prime brisket and nice weather. what could be better?

[DeusDingo]

well add beer and/or bourbon. duh

2 weeks ago i picked up a USDA prime brisket from our meat place. 17.6lbs.





it was on sale and i could not turn it down even though our freezers are packed. so it has been wet aging in the fridge since then.

last night i opened her up and split (i'm still not that great at it) and trimmed her (lost 1/3 the weight).



i was amazed by the length of the point, i don't think i've had one this long before.



usually mine have gone about half way down the brisket, this one went about the whole way. maybe that's inexperience talking. i dry brined with 3/4 the amount of salt i would normally do. the rub my wife really likes is the weber coffee rub which has salt in it. it's sitting in the fridge now waiting for more love

i plan to smoke it on sunday with either hickory or cherry. what do you guys think? i've always done hickory, but i also have a lot of cherry, i'm just not sure cherry would work out as well. i always saw it as a pork/pastrami wood.

[Spinaker]

I would rock the hickory. Cherry's lighter flavor wont really come through on something as bold as brisket. To me, Cherry is gold. I save it for my pork cooks. Especially shoulder and ribs.

[DeusDingo]

so i went with hickory

the separated parts were big to me. the flat took up a huge amount of surface area of the grate. i really didn't think they'd fit.



they went on at 7am. i smoked them for 3 hours. i let it go for a couple hours and then threw on some brats for an hour with another piece of hickory. freaking awesome flavor added by the smoke.



i wrapped at 180 which took a while. the point came off first. it was "like butter" after 12 hours 30 minutes at 192 where my probe was at. it sat in the cambro for an hour and a half and came out hot.



it tasted amazing. i loved the fat content and how tender and juicy it was. i was in BBQ heaven




i like the cube up the point.

the flat hit another stall (even when wrapped, i had the probe at one point it said 199 degrees, i moved it when checking for tenderness and it said 190 and stayed there) and it went for 14 hours 30 minutes. i took it off at 196. i found out later it hit a stall because i accidentally punched a hole in the bottom of the foil when checking for tenderness so the liquid was just coming out. i also found out that i accidentally put it in fat cap down, which i know a lot of people do on purpose but i didn't mean to. i had to laugh at myself. it all looks the same when the rub is on. the flat sat in the cambro for an hour 45 min and i took it out and start cutting some samples. at this point it was pretty late and i kind of just wanted to go to bed. the flat came out juicy, tender and flavorful. actually a little too tender as it would fall apart when cutting it sometimes and i don't think it would hold up under its own weight. the fat cap side didn't get a smoke ring but i got a terrific smoke flavor out of it





this was probably the best brisket i've ever made and i think the best i've ever eaten. it was a good day.