My First Brisket - Probably my last?

[McFlyfi]

My First Brisket…Probably my Last?

Born and raised in California. Never lived anywhere else (I’ll spare you the details of living in NorCal vs SoCal). True “Barbecue” just isn’t part of the culture. Grilling? Heck yeah! I never stop cooking outside all year long. But true, “low and slow” BBQ. Nope. Sure, there might be pockets, and there is the Santa Maria style.
Brisket? Never had it. I wouldn’t’ know “great” BBQ from bad BBQ.
In the few years since I’ve joined this site, I have stepped my game up considerably. Pork shoulder? Heck yeah! Bacon? Oh, Yes! My Pastrami bacon is a much anticipated holiday gift to my friends and family. SO I am familiar with BBQ on my Weber and SNS.
This past year, we took a trip to San Antonio, my daughter had a brisket grilled cheese sandwich that she raved about. I was intrigued, and when she came home from school this past summer, I planned on cooking a brisket, Texas style.

Picked up a prime full packer from Costco. Trimmed it pretty aggressively, dry brined it with SPG for a couple of days. When the day came set up the SNS for 250 f, oak chunks on top of KBB + some Prime 6 mixed in. On goes the brisket. Cooking along until the stall, wrapped in butcher paper, pulled when the I got probe tender at about 203-ish. Held for a couple of hours, and carved ansd sserved.
The result?
Meh.
Was it tender? Oh, yeah. Juicy? You got it. Flavor? All kinds of flavor. DD and DW loved it? Check, rave reviews. Leftovers got devoured in grilled cheese and tacos. So by all accounts, a success.

So why the bad review?
As noted above, I’ve never had it. Had a vague idea about how it might taste, and was actually surprised that it tasted better than I thought it would. I expected a “pot roasty” kind of flavor, but got a rich, mellow, beefy flavor. Growing up in California during the 60’s and 70’s, the culture put an emphasis on a “healthy” style of eating. We didn’t eat anything that had a lot of fat on it, and that seam of fat that runs through a brisket (seen in photos) has always creeped me out a little. As a matter of fact, both my wife and I ate around that fat seam.

After all was said and done, the juice just wasn’t worth the squeeze. Nearly $50.00 for an 11 pound hunk of beef, time spent trimming, days brining, full day cooking/resting, it just didn’t move the needle for me.

I’ll probably do it again, either in January when the DD is home for winter break, or next summer when she’s home for thesummer, but I don’t see this making it into any kind of regular rotation.

[jfmorris]

I love brisket, but would not make a while brisket either for just the wife and I. In fact.... I rarely smoke anything that takes longer than ribs for just the 2 of us. I make it mostly for big family gatherings, or once in a while, a church pot luck or Christmas party with my friends, who all rave about it.

The last time I smoked brisket for 2, the way I handled it was to separate the point from the flat, losing that fat between them as well as the fat cap, split the flat into 2 hunks, and I ended up with three 4 pound hunks of meat, vacuum sealed and in the freezer. Probably 3-4 pounds of fat I tossed. Smoking a 4 pound hunk is much more manageable, or turning a hunk that size into brisket. After all, even at today's current high beef prices, the way I look at it - brisket is half the cost of chuck roast, and can produce similar results.

The other thing I've done with a brisket is to cut the entire thing into 1 to 1.5 inch cubes, mix those up in a big bowl, and stuff it through my meat grinder to produce brisket burger, which make for really GOOD burgers. I picked up several at Kroger for $1.99 a pound last year that I did that with, as it was half the cost of ground beef at the time.

[Alan Brice]

I am totally thinking grinder!

[Andrrr]

Before I started going in on a steer every year I would buy those same Costco briskets and grind them myself. I want to say a prime was $3.79/lb. Grinding myself and knowing exactly what was (and wasn't) in the beef is worth it to me, even at the $4.29/lb price above

[cooperhud]

There are only two in our house now and I love to smoke meat. When I smoke it is an event - ribs, brisket, butts, sausage, and birds. All the excess meat gets divided into meal portions for 2. Is then vacuum packed with a couple of small cubes of frozen beef/chicken broth in the bag. Then is goes to the deep freeze. When the desire for BBQ arises, warm a bag up in the microwave - taste like it just came off the smoker.

[Alan Brice]

Wow! Looks wonderful. Prime as well. Prolly my fav cook is briskie. I do not do chicky on the bar-bee. Pastrami seems more like a science project than a weekend cook. To each his own. I do more pots of beans (RG), than any other cook, these days.
The fats in the point will do amazing things to a simple pot of beans. A rack of ribs or a chunk of beef in a pot of beans? Hail yeah!

[Michael_in_TX]

After being intimidated by brisket for years, I finally did one and then did one about 3-4 times a year. It is a bit of work and annoying expensive, although it can yield a lot of meat. I'm now down to doing one about once a year.

I'm finding chuck roasts far more manageable and that gets me 90% of the way to a brisket.

In some sense, briskets are the Hatch chiles of the meat world.

[Johnny Booth]

Love chucks. 👍 But love brisket more. 🍻

[SheilaAnn]

Labor of love!

[Johnny Booth]

Agree. Love the prep, cook, meal, and leftovers. Oh- don’t forget free tallow! 😎

[Mosca]

It’s just Mrs and me, and she’s not a brisket fan. I do one every couple years or so. I vacuum seal and deep freeze, it’s always the same coming out as it was when I froze it. In fact, I have some shredded pieces I want to take out for breakfast brisket tacos, maybe next week.

Also: even though every brisket I’ve ever made has been good, none of them were great until about the 5th one. Every one since then has been great. Go figure, huh. Basically I stopped fooling around with them and adopted a different philosophy, that being: “It’s just a big stupid piece of meat. Cook it.” The less I fuss over it, the better it is.

I did take a brisket class, a “hot and fast” class. It involved injecting and wrapping with lots of liquid. It was a good brisket, but yeah, pot-roasty. But still good. Just not what I’d expect.

[Huskee]

I injected 3 times in my life, a brisket and later a pork butt then a turkey breast too. Not worth the trouble for me. Methinks if you learn how to cook them, dry brine them, and pay attention to what you're doing, you don't need it. It is a big hunk of beef so don't pet the sweaty stuff, but you still have to stay within some general boundaries and then you'll have repeatable great results.

[Mosca]

Right. All that injecting is competition stuff, where appearance is 90% and taste is 10%.

[xrodbob]

It's sometime the journey and not just the destination. But agree it's not a regular item. Family over for a summer pool day once or twice a summer plus maybe a good fall cook to keep warm as the temps fall.

I also like to make the points into KC burnt ends. I'll get two points, cook and cube (sampling as I cut) and then vacuum seal the rest for later. KC burnt ends = meat candy!

[Huskee]

I was always hesitant to do burnt ends, I felt that brisket is so good (to me) why do I want to turn it into something else. I've made them 2 or 3 times now and man oh man they are excellent!

[Huskee]

That's how I am with pork ribs. My friends all rave, "best I've ever had, and I've been to Texas and had theirs and yours are better, yadayada.." A nice compliment to hear. Yet to me, even my *best* pork ribs are 'meh' to me. It's just part of who we are and what we prefer. But, now you know what you think about brisket. It's nice to know you didn't fail the cook, at least it was flavorful and juicy and so on, so you know you don't need to repeat it again.

To me, brisket (and beef ribs, same flavor) are the absolute epitome of amazing BBQ. Fatty, smokey, perfectly salted, juicy yet crusty-barked beef is my favorite thing to shove in my face.

[jfmorris]

I've felt that way the last time or two I did pork ribs, after having done brisket and beef ribs as the prior smokes. Just not enough flavor in those pork ribs, compared to the beef...

[Johnny Booth]

I love pork, but would always choose beef if I had a choice. Ribs, brisket, or chuck, in that order. 🍻

[Huskee]

Johnny Booth I'm with your on your choices!

[Jfrosty27]

I have given up doing brisket. Oh I love eating it. But it’s just not worth the bother and expense for just me and the wifey. And besides, our son makes a killer brisket so we just wait for him to make one and invite us over. 🤣

As I have posted far too many times, beef plate short ribs are my favorite Q. Easier, shorter cook time, NET cost per pound after trimming is similar to brisket, and less leftovers. My two cents. 🤷♂️

[ItsAllGoneToTheDogs]

I only do 1 or MAYBE 2 a year. I prefer other cuts of beef... however when my tallow stock is low, brisket is one of my best bang for the buck producers of usable fat to render.

We usually eat a few slices, the rest gets chunked or pulled and put in chili or tacos or eggs and my wife wastes all the fat in a slice

[RickyBobby]

I do all of these things with left overs, too! I always save my fat trimmings for sausage though instead of making tallow. I usually just order a tub of the wagyu tallow.

[RickyBobby]

Like Huskee said above, for me personally, it just doesn’t get better than brisket. But I relish the entire process. Attempting to maintain the perfect fire in my leaky offset, keeping the smoke just right, the dedication to get up every 45 minutes or so to make sure the fire isn’t running away but also isn’t dying down too far, the actual brisket selection, the trim, the season…… I could go on, but you get it. It’s a passion for me. Allows me to shut out literally all of the noise in the world and focus only on the process to bring smiles and joy, along with full bellies, to those that I love. All of that said, my favorite part of The Pit is learning about what cooks make my BBQ brothers and Sisters feel the same way. Looks like your brisket turned out pretty good, ESPECIALLY for your first one (I ruined at least 8 or 9 before I got a “passable” product). This is a great post about your experience! I must say though, and this is truly genuine, what is your favorite thing to smoke/cook outdoors? (I need to know who to come to for pointers when I try new things!! )

[mrteddyprincess]

RickyBobby tri-tip is at Kincaid's and Joe's. We have it here. It's freaking delicious.

I don't feel comfy if I don't have my next brisket in the garage fridge. And I spent years pursuing brisket. Now it's now a big deal. It's my favorite thing to BBQ.

B

[RickyBobby]

mrteddyprincess , I have not heard of either of these places OR Hank’s!!! Now…. That is likely because I almost never venture inside the 465 and I work so much that even given the opportunity to venture, I’d rather just stay in my house and out of public. Lol. We may have to meat up one of these days at one of these spots!

[Purc]

RickyBobby I too love Tri Tip reverse seared on the Kettle and SnS. Since now just me, I'll smoke beef ribs for brisket on a stick. Shorter cook time, enjoyable but less effort and more manageable amount of food.

[Panhead John]

I agree about brisket usually being only an occasional cook or for larger gatherings, they feed a lot of people! I’ve done maybe 12-15 briskets in my life, some good, and some pretty darn good. But, with it just being me here in the house I’ll probably never cook another one. It’s just too much work and meat, for one person. But, another BIG reason is I’m lucky enough to have several top notch BBQ joints easily within 30 minutes or less from my house. And a lot of them are better than mine. The other day when David and I went to Truth BBQ, I was there in 20 minutes. I’ve got another Top 50 joint called Roegels Barbecue Co. ten minutes from my house. There’s just so many quality places here that make outstanding brisket, I’m done with cooking em myself.

[Alan Brice]

I would buy brisket locally if there was someone that made it at least as good as I do.

[mrteddyprincess]

Here in Indy, we've got Hank of Hank's Smokin' Briskets. Hank moved here from Houston 25 years ago and opened a carry out restaurant. It's rated as the #1 BBQ place in Indiana by Food and Wine. I agree with them. And Hank is a great guy who serves samples to new customers. I still don't know how he slices that brisket and serves delicious meat that is juicy and tender all day every day. My daughter and I go there every chance we have.

B

[Panhead John]

That’s great to hear mrteddyprincess !

[RonB]

I haven't cooked a brisket since Covid showed it's ugly head. It's not worth the effort for just the two of us. I do smoke chuckys on occasion, and I love short ribs, so they get a turn once in a while.

[smokenoob]

I’ve only had brisket twice. Once yuk once awesome. It’s above my pit-grade so I’m going back to Big Doug’s BBQ in Creede CO!

[smokenoob]

McFlyfi meet us in Creede CO dude!

[Draznnl]

Noob, you need to come down south from the panhandle. I’ll happily do a brisket for a few guests.

[smokenoob]

Draznnl That is an awful nice offer. I need to round up Dave & Jim & Jim and get down there to smoke with your local pitmasters!

[captainlee]

You did great, just do it! I only do about one a year. Need an excuse with a bunch of people to make it worth while.

[smokenoob]

Joanne and I are a bunch! 😂😂😂

[captainlee]

December is 6 months out for June reservations. Maybe early July for Creede , well pm