pan, but this brisket overwhelmed it's meager capacity pretty quick, and the brisket itself extended pretty far beyond the edges of the drip pan. I thought maybe a couple foil tins would do more damage by sort of "blocking" the smoke but now I that I can see how much can render from a brisket I'm thinking it's just a pro/con issue. I did wrap it up at 168ish this time, but by then so much had already rendered the damage was pretty much done. I don't even want to imagine how much would have been there if I hadn't wrapped at all. By the way I'm open to any suggestions if anybody here has a good rub they like to use. I think I want to try my next "all natural" texas style using just salt/pepper, just to see how it goes, maybe try a well recommended rub on the following one, do a little compare contrast to see what gets better results. I appreciate the help

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            • Jerod Broussard
              Jerod Broussard commented
              Editing a comment
              I LOVE the Big Bad Beef Rub. I tried just salt and pepper and man was that crap bland. It works on a ribeye for me, but once I get up to tri-tip and other roasts, takes more than just salt and pepper.

            • SlainteBrian
              SlainteBrian commented
              Editing a comment
              Thanks Jerod I know I've got that printed somewhere. I use the memphis dust on pork all the time, actually grabbed it for some quick chicken thighs over charcoal and it worked there, too. I'll try the Big Bad Beef Rub I don't know why I just never threw it together ahead

            #7
            Instead of just a drip pan, how about putting some whiskey baked beans underneath for a couple hours to soak up some of those unctuous juices?

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            • SlainteBrian
              SlainteBrian commented
              Editing a comment
              Waste not want not. That's a simple and damn good idea and I'm wondering why it didn't come to me first. Thanks

            #8
            I am no brisket expert. Boston Butt is my go to, but the last time I did a choice brisket I don't remember any more fat than I get from a Butt. Could it be that in addition to the brisket fat you had build up fro you last cook? Would running your cooker for 4 hours or so at its highest recommended temp clean things up?

            Comment


            • SlainteBrian
              SlainteBrian commented
              Editing a comment
              Thanks that's not a bad idea, it's how I clean my charcoal grill and oven, may not be a bad idea for the smoker. I'm not even sure what it'll get up to on the high end but maybe it'll help just burn out anything left behind. Thanks

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