We are celebrating our son, Michael’s birthday (33rd) this weekend, and he and his family and our son Stephen and his family are spending this weekend at our house. I planned to smoke a brisket for dinner Saturday night (July 25). On Friday, I went to Mac’s Meats (a family-owned grocery store and meat market) where I buy my CAB briskets, and they were closed for a week of vacation. So I went home, got on the computer, and looked for another meat market in our town, Winter Haven, Florida, thinking I might have to smoke spare ribs instead. I found Green’s Market, another family owned grocery store and meat market. I called, and their butcher said they had packer briskets. When I asked him what the highest grade they had was, he said they had two that were Prime, one was 11.3 pounds and the other was 13.5 pounds. I told him I would be there in less than an hour to buy the larger prime brisket.
As I looked at the brisket, I saw that the price was only $4.49 per pound! The 13.5 brisket was only $61.00. Noticing my surprise, he said, “Prime grade at choice grade prices. That pricing for prime briskets brings in customers who buy other things and who otherwise wouldn’t shop here.†After telling him we might just become very good friends, I paid for it and left, knowing how lucky I was.
Friday night I separated the point and flat, and trimmed each of them. I ended up with a 4.6 pound flat and a 5.8 pound point, so I trimmed off 3.1 pounds of fat. I put Oakridge BBQ Black Ops Brisket rub on the point, but only salt on the flat. I want to make a comparison.
The weather forecast called for rain all day Saturday. We have a four car garage set up as two adjoining 2 car garages. I keep my smokers and propane fry cooker in one of the 2 car garages. Our gas grills are next to our pool, under a small roof over a cement slab built to enable us to use our grills without smoking up the ceiling of the lanai in front of our pool. When I use the Backwoods, I just roll it from the garage onto the adjoining driveway. But at 268 pounds, it is too heavy to carry from the garage across our yard to the cook area by the pool. So my son, Michael, and I moved one of our 100 pound Landmann propane water smokers to that cook area.
The rain started at just after 6 AM on Saturday. I put the brisket point and flat on the smoker at 7 AM and set the temperature at 250 F. At 9:30, I removed them from the smoker, double wrapped each of them in foil, and put them in the oven at 225 F. Three hours later, at 12:45, the point was 165 F and the flat was 190 F. So I reduced the temperature on the flat to 210 F and increased the temperature for the point to 275 F. At 3 PM, the point was 205 F, and the flat was 200 F. I wrapped each in a towel and put them in a beer cooler. They rested for 2 ½ hours. My wife, Kate, doesn’t eat red meat so she prepared a vegetarian Lasagna. We also had cornbread and black eye peas cooked with smoked turkey necks.
This brisket was incredible! My sons agreed, and they are serious critics of my BBQ. It just melted in your mouth! Nobody would use BBQ sauce because they didn't want to take away from the awesome flavor of the brisket. Although the Black Ops rub was excellent, the best rub I have ever tried, the salt-only flat was a very close second. There were no left overs. Everyone stuffed so much on the brisket, there was no room for the banana pudding that Kate made for dessert, and her banana puddings are by far the best any of us have ever had.
Photos are attached.
As I looked at the brisket, I saw that the price was only $4.49 per pound! The 13.5 brisket was only $61.00. Noticing my surprise, he said, “Prime grade at choice grade prices. That pricing for prime briskets brings in customers who buy other things and who otherwise wouldn’t shop here.†After telling him we might just become very good friends, I paid for it and left, knowing how lucky I was.
Friday night I separated the point and flat, and trimmed each of them. I ended up with a 4.6 pound flat and a 5.8 pound point, so I trimmed off 3.1 pounds of fat. I put Oakridge BBQ Black Ops Brisket rub on the point, but only salt on the flat. I want to make a comparison.
The weather forecast called for rain all day Saturday. We have a four car garage set up as two adjoining 2 car garages. I keep my smokers and propane fry cooker in one of the 2 car garages. Our gas grills are next to our pool, under a small roof over a cement slab built to enable us to use our grills without smoking up the ceiling of the lanai in front of our pool. When I use the Backwoods, I just roll it from the garage onto the adjoining driveway. But at 268 pounds, it is too heavy to carry from the garage across our yard to the cook area by the pool. So my son, Michael, and I moved one of our 100 pound Landmann propane water smokers to that cook area.
The rain started at just after 6 AM on Saturday. I put the brisket point and flat on the smoker at 7 AM and set the temperature at 250 F. At 9:30, I removed them from the smoker, double wrapped each of them in foil, and put them in the oven at 225 F. Three hours later, at 12:45, the point was 165 F and the flat was 190 F. So I reduced the temperature on the flat to 210 F and increased the temperature for the point to 275 F. At 3 PM, the point was 205 F, and the flat was 200 F. I wrapped each in a towel and put them in a beer cooler. They rested for 2 ½ hours. My wife, Kate, doesn’t eat red meat so she prepared a vegetarian Lasagna. We also had cornbread and black eye peas cooked with smoked turkey necks.
This brisket was incredible! My sons agreed, and they are serious critics of my BBQ. It just melted in your mouth! Nobody would use BBQ sauce because they didn't want to take away from the awesome flavor of the brisket. Although the Black Ops rub was excellent, the best rub I have ever tried, the salt-only flat was a very close second. There were no left overs. Everyone stuffed so much on the brisket, there was no room for the banana pudding that Kate made for dessert, and her banana puddings are by far the best any of us have ever had.
Photos are attached.
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