First Brisket - seems like a campaign, not just a smoke!

[fishrman]

This is my first attempt at a brisket.  I followed the Brisket Pachanga directions as I like to have a solid recipe base the first time I try out something new, and boy was I glad of the step by step way it was laid out – complete with photos!  Just to add a little pressure, I invited the whole family over for the experience, and promised ribs out of the smoker as well.  I had a 9 lb. brisket and figured I was in for a 12-15 hour smoke.  Did all the prep work in advance and got the mustard-slathered beef into the fridge night before last.  I was targeting a midnight smoke start, so at 11:00 fired up the BDS to get it to preheat, setting it to 250F, and calibrated the food probe. 

The weather decided not to cooperate.  At all.  We had winds gusting to 35 mph with heavy rain and thunderstorms. I have an overhang on the back patio that I knew would offer pretty good, but not complete protection with the wind direction they were forecasting.  Temps dipped into the 40's, but that was better than the high 20's/low 30's we'd been having.  I had anticipated the lower temps and made an insulating blanket out of a water heater wrap.  Having looked at the weather forecast earlier in the day, I also bought a clear plastic box and made a housing for my just arrived BBQ Guru Raptor/DigiQ gear.  This is what it looked like:






This worked out really well.  I could clearly read the pit/food temp through the lid of the box and it succeeded in keeping the blowing rain off the electrical stuff.  The insulating wrap worked great.  I let the smoke warm up and stabilize and without the wrap the smoker was maxing out at 225F.  I put the wrap on was able to get the preheat to the 250F I wanted.  The bad news is that the wrap is plastic on one side and exposed fiberglass on the other.  Unfortunately, the rain did get on the plastic on the outside of the wrap, ran down and then got absorbed by the fiberglass.  So while this seems like an OK dry weather technique, I'll have to find something else that will be all-weather.

OK, so the recipe indicated it would be wise to take the brisket out of the fridge an hour before putting in the smoker.  I actually took it out 2 hours in advance thinking the weather would limit the smoker preheat temp and a little extra warming would help keep things on track.  Just for yuks, I put a temp probe in the thick part of the meat to see how much it warmed up.  I was surprised to see how little it actually changed over 2 hours and wonder if there is really a great benefit to doing this.  Here's what it looked like:

10:00 – 39F
10:45 – 43F
11:15 – 45F
11:55 – 48F

So the moment of truth arrived at the stroke of midnight.  I filled the large aluminum foil pan in the bottom with boiling water and stacked 5 hours of pucks in the smoker with 3 Bubba pucks to cap it off.  I used a mix of apple, hickory and mesquite in the following order AAAHMAAAHMAAAHM.  The brisket went in and smoke started coming out the top.  Time to catch a bit of sleep as I had a 7am tee time with my regular golf buddies.

Got up at 5:30 and checked the progress.  Smoker temp was 225F (perfect), so I reset the temp from the 250F to 225F to maintain this temp, refilled the pan with boiling water and added another 3 hours of smoke (AAAHMAAHM).  I have to admit that I gulped a bit as the brisket temp was already up to 165F with a final target of about 190F!  Here's where those of you with more experience wouldn't blink, but to me that 165 seemed awfully close considering that I was going to be away for the next 5-6 hours.  "Have faith." I told myself, and went off to play some really ugly golf in the wind, rain and mud.  The whole time I was thinking about the brisket and hoping it was not going to get overdone.  Got home, kissed the dog, patted the wife on the head and went straight to the smoker.  Score!  186F!  I did the fork test and it seemed to perhaps be a little overdone, but it had not had the FTC time yet, or perhaps I'm too much of a rookie to be a good judge yet.  At any rate, here's what it looked like coming out of the smoker.



So now it is sitting in the cooler doing whatever it is doing, hopefully relaxing and focusing on turning into the perfect brisket. 

Now that the brisket was out of the smoker, it was time for the ribs to go in.  I had rubbed the slab the night before and had it rest in the fridge.  Topped off the water, added in 3 hours of hickory, and now the waiting game begins.  Arrgh – I just realized I haven't even thought about side dishes for this meal!  OK, gotta go for now but will update with the final product and reviews!

[FLBentRider]

Looks good so far.

I have learned with brisket its not always about the exact temp but how the probe feels going in. Some I have pulled at 185-190 and others have gone to 205-210F before they were ready.

[mikecorn.1]

Nice. About spewed my drink out my nose on the Kissed the dog and patted the wife on the head comment      :D


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[KyNola]

8 hours of smoke?  That is a lot of smoke.  The brisket looked really good.

[SouthernSmoked]

WOWSER!!!  That's looking really good!

[fishrman]

The ribs finally finished their 6 hour journey through the BDS, the brisket had 5 hours in the FTC state of mind, the side dishes were done and the family gathered around.  Here was the centerpiece:






I really was looking forward to the posting that said this was the best brisket ever, but alas, it was not to be.  After all the buildup for the family about the brisket, it was a bit of a disappointment.  I thought it seemed a bit overdone when I did the fork test, and turns out I was right.  The cuts you see above had good flavor but were actually quite dry.  I'm not sure how it turned out that way as I calibrated the food probe prior to using it, and I took it out at 186F.  Too much time in FTC?  Should I start the fork testing at 175F?  This one is definitely a do-over.  That being said, the brisket was totally salvageable when chopped, mixed with a bit of sauce and destined for sandwiches.  The fattier deckle portion added a juiciness and the sweet tang of the sauce complements it beautifully.

The ribs, on the other hand, were a great success.  I used the rub/crutch/sauce 3/2/1 method and they came out great.  One could argue I went a bit heavy on the rub, but that would be only if one was looking for an argument!  I only did one slab as I only have a learner's permit at this point, but I can easily see filling up the smoker with baby backs for a great rib family dinner.

All in all a great 18-hour session with the BDS, some questions raised, some lessons learned.  The big question now is, "What next?" 

[Quarlow]

Nice work fishrman, glad it worked out ok. We live and learn and move on to be better. The next brisket is sure to be great, but maybe less golf time would help. LOL. My hat is off to you as I still am not brave enough to try brisket. It is very expensive and I am not willing to try.

[mikecorn.1]

Ditto. I haven't got the nerve up to do one either. Plus the $30 plus amount scares me.


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[viper125]

Looks good from here. But I never leave when smoking unless the wife is watching it for me and thats no more then an hour at a time. That siad I'm with the rest. I've never did a brisket and keep putting it off. Price is really a factor. But I am getting curious.

[ClarkstonMark]

Looks good from here. But I never leave when smoking unless the wife is watching it for me and thats no more then an hour at a time. That siad I'm with the rest. I've never did a brisket and keep putting it off. Price is really a factor. But I am getting curious.

Ya I gotta give you credit, that is one hell of a ballsy move to go golfing when your first brisket is at that stage.

[fishrman]

Looks good from here. But I never leave when smoking unless the wife is watching it for me and thats no more then an hour at a time. That siad I'm with the rest. I've never did a brisket and keep putting it off. Price is really a factor. But I am getting curious.

Ya I gotta give you credit, that is one hell of a ballsy move to go golfing when your first brisket is at that stage.

If by 'ballsy' you mean 'rookie mistake', I may have to agree with you ;)  But I thought I got away with it when the temp reading in the flat was 186F.  Smoke and learn . . .

[Keymaster]

Looks good to me, I saw on another forum a guy put his leftover brisket in a foodprocessor, added some mayonaise and whatever else sounds good and make a Pate' type spread for sandwiches and crackers. May be worth a try.

[Quarlow]

Well that sounds tasty.

[viper125]

Could be a lot worse. I made a batch of trail bologna in my kitchen upstairs. But found I was out of salt. So took it down stairs got caught up in something and totally forgot the salt. Found out trail with out salt isn't very good. So ground it up added miracle whip and relish and it makes a great sandwich spread. So wallah no mistake a whole brand new recipe for sandwich spread. LOL Also love to lay a few hot peppers on that sandwich.

[bigmikey]

Exact same thing happened with the 2 briskets I have tried. Took first one to 190, second one to 185 and both were FTC'd for 3-4 hours and both were dry. Next one I try I think I'm gonna take to 175 and see if it makes a difference.