Yes, another Brisket!

sausagemaneric
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Yes, another Brisket!

Post by sausagemaneric » Wed Jun 01, 2016 04:07

So I got myself a 13 pound packer to take to our cabin on Memorial day and utilize the Char-Griller offset bbq that the family has up there. Problem is, I forgot the brisket! So when I got home, I went and bought one of them Char-Griller, Smokin' Champ. I trimmed up the packer, seasoned it and put it in the fridge til O-Dark thirty tomorrow morning and I will throw it in the 225 degree smoker for 8hrs-10hrs, then likely into some foil for the old crush(Crutch?). Wish me Luck!

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Post by Butterbean » Wed Jun 01, 2016 17:58

Sounds like a great opportunity to make some Montreal beef. Good luck with whatever you make.
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Post by redzed » Thu Jun 02, 2016 06:28

Looking forward to seeing this! Make sure you post pics. :grin:
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Post by Butterbean » Thu Jun 02, 2016 14:39

I dreamed of beef brisket last night and my mind has thought of little else all day.
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Post by sausagemaneric » Fri Jun 03, 2016 16:03

So this one was not an epic fail, but I've done better in the past. The biggest issue I had was it was just under cooked! What a rookie mistake! It was in for 9 hours at 250 degrees unwrapped. Then wrapped in foil for another 2 hours at 250 degrees. I have never checked the temp on anything in a smoker @ 250 degrees for that amount of time, but this episode will change my ways. After it had sat and we sliced it it was still pretty tense. Then after dinner I noticed there was red juice coming from the point(large)end! So the next day I wrapped it in foil again and put it in the oven @ 250 degrees to start and over 8hrs slowly lowered the heat to 200. Eventually I had the temp up to 195 internal at the point. Then I held it at 170 til the wife came home. Now it's a good brisket, day late and cheated with an oven, but it was tender and moist. Had I left that dude in the smoker for 16 hours it would have been my best one. Regarding Pic? Photo Bucket absolutely drives me nuts! I don't know if I'm incompetent or what, I can't seem to master it. There are so many steps to dance around to get a pic posted.

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Post by Butterbean » Fri Jun 03, 2016 16:57

I know your pain. Brisket was the hardest meat for me to learn to cook properly on a consistent basis and like you say, it just takes time and patience but when done right there is little that can compare to it.

Another thing you could have done is put the brisket in a square pan on a rack and add water to the pan and tent with foil then place on the stove burners and steam it till done. Yes, cheating again but sometime you gotta do what you gotta do.

With photobucket all you need do is go to the right of your photo and press the IMG and this will copy the address to you clipboard. Then come back to your post on this board and put the cursor where you want the picture and right click and press paste and the link will be pasted and when you hit the submit button the photo will be posted.

Here is a pic of one I did a while back. It was beautiful. I drizzled some Dead Man's sauce on it. Recipe is on this site in the recipe index. Very good finishing sauce.
http://www.wedlinydomowe.pl/en/viewtopi ... t=deadmans
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Butterbean wrote:Deadman's Sauce
3 cups apple cider vinegar
2/3cups brown sugar
2/3cups ketchup
1teaspoon tobasco
1teaspoon salt
1teaspoon onion powder
1teaspoon coarsely ground black pepper
1teaspoon Worcestershire sauce

Combine all ingredients in a saucepan and simmer for about half hour, whisking periodically, until the sauce just begins to thicken. Serve immediately, or reserve in the refrigerator and reheat. Mix with pork as you are pulling.
Last edited by Butterbean on Sun Jun 05, 2016 11:47, edited 3 times in total.
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Post by sausagemaneric » Fri Jun 03, 2016 23:23

I've posted two replies on this thread and they aren't "taking"

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Post by sausagemaneric » Fri Jun 03, 2016 23:36

OK, so that one stuck. After we had eaten and the brisket cooled down I could see red liquid forming on the cutting board. Not only under cooked, but way under cooked. Seems hard to accept when it was in the cooker @ 250 degrees for 11 hrs. Two of the eleven hours it was wrapped in foil!......I wrapped it again and put it in the oven the following morning @ 250 degrees for 3 hrs, then rolled the temp back to 200 till the meat was up to 195 degrees. Collected a fair amount of liquid and fat in the pan. Now it tastes like a brisket! I am thinking this thing needed around 16 hours minimum. I am gonna start using a thermometer to keep track of the progress with out opening the smoker. I have read that you need 1-1/4 hr per pound. This thing was 13 pounds to start with. I likely trimmed away 3 pounds of hard fat. So that would come out to 12.5 hours. I might start getting a jump on these things by putting it in the oven at around 2:00 AM. Then when I have the BBQ going around 10:00 AM I will toss it in and keep it at 250 degrees til 6:00 PM, watching the thermometer all the while.......
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Post by Butterbean » Sat Jun 04, 2016 02:19

I'm not sure but I think putting it in the oven before putting in the smoker will hinder the formation of a smoke ring. Before doing that, I can't help but wonder if foiling it and bumping the heat up wouldn't be a better route near the end. Doing this you will have formed your smoke ring and you will basically just be steaming it to finish and steam won't toughen the meat like dry heat will.

Adding some finishing sauce to the foiled brisket would also be a plus I think.
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Post by redzed » Sat Jun 04, 2016 15:17

sausagemaneric, I don't think you did anything wrong here, other than missing the last step. BB pointed out that you could have steamed it after the smoking phase and that would probably have made a difference. You can easily steam the brisket on a rack in a roaster. Usually 2 hours is recommended. Schwartz's Deli finishes their Montreal style pastrami by steaming and Kat'z of New York apparently finish their briskets by poaching. I guess that is the main difference between preparing a pastrami and pulled pork.
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Post by Butterbean » Sat Jun 04, 2016 16:12

Yes, by no means am I criticizing what you did just discussing thoughts on other possibilities to achieve a good brisket just like I would if we were drinking a beer together and talking BBQ. I'm no expert by any means but I have made many mistakes over the years which I can share.

When smoking brisket and pulled pork I view it in three phases. First is the rub and allowing the rub time enough to penetrate the meat. Second is the initial smoking where my goal is to achieve a good smoke ring. Granted, the smoke ring does little for flavor but it does add that eye appeal. From what I have been told, the smoke ring will only set in the first 3 hours of a cook so its important to suberge the meat in a heavy smoke at the beginning to achieve the maximum smoke ring. The last phase is just the cooking and getting the meat to the 195-197F internal. IMO, this is less critical when it comes to heat and when I get in a bind for time I'm not hesitant to bump the heat up to 300-325F and wrapping the meat and allowing steam to help speed things up. Granted this may not be as good as properly cooked unwrapped brisket but I don't think many will complain at the results. Of course some want a drier bark and when this is of importance you can always unwrap the meat when the temp is right and finish naked to dry the bark some.

But like you say, getting the internal temp to 195F is critical its just that there are several ways to get it there and sometimes you have to improvise a little.

Like I've said, brisket is the hardest meat I've found to cook consistently well and I've had plenty of train wrecks along the way. I just wouldn't put it in the oven first because I think this will be at the smoke ring.

One other thing I've found that helps and that is a 12 pack of Mike's Hard Lemonade or a gallon of chilled Skeeter Pee because cooking a brisket is an adventure and a long one at that but that's what makes it fun.
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Post by Bob K » Sun Jun 05, 2016 14:01

How Katz's Deli Makes Their Perfect Pastrami ( They send it out to be cooked!)
http://www.seriouseats.com/2014/05/how- ... trami.html

Only 20 bucks for a Reuben or Pastrami sandwich... Welcome to NYC
http://www.seriouseats.com/2014/05/how- ... trami.html
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Post by Butterbean » Sun Jun 05, 2016 16:46

Interesting. That's almost cheating isn't it? But I bet they don't do it by choice. Recently saw where one of the oldest BBQ places in Texas is under fire from the city counsel because a neighbor who bought a house next to the BBQ place is complaining about the smoke. Apparently the smoke offends him for some reason. Says his house smells like BBQ and not tofu. I imagine if they were getting $20 a sandwich they could buy this malcontent out and bulldoze his house down.
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Post by sausagemaneric » Mon Jun 06, 2016 04:01

This is great discussion. I actually had this one foiled for the last 2 hrs solid @ 250-275 degrees, and rendered plenty of liquid and fat. Next time I do a brisket, I am staying up to watch the God Father-part 2. At midnight I'm putting it on at 350 degrees and let the temp go down while I sleep to say 3:00-3:30 AM. I'll get up and stoke the fire so it stays @ 250 degrees and go back to sleep. That way I will have a seven hour head start........................
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Post by Butterbean » Mon Jun 06, 2016 04:15

Wish me luck, I'm making the journey either Wed or Thurs of this week and the brisket MUST be ready to eat at 7 pm. Drinking Mike's Hard Lemonade at 5 a.m isn't frowned upon as bad as drinking beer I hope.
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