The best laid plans....

[GusRobin]

....sometimes go down the tubes.

1) First plan was brisket. Defrosted a 13.5# Angus I had in the freezer


Trimmed and put a simple rub of salt, pepper, and gunpowder seasoning and into the fridge overnight.


Ended up with a 1 3/4 lbs of beef fat for sausage


Normally I put the brisket in the Bradley the night before around 8pm at 225# with 4 hours of smoke and then change the water and leave it at 225# and go to bed. Get up the next morning around 8 and check things out. I then pull it at 185* and FTC for a few hours. Brisket usually comes out very tender but a little on the dry side. Not tough dry but not totally moist.

So this time I was going to try something different. I got up at 4:30 on Sat, put it in with 4 hours of smoke at 280*; after the smoke time I wrapped it in foil with 1/4 cup apple cider. Took it out when it was at 185* IT.

Out after 4 hours of smoke


In the foil


Now if this was a made for TV movie I would be telling you that it turned out great. But alas, life doesn't always work that way and it came out on the tough side.
Not sure why. The Point was ok but the flat was tough and dry. One problem I ran it to is that I think there was a hole in the foil and a lot of the juices may have run out, but if I was cooking with no "crutch" it would have ran out also. So I don't know why.
But the good thing about this hobby you get to eat the mistakes. Cut up part of the point and made burnt ends; threw the rest in the crock pot and made some good shredded beef sandwiches, and will shred the rest of the brisket for taco meat.

2) So I thought I would make up for all this and make some chicken/sun dried sausage from Kevin's recipe in a previous post and make the first batch of homemade pasta with my pasta maker.
So I ground up some boneless chicken breast

Mixed the dry ingredients and mixed it all together. Then dragged out the stuffer, went into the fridge to get the casings. And you guessed it - no casings. Thought for sure that I had some. Unfortunately there wasn't any where relatively close that was open.
So the meat goes into a bag and  freezer until I get some casings.
Needless to say I didn't even try to start making the pasta.

Oh well, tomorrow is another day

[watchdog56]

Bummer

[sjmcdowall]

Here are some tips I do that so far (knock on wood or my head) has worked 100% of the time for me (ok ok -- it's been only 5 briskets so far but still.. )

1 -- Don't trim TOO much fat ... I leave about 1/2" on or so (easy enough to remove after if desired)

2 -- INJECT the brisket with no/low sodium beef broth

3 -- I only let the brisket sit for 2-3 hours max with rub.  All that salt can cause the beef to become Jerky over time... (assuming you have salt in your rub) ..

4 -- I DO texas crutch the brisket and add a bit more beef broth -- but I put it in a sturdy roasting pan and cover tightly ... that way pretty much guaranteed no leakage ..

Obviously none of these are new ideas -- but tried and true ones from sages past.  But they really do work for me! 

Good luck!