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**DaveD** · August 7, 2022, 07:36 PM

Alrighty, my inaugural brisket is launched! In the pics above, that's the generous dousing with coarse ground black pepper about an hour before going in, which happened at 9pm local time. Got it on the low-T "smoke" setting with temps around 140F/60C for the first hour, then I will bump it up to 200F/93C for the night. Put the wired probe in the point and the Meater+ in the flat, which will keep a continuous record of temps all night.

Saw someone on a YT vid doing an overnight brisket on a pellet smoker who chose that temp because no matter what, the meat can't get any higher than that, even if it's a freak of nature, bullet-train fast piece of meat. I'm the world's lightest sleeper anyway, so I'm sure I'll be up and around by 6am to see how it's going, and it's realistically not likely to be out of the stall yet by then. Once I'm conscious again, I'll bump the set point up to 225 for the remainder.

I gave my Pit Boss Copperhead 5 a thorough cleaning today, lookit the bare metal, Ma! No chance of a grease fire tonight. I'll post one more pic after that first hour on "smoke" before I turn in for the night.

**WayneT** · August 7, 2022, 09:32 PM

Hope that overnight smoke goes well. Can’t wait to see finished pix. 😴

**DaveD** · August 8, 2022, 05:42 AM

Gooooooood morning Pit Forum! Woke up to a totally nominal situation with the brisket, it's looking good with some nice bark developing, and it's been stalled at 150F/66C for the past few hours, not surprising with the set point at 200F/93C. I put the set point up to 250F/121C because the ambient readings in the chamber (two wired probes plus the Meater+) were running a little under target, so this should keep me where I want to be. There was even a little bit of water left in the water pan, which I filled back up.

I'm going to use a foil boat once the bulk of the stall is complete and it looks like it's starting to climb again, presumably around 175F/79C or thereabouts. So far, so good!

**DaveD** · August 8, 2022, 06:31 AM

A little over an hour later, and the increased temperature got the IT to start climbing, and it looks like it has hit a second stall. This is exactly what I expected - figured the relatively cool 200F/93CF overnight would bring it to some max IT that would not represent the "true" stall, which would begin sometime later once I put it up to the nominal 225ish target. Bark feels great, and there are just those couple of pools of juice still on the top surface. Will keep an eye on those and try to boat it up once they are reabsorbed.

**Draznnl** · August 8, 2022, 07:53 AM

Looking good DaveD Can’t wait to see how this rookie venture turns out. So far it seems that everything is going the way it should. No reason to expect any deviation from that.

**DaveD** · August 8, 2022, 08:16 AM

Here we are at 13 hours in, IT 165F/74C, and I have deployed the foil boat. I had a foil pan under the piece thus far, which had collected some yummy jus, so I poured about half of that onto the brisket before closing up the smoker again. Hopefully this picks up the pace so that I can start resting it by 1pm or so, that's three hours from now. We shall see...

Temp profile with disturbance in the Force when I did the boat wrap. Pace has definitely picked up, and the Meater's ETA dropped from 16 hours right after I boated to just an hour now. (Reminder, this is measuring the flat.) So this looks good for going into the Cambro around midday as desired.

**DaveD** · August 8, 2022, 10:24 AM

About 15.5 hours in, ITs in high 190s-low 200sF/low-mid 90sC, and about half the spots are probe tender, the rest not quite there. I reckon at the top of the hour it'll be ready to go into the Cambro (1pm local). Color is getting very nice and I'm pretty happy with how the bark looks and feels. And check out how much more liquid is visible pooling in the bottom of the boat in the second shot, which was only half an hour after the first one...!

**DaveD** · August 8, 2022, 11:21 AM

Alrighty, 16.5 hours and the brisket is out of the smoker and into the Cambro. Probing very tender nearly everywhere, and the bark is looking great. Can't see it well in these shots but still lots of liquid in the bottom of the foil boat. Plopped it in a pyrex baking dish and set that in the Cambro. Next up: some parboiled taters for roasting in beef tallow as one of tonight's sides...

Final temperature profile. Can really see the effect of using the boat.

**DaveD** · August 8, 2022, 02:02 PM

I'm keeping track of the temperatures as the rest proceeds, and plotting it up versus time, because of course I am. I just put the dish with the boated brisket in the Cambro and put on the lid, didn't cover up the meat or put any other insulation in there. Didn't want to cover the meat, seemed that would defeat the purpose of leaving it uncovered via the boat. Of course, I have no experience about whether this is normal, so happy to have any thoughts on that. I certainly am not alarmed or anything. If one squints at this just right, one could predict that the temp at dinnertime, 300 minutes, it would be about 120-125F/49-52C, not a bad serving temp.

Edit: replaced plot with the latest, now all that's left is slicing and serving. I'm nervous as hell! Really hope this does not suck. See ya in a while.

**DaveD** · August 8, 2022, 05:38 PM

Alright - cue the "Rocky" theme! This was some of the best brisket we've ever had, and some of the best anything for that matter. It came out spectacularly well. The flat was incredibly juicy and tender, the point was melt in your mouth, the burnt ends defy description. Nothing but salt the night before, pepper an hour before, and twenty hours of time on a good hunka meat.

Here we are after five hours of resting with the temp profile in the previous post.

Remember all that liquid pooled in the bottom of the foil boat before? Here's what was left when I lifted it out and onto the cutting board:

Slicin' & servin'. It started pouring juices as soon as I cut into it. I can see that I didn't trim as well as I could have in this area...

Plated with slices of lean, moist, and some burnt end chunks in between. I'll talk about the taters in the next post, because I will run out of photo slots here...

**DaveD** · August 8, 2022, 05:58 PM

I made the roasted taters in the above meal using a recipe from Jess Pryles at this link. They lived up to the title "Best Ever Roasted Potatoes." Very simple: peel & chunk up some potatoes, then parboil until a probe goes in about a quarter inch/half a centimeter, about ten minutes near sea level. Then drain into a colander, metal preferably, and vigorously shake them around to roughen the surfaces.

EDIT: I only recently understood what "parboiled" means myself, so in case anyone is wondering: basically means "par"tial boiling. Put the taters into the water cold, salt it, then turn on the heat. Once it starts boiling, start poking the taters 8 to 10 minutes in, until you get the penetration mentioned above. All this at sea level mind you, higher elevations probably will take longer.

Meanwhile, line a baking pan with foil and add 3-4 tablespoons' worth of beef tallow. Heat the oven to 450F/232C and let the tallow come up to temp. For this cook, I used the smoked wagyu tallow I had left from the chuck roast burnt ends cook I did last weekend. I also poured in what was left of the juices from the brisket that I'd collected in the foil pan prior to boating it.

In they go, and hit 'em with some salt. Total roasting time 45 minutes:

Halfway through before turning them over:

Out of the oven, then onto some paper towels to let them drain.

The flavor of the smoked beef tallow was amazing, and having them cooked in it imparted the perfect combination of crispy surface and creamy interior. Roughing up the surfaces of the parboiled taters really does make a difference. Highly recommend this recipe!

**DaveD** · August 9, 2022, 12:40 PM

WayneT asked "How are you going to follow that act?" With a chicken meal! Something significantly lighter

Going to make an old family recipe that my brother picked up not long after he moved to Hawaii in about 1971 (my folks gave him a week trip for his college grad gift. He got bit by the Aloha Bug big time, came home, put his affairs in order and moved permanently and lives there to this day.) Goes more by a generic name than a recipe title, "Shoyu Chicken."

Chicken parts get cooked on the stovetop in (for a cut up bird or fryer pieces) a cup each of water & soy sauce (we always use the lower sodium version) and a level (not packed) cup of brown sugar, to which are added a couple cloves of crushed garlic, a similar amount of ginger (can use sliced root or powder or crushed, whatever you have), and a dash of hot oil. Brought to a boil then simmered until chicken is done. I like to use bone-in, skin-on thighs, so I aim for the appropriate temp around 165F/74C. Then sear them on a hot grill or griddle to finish. Serves with steamed rice & any veg you like, it's nothing too complicated.

Coming up in a couple of hours

**DaveD** · August 9, 2022, 05:14 PM

Hokay, jfmorris - here's the shoyu chicken meal. As above, simmered the chicken thighs, flipping over every five minutes, until temps above 160F/71C.

Put the thighs in a dish and cranked up the heat on the liquid to reduce it down by about half, to use as a sauce for the chicken & rice.

Had the grill at about 500F/260C, put a sear on 'em, then plated with the rice and a Pagoda Express egg roll from frozen - those things are pretty darned good.

**WayneT** · August 9, 2022, 06:35 PM

Yep, another fine cook. The stay-cation is inspirational.

**Michael_in_TX** · August 9, 2022, 09:05 PM

Originally posted by WayneT View Post

Yep, another fine cook. The stay-cation is inspirational.

I agree. This is a really, really fun thread!

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