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All Things Brisket


kevwun

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5 minutes ago, ChampKind said:

I don’t use prime or wagyu, or a remote temp gauge, or a pellet cooker. I don’t spend all night cooking briskets and tending pits, and I guess I cook a decent brisket.


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You don't have to. It just makes my life easier.  One way is not better, just different.

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You are overthinking it.  If you trimmed your brisket right -- cleaned up all the edges and took down the fat to 1/4 inch or so, all you need to do is wrap it in butcher paper after 4 or 5 hours (whenever it hits the stall around 165-175 temp) and put it in a low oven (225-ish temp) until it is done somewhere around 205-ish temp.  There is only so much smoke that a brisket needs or can absorb.  I think an oven is a much better way to finish the endeavor.  Drink a beer and go to sleep.  Wake up to a great aroma and some excellent brisket.  Make sure to let it rest for 30+ minutes before slicing the flat against the grain.  Don't separate the point, and slice it the opposite of the flat.   
Will be trying this method tonight.

Rocking another 11 lber. $3.29/lb prime from Cedar Park Costco. Threw it in the egg at 6pm. Wife and kids out of town until Monday. I don't report back to work until Tuesday. Going to be a great weekend.

I pulled back on the trimming significantly and am now watching the Thermoworks Receiver as I drink a few cold yellow bellies.






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5 minutes ago, Paco said:

That's right, it's a brisket thread. So quit being such a douchefuck. Because it's not a douchefuck thread.

WIth your depth of vocabulary, you must be in MENSA, like Coach Herman

And by the way, I was yanking his chain, not criticizing...

Edited by AustinMT
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I'll jump into the "don't wrap it" camp.  The very end of the point might get a little dry, but the rest of it likely will be stellar and it probably won't take you but an hour extra to get it done.  The bark will be tremendous and smokey af.

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18 minutes ago, dcbc said:

I'll jump into the "don't wrap it" camp.  The very end of the point might get a little dry, but the rest of it likely will be stellar and it probably won't take you but an hour extra to get it done.  The bark will be tremendous and smokey af.

I'll jump in...if I'm not wrapping, the end of the point gets foiled. Works for me. 

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8 hours ago, deft said:

Don’t put the baby in the smoker.

I gotta agree on this one.  Swaddling a baby on the grate of the smoker really doesn't make sense.  The hood of my truck is generally more accessible.

Also, agree on foiling Just The Tip.

Also, pick up the brisket using a towel or towels, same thing for beef ribs, if you need to move them around.  Won't mess up the bark.

 

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Tried something new last weekend. I have an offset so usually get up early and tend to it for most of the day. This time I smoked it 6 hrs, wrapped and threw it oven at midnight. Woke up at 5am and it was done. Slept some more and held it in the oven all day at 150F until dinner. I've never finished in oven or held that long before. End result was pretty solid.

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My second brisket turned out damn good. Still improvements to make but I was really happy with the results. I used DalTxHornFan's method mentioned above.

11 lb brisket

11 hour cook

 

6pm - Placed in BGE, temp fluctuating around 270 or so

10:45pm - Wrapped in butcher paper, placed in 225 degree oven

  • At this point, brisket seemed to be barely creeping out of the stall, sitting at 167 and the egg was holding steady at 255

5am - Brisket hit 203. Set on counter still in butcher paper for 30 minutes, then into cooler wrapped in towel for 3 or so hours

 

Was a much more enjoyable cook this time. I almost kept the brisket in the smoker, because it had stabilized and everything was running smoothly at the time of the stall, but  I wanted to try something new. After the fiasco that was my last cook it was nice to have the brisket safely in the oven steadily climbing in temp. No fuss. This method seems like it would be good if one were entertaining guests because it seems predictable and solid. The bark had an incredible 'tacky' texture to it -- caramelized goodness.

 

I'm looking forward to continuing with other methods. And I realized after flipping my brisket in the butcher paper that I spilled a pool of juice fr.om the top of the flat. Will be swaddling from here on out -- that was good advice.

 

imgur
My second brisket


imgur

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Looks good @Mortimer 

My 2 cents: I don't think your last brisket turned out dry because you trimmed it too much. Dry usually means you didn't cook it long enough. The thermometer probes are good for tracking your progress on the cook, but don't rely on it to decide when your brisket is actually done. It's done when it probes like butter in the flat (check more than one spot). Personally, I trim my briskets quite a bit, and they always turn out moist. Leaving the fat cap in tact on the point is just going to make the cook take longer. 

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2 hours ago, mapplewhite132 said:

Looks good @Mortimer 

My 2 cents: I don't think your last brisket turned out dry because you trimmed it too much. Dry usually means you didn't cook it long enough. The thermometer probes are good for tracking your progress on the cook, but don't rely on it to decide when your brisket is actually done. It's done when it probes like butter in the flat (check more than one spot). Personally, I trim my briskets quite a bit, and they always turn out moist. Leaving the fat cap in tact on the point is just going to make the cook take longer. 

Good call -- I can see that the fat cap is excessive on this last brisket. I'm going to do more research on trimming.

Eventually, I need to figure out how to check the brisket for doneness without opening the lid too often. For this last cook, I opened the lid only once to wrap and transfer to the oven. 

 

 

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8 minutes ago, Mortimer said:

Good call -- I can see that the fat cap is excessive on this last brisket. I'm going to do more research on trimming.

Eventually, I need to figure out how to check the brisket for doneness without opening the lid too often. For this last cook, I opened the lid only once to wrap and transfer to the oven. 

 

 

Franklin’s YouTube video on how to trim a brisket is helpful

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When buying a whole packer, 12+ lbs, you will want about a 1/4 inch of fat on the flat.  Remove any large hunks of fat around the edges.  I probably take around 2 lbs of fat off a 12lb brisket packer.   I've never had an end product where I've thought, "I trimmed too much fat off".

Good luck, and lets see some pics

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3 hours ago, bigbevo76 said:

When buying a whole packer, 12+ lbs, you will want about a 1/4 inch of fat on the flat.  Remove any large hunks of fat around the edges.  I probably take around 2 lbs of fat off a 12lb brisket packer.   I've never had an end product where I've thought, "I trimmed too much fat off".

Good luck, and lets see some pics

2 lbs?  If you're taking a 12 lb brisket down to 10 lbs just by trimming fat then you're either choosing the wrong brisket or trimming just to be trimming.  Keep it simple.  Last time I was worried about fat around the edges I just told your mom to stop calling me, problem solved.

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2 lbs?  If you're taking a 12 lb brisket down to 10 lbs just by trimming fat then you're either choosing the wrong brisket or trimming just to be trimming.  Keep it simple.  Last time I was worried about fat around the edges I just told your mom to stop calling me, problem solved.


lol4
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I re-heated 2 briskets in a 48 quart igloo on Saturday with my anova.  I started with tap water that wasn't heated and it took about 2 hours to bring the water temp up to 165.  I let them sit in the bath for about 3 hours and they were excellent.  You couldn't really tell that they had been frozen and reheated.  Will definitely do it again in the future.  Much easier than trying to do it in the oven.

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2 hours ago, kevwun said:

I re-heated 2 briskets in a 48 quart igloo on Saturday with my anova.  I started with tap water that wasn't heated and it took about 2 hours to bring the water temp up to 165.  I let them sit in the bath for about 3 hours and they were excellent.  You couldn't really tell that they had been frozen and reheated.  Will definitely do it again in the future.  Much easier than trying to do it in the oven.

Did you vacuum seal them??

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7 hours ago, kevwun said:

I re-heated 2 briskets in a 48 quart igloo on Saturday with my anova.  I started with tap water that wasn't heated and it took about 2 hours to bring the water temp up to 165.  I let them sit in the bath for about 3 hours and they were excellent.  You couldn't really tell that they had been frozen and reheated.  Will definitely do it again in the future.  Much easier than trying to do it in the oven.

I've got to reheat two briskets in a couple weeks, so I'll try this. Thanks. 

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As long as it's not a 17 or 18 pound brisket, it should fit in an 11" wide bag.  I have a food saver too and it worked just fine.  Roll the end of the bag back a couple of inches and you won't have to clean the end of the bag before you can seal it.  I did have to double seal each end of the bag.  I bought some rolls of bags that were not foodsaver brand and they're not great.  I won't do that again.

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2 hours ago, kevwun said:

As long as it's not a 17 or 18 pound brisket, it should fit in an 11" wide bag.  I have a food saver too and it worked just fine.  Roll the end of the bag back a couple of inches and you won't have to clean the end of the bag before you can seal it.  I did have to double seal each end of the bag.  I bought some rolls of bags that were not foodsaver brand and they're not great.  I won't do that again.

The FoodVacBags off-brand works great

http://www.amazon.com/s?marketplaceID=ATVPDKIKX0DER&me=AN5X2G5UN6UA3&merchant=AN5X2G5UN6UA3

Edited by luke duke
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