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All Things Brisket


kevwun

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It’s a great marketing gimmick that keeps restaurants and bbq joints buying CAB meat.i sell food for a living and it’s always fun to stump a restaurantuer when i inform them of the marketing gimmick that has been played on them and they immediately fire the rep that’s screwed them over with price for the past 3-5 years.

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2 minutes ago, ChampKind said:

Its a marketing scheme that has trained the consumer to believe that CAB is better. Which means restaurants can charge consumers more for the “higher quality” meat

Like Zoloft advertising directly to target end-users. :D

 

 

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18 hours ago, Buzzrock said:

I knew it was horseshit. So what should one look for? Just prime beef packers?

Champ may be able to tell the difference, but for the everyday cook a select packer will be good.

Prime will most certainly be a CAB and cost you more

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After my visit to la BBQ on Friday, I've been rethinking this whole thing. I seem to recall some talk of this on the old thread but I didn't pay a ton of attention to it. 

The brisket I had there was impossibly moist, even the flat. I've always just assumed the flat could only be so moist and was going to dry out pretty quickly once sliced because that was my experience, and admittedly due to my current geographic location and living in TX before the BBQ explosion, I have never really seen or sampled brisket that juicy until last week. 

So I've been thinking about it, and the conclusion I have arrived at, without any experimenting yet, is that it has to be the rest. I think these briskets are "done" many hours before opening, wrapped in butcher paper and held at a temp that keeps them warm but not warm enough like a faux cambro (which I consider to be a towel and a small cooler, Mr. Champ can correct me if I'm wrong) where it would keep cooking. I've had some really juicy briskets when I have pulled them short of probe tender and left them in a faux cambro for 5-6 hours prior to cooking. I'm thinking that these top end places finish their briskets, wrap in butcher paper, and hold them around 100 degrees or so for 5-6 hours before serving them, and that adds an element of moisture that is heavenly. 

Champ, am I talking crazy? 

I don't know if this pic is a great representative of what I'm talking about. This is a fatty slice, but you can see the flat slice in the background and a couple slices underneath. 

Incidentally, while we didn't order brisket, I did catch a glimpse of someone else's brisket plate at Stiles Switch the next day and pardon my expression it looked "dry as fuck". Nothing like what we at at la. 

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Every little bit helps.  Do you spray or mop during the cook?  I have learned how much the quality of your pit can make a difference also since I got my new one.  I've got something comparable to what the pros use now and it has made a difference.  My briskets have just the right amount of smoke because the pit makes good clean and even heat.  Cooking in a smokey oven at a steady temp helps produce the texture and level of moisture that you are talking about.

Edited by kevwun
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My new toy. I named her Smokey Daniels. Clearly homemade a long time ago, thick metal, and crafted to last a lifetime. Found her on Facebook marketplace for $250 (though I paid an extra $50 renting a trailer and on gas to pick her up from about 90 miles away). Can’t wait to fire her up and smoke a brisket. Need some good wood (no homo) and a weekend with nothing else to do. My new prize possession. Sounds lame but this makes me incredibly happy!

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12 minutes ago, RMac5 said:

Kevwun what do you spray it with? I spritz mine with all apple juice or apple cider vinegar, water might be just as effective.

I have a 32oz spray bottle so that's what this recipe makes.

2 cups apple cider vinegar
1/2 cup Worcestershire
juice of two lemons

I pour all that in the spray bottle and then top it off with water.  It makes enough to do 3 or 4 briskets so I usually end up pouring a lot out.

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You can't put it in the cooler until it's had time to cool 30 or 40 degrees.  If you go straight in to the cooler, it's got enough heat in it to turn a well insulated small box in to an oven. The warmer can regulate it's temp so that even if it's full of brisket, it stays cool enough that the briskets can't keep cooking.

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Also, one thing I learned the hard way (and I've learned a whole bunch of things the hard way) is that coolers are meant for cold things. Hot things make them expand, then crack open along the bottom. I have numerous large coolers to provide as Exhibits A, B, C, etc. before I figured out what was a-going on.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Experiment got delayed by a few weeks but it's on for now. I put a trimmed, 11 lber (before trimming) on about 8:30 tonight. My wife has a PTO meeting tomorrow night and I'm having a couple of buddies over for beers and to entertain the kids with their jackassery and eat brisket. The plan is to eat around 8. I will let the WSM run wherever it wants overnight (probably around 260-275) and I figure the thing will be done around 8 AM. I will let it cool to about 175? and then double wrap it in butcher paper with a probe still in it, wrap that in alum foil, wrap that in a towel and place in a cooler and monitor. If the temps start dipping too fast into the danger zone I'll just pop it in the oven at 170 for the rest of the day. 

Any recommended changes to this plan? Champ? Shoeless Joe? Luke? Shaggy brisket mafia?

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Yeah, I stuck the Thermapen in a few places in the flat and that's what I'm getting above. I'm going to pull it in 10 minutes because I have a 1:00 conference call. 

The stall, who the hell knows since my Gateway disconnected during the night (see Thermoworks thread). When I woke up it was at 165 and the fire was at 240. 

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I don't know, we'll see. It was probing at 206, 207 in most places. A little better feel but not great. I let it rest until it got down to about 170, wrapped it back up, wrapped another layer of butcher paper over it, taped it, and it's into the 170 degree oven. It's hanging in the low to mid 160s now. Plan to keep it somewhere between here and 140 until serving around 8. We'll see how it goes. 

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Yeah, I stuck the Thermapen in a few places in the flat and that's what I'm getting above. I'm going to pull it in 10 minutes because I have a 1:00 conference call. 
The stall, who the hell knows since my Gateway disconnected during the night (see Thermoworks thread). When I woke up it was at 165 and the fire was at 240. 


Bro, always go by feel. Always. I give fuckall about what temp the probe says when we’re talking brisket
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