3:41AM... make that 3:42...

[realdocBBQ]

Ok, final report and pics.

Had to rush rush rush to get everything done, had to struggle to get the heat back up on the smoker, as I let my bed of coals nearly die out, it was stressful, but I managed to get everything there on time and actually showed up 1 minute early.

Everyone raved about the food. I found most of it good, though the brisket still wasn't what I was hoping for. Not dry... a little falling apart, but not pot roast texture or flavor. I dunno, maybe I just don't really like brisket? I almost injected with tallow instead of broth, that may be something to try.

On to pics...












It was a fun cook. Enjoyed it. I didn't get a good photo of the pulled pork, it was all blurry, but it looked like... pulled pork. Surprise.

Everything was good, though I was still fairly disappointed in the texture of the brisket.

[texastweeter]

Try a phosphate injection

[Andrrr]

Disappointing as it may have been, the smoke ring on that brisket is a thing of beauty

[GolfGeezer]

Sorry, I just read this post and noted a similar issue with my FireBoard. I think, just speculation, your FB updated its firmware which would have disconnected the session, then started a generic one after restarting. If you edited your session and gave a specific title, the reboot would have given it a generic date-time name. That’s what happened with mine on a recent long cook.

[realdocBBQ]

Possibly. I have also noticed I cannot add notes or pictures like I would like to. This last cook I added one pic, then it wouldn't ever let me add any more. I'd really like to, as it makes the documentation of the cooks a lot nicer.

[klflowers]

Beautiful. We are always our worst critics though, right?

[STEbbq]

fzxdoc has a good recommendation for an injection.

[rlozinak]

Looks like you will have left over bags going out the door when done. All the food looks good though..

[realdocBBQ]

Oh oh - 1 think I forgot - the brisket, probably a good part of why I didn't like it, was it didn't have enough salt.

I injected with beef broth and put a couple of teaspoons of Lawry's Seasoned Salt. Lawry's has 1,520mg of sodium per teaspoon, the equivalent of about 3/4 teaspoon of kosher salt (1920mg Na+ per teaspoon).

According to Swanson's nutritional information webpage, their beef broth contains less than 2% of the sodium in a 2,000 calorie diet, which is 2400mg per day. 2% of 2400mg is 48mg, so if I used 16 oz of broth for injection (96mg) and say 3 teaspoons of Lawry's Seasoning Salt (4,560mg of sodium), this is a total of 4,456mg of sodium - 2.3 teaspoons of kosher salt. Injected into probably 12 lbs of meat after trimming.

And then I was very very light in sprinkling over the surface. I don't know how much, but obviously it wasn't enough.

I was afraid of oversalting and I ended up probably drastically undersalting, which I now realize is a big part of what I didn't like about the flavor of that brisket. The texture was one thing, but it was definitely undersalted.




Salt can be a hard thing to get right on a really large piece of meat, and injecting complicates it significantly.


And the texture... it was definitely crumbly and falling apart, definitely overcooked. But I only took it to 197 in the flat and held it in my pellet smoker for about 4 hours, but I am thinking the pellet smoker was hotter than I wanted - setting at 150 means it goes up and down around that temp, probably spent more time at 170 than I wanted. Honestly, would have been a better idea to just wrap and hold in an ice chest with only that length of time to hold. Or get it to 190 and hold.

But again - such a huge piece of meat, for the center to get to 197, much of the meat in the surrounding areas had to be over 200. This is why Smoke Trails BBQ on YT suggests getting to 190 and then holding at 150 for 8 hours or more. Or so I assume.

I am definitely overcooking it, though. And undersalting it.

I have one more brisket in the fridge to try out. Before I give up on brisket altogether and forever.


I just don't get it. I see these guys on YT throwing out briskets left and right, seemingly minimal effort, and I just can't ever seem to get it right.