I decided to do a cook over the Thanksgiving weekend. My first thought was to try to knock off a turkey since we were guests at another home for the feast and didn't have turkey of our own. Then I thought, nah, let's go with a brisket, which would be my second attempt. I poached on a friend's Costco membership and scored a whole packer...
I wet aged this puppy for 9 days in the fridge then did a trim job on it in preparation of a cook scheduled for yesterday. Whoa Nelly! I got 4 ibs. 5 oz. of fat off of that beast...
Next step was dry brining the now 10.3 lbs. brisket using the 0.5 teaspoon/pound recipe. After 12 hours of brining, I injected it with, and this is where I screwed up, beef broth, sugar, Worcestershire WITH added salt - WRONG! The injection was allowed to permeate the meat for 24 hours before starting the cook. I used the mustard slather routine topped with Meat Heads beef rub...
I got a 0230 start time for serving at 1900. Pit rig was Weber 22 inch with a SnS and KBB coals. Used 11 oz. of oak wood for the smoke. At 1300 and an internal temp of 171*, I wrapped it in foil and continued cooking until it got to 205* at 1630, at which point, it went into the faux Cambro for 2.5 hours where the temperature dropped to 180*. On to the cutting board it went. Funny thing about outdoor cooking is that the scent of smoke and meat drifts all over the neighborhood and sometimes you get visitors drawn to the source of the stimulus. Well, look who showed up before carving, it's Brookie! This may be the only known photograph of him without a fly rod in his hand ...
Here's what it looked like sliced...
The good news is that the meat was very tender, juicy, had a good bark with the right amount of smoke. The bad part, and it really wasn't horrible, was over salting it. Oh well, there's always the next time and there are big red notes in my cooking log to prevent this particular goof-up in the future. I'm sure I will find other ways to mess up, but that's what learning is all about, right?
I wet aged this puppy for 9 days in the fridge then did a trim job on it in preparation of a cook scheduled for yesterday. Whoa Nelly! I got 4 ibs. 5 oz. of fat off of that beast...
Next step was dry brining the now 10.3 lbs. brisket using the 0.5 teaspoon/pound recipe. After 12 hours of brining, I injected it with, and this is where I screwed up, beef broth, sugar, Worcestershire WITH added salt - WRONG! The injection was allowed to permeate the meat for 24 hours before starting the cook. I used the mustard slather routine topped with Meat Heads beef rub...
I got a 0230 start time for serving at 1900. Pit rig was Weber 22 inch with a SnS and KBB coals. Used 11 oz. of oak wood for the smoke. At 1300 and an internal temp of 171*, I wrapped it in foil and continued cooking until it got to 205* at 1630, at which point, it went into the faux Cambro for 2.5 hours where the temperature dropped to 180*. On to the cutting board it went. Funny thing about outdoor cooking is that the scent of smoke and meat drifts all over the neighborhood and sometimes you get visitors drawn to the source of the stimulus. Well, look who showed up before carving, it's Brookie! This may be the only known photograph of him without a fly rod in his hand ...
Here's what it looked like sliced...
The good news is that the meat was very tender, juicy, had a good bark with the right amount of smoke. The bad part, and it really wasn't horrible, was over salting it. Oh well, there's always the next time and there are big red notes in my cooking log to prevent this particular goof-up in the future. I'm sure I will find other ways to mess up, but that's what learning is all about, right?
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