Using Aaron Franklin's Method for Brisket

Yesterday, I did another brisket which came out pretty well. I have been using Aaron Franklin's method for cooking brisket and I thought I would share my experiences with the group. I typically use choice packers.

1. Trim the fat to about 1/4".

2. Use 50/50 coarse ground pepper and kosher salt as a rub.

3. Foil over the water pan and preheat the WSM to 250F.

4. Let the brisket come to room temperature. Place the brisket fat side up on the grate next to a disposal loaf pan filled with water. Smoke with your favorite wood until you until reach an internal temperature of 165F.

5. At 165F first check the bark to make sure it is solid, nice color, and well set. If the bark is good, spritz the brisket with a 50/50 mix of water and worcester sauce and then triple wrap in 40 pound, food service grade, pink butcher paper. I have been using 18" width and now see a real need to go to 24" width.

6. Maintain 250F and starting checking for done at 190F internal temperature. Done means the brisket feels soft and pliable through the paper. You could also check for done by carefully unwrapping the brisket and poking it with a thermometer probe but if you are doing things right the paper is going to stick to the very carmely and sticky bark. I have tried this way and only succeeded in shredding the paper. Instead, I do the probe test by pushing a bamboo skewer through the paper. If the brisket needs to go longer, I seal the hole with a stack of three small pieces of butcher paper soaked in a little vegetable oil.

7. When the brisket passes the probe test in the flat, let it rest wrapped up at room temperature for an hour before slicing for service or holding.

8. My WSM is 20+ years old with a Cajun Bandit door, compression latch, and a HeaterMeter ATC (no gaskets). With all the accumulated gunk, the new door, and the new latch, my WSM is pretty tight. If I need to hold the brisket for a while before I serve it, I can crank the WSM down to 160F, hold that temperature (please note that your mileage may vary), and use it like a holding oven. At Franklin BBQ, the briskets come off the smoker at 1:30 AM and once they are rested at room temperature, they are held in an Alto Shaam holding oven until the restaurant opens at 11:00 AM. That long hold does not seem to hurt the quality of his product and may actually help it.

-- Mache

Place the brisket fat side up on the grate next to a disposal loaf pan filled with water.

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Mache, what's the pan of water along side the beef doing for this cook?
in Aaron's video, I believe he used it because of the small smoker and the risk of burning the brisket..
wouldn't using the WSM waterpan WITH water work the same?

Since the WSM water pan is directly below the brisket catching all its rendered fat and drippings and because fat floats on water, I believe that water evaporation would be inhibited during a smoke and you would not get humidification. That is why is put a disposable loaf pan filled with water beside the brisket on the grate.

-- Mache

Mache, your efforts are to be commended, but you're not going to duplicate Aaron Franklin's brisket. For one thing, the wsm can't duplicate the smoke flavor from Franklin's stickburners. Also, he supposedly uses beef that's superior to grocery store beef. Snake River Farms, is it?

I do like the butcher paper for wrapping for sure, but just because he cooks in small offsets at 250 doesn't mean you can't cook faster. After all, I heard him say in one segment that they cook at 300 in the restaurant. Works for me.

No need for the water pan on the wsm for brisket. I've cooked with both, and I bet you anything there's as much moisture in the wsm without water as there is in an offset with water, at least at grate level where it counts.

Be all that as it may, I'd sit down to sample your brisket efforts any day! It's addictive, isn't it?! Just wish they weren't so dang expensive!

Thanks Dave,

I agree that choice briskets from Costco aren't going to compete with briskets from boutique ranchers (I heard Franklin uses Creekstone briskets). Marbling and meat quality does matter in making a great smoked brisket.

Regarding the issue of humidifying the smoke chamber, its my belief that a water pan on the grate does help but without an instrument to measure its just speculation.

As to pit temperature, given the size of Franklin's smokers (converted 1,000 gallon propane tanks with 1/4" steel walls) and their design as offset smokers with an air-gap'ed firebox on one end and a smoke stack on the other, I would be very surprised if he was able to maintain a consistent temperature end-to-end across the length of his smoker. If you look at some of the videos, his pits show that he has multiple thermometers along the length of the tank. I would not be surprised if he had at least a 25 and possibly 50 degree gradient with the hotest part near the firebox on one end and the coolest part by the smoke stack on the other. It is my belief that part of the value that Franklin provides to his customers is being able to consistently produce superior briskets at commercial scale despite those temperature variations. He may compensate by pulling some briskets earlier than others on the cooler side or he could be moving them around so that all get more or less the same heat energy. I just don't know.

So you may be right and I should try to smoke at 300F. For me, I just want to perfect one way to get a great brisket out of my WSM so I will stick with 250F, water pan on the grate, and butcher paper wrap at the stall, rest for an hour, and then hold at 160F for the time being. I am still trying to better understand what a done brisket looks and feels like and how to sense that I am creeping up on that moment. Once I master consistently producing a superior brisket for the grade of meat I am using, I will start tinkering with the algorithm and to try and optimize the process. Running at higher heat will be one of the first things I will try. For now, I am just trying to get a consistently great result. I do OK but believe I can do much better.

-- Mache

Mache said:

Thanks Dave...I am still trying to better understand what a done brisket looks and feels like and how to sense that I am creeping up on that moment. Once I master consistently producing a superior brisket for the grade of meat I am using, I will start tinkering with the algorithm and to try and optimize the process. Running at higher heat will be one of the first things I will try. For now, I am just trying to get a consistently great result. I do OK but believe I can do much better.

-- Mache

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Sounds like a plan to me. I think I'm going to get a Guru adaptor for my 22 so I can use my PartyQ on it. The wind gave me fits on my last cook without my ATC or water in the pan! Thankfully though, the brisket still turned out really good. I think all that bit about maintaining a temp within 15 degrees the whole time "so the meat isn't shocked" is a bunch of baloney.

Your plan looks good. Smoke at 275, not 250 (it's doesn't matter all that much).

Also, he uses two sheets of 18" for width; and may hold for 2 to 4 hours in a 200 degree oven.

Dave Russell said:

I think I'm going to get a Guru adaptor for my 22 so I can use my PartyQ on it.

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Before I built my HeaterMeter, I used a BBQ Guru Competitor. I still use the Guru Universal Adapter to attach their Pit Viper 10CFM fan to the WSM but now run it off the HeaterMeter. My next two projects are to build a ping pong ball check valve between the fan and the adapter and gasket the door and sections with nomex. I have pretty good control now, but more is better.

-- Mache

Alan F said:

and may hold for 2 to 4 hours in a 200 degree oven.

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I am just guessing but I know Franklin uses Alto Shaams to hold his briskets for at least 10 hours and the Alto Shaam website recommends holding barbeque brisket at 160F. I know Franklin lets his briskets rest for an hour and Harry Soo recommends that you let brisket rest to 170F internal temperature before wrapping in towels and place it in a cooler. My feeling is that after an hour's rest if you can consistently provide 160F (which my WSM with my ATC is able to do) then why not use the lower temperature. As long as you are above 140F you are not in any danger of bacterial growth.

-- Mache

Thanks for the extra research Mache! I had figured out to rest it until 170 before wrapping to keep it from continuing to cook, but you've given me a new use for the ATC that is supposed to arrive tomorrow. I just hope I can hold temps as low as 160 after installing the CB door (which is also in the mail).

Mache... Might I suggest that you go to one of the pro bbq contests in your area. Seek out the top pitmasters and talk to them about what you are trying to achieve... "I am still trying to better understand what a done brisket looks and feels like and how to sense that I am creeping up on that moment". Most pitmasters enjoy talking bbq and are willing to help you in your endeavor. They can be an excellent resource.

Bob

Bob, that is exactly what I am planning on doing. Unfortunately, the next BBQ competition in my town doesn't have a brisket category. I still have a few leads on some local talent and am considering offering to buy a practice brisket for one of them if they'll let me probe it as it goes from undercooked to done.

Mark... I'll pm you with a list of KCBS contests in your state

Bob

Thanks Bob!

Bob,

Thanks, that's a good idea. Can you PM me a list of KCBS contests in the San Francisco Bay Area as well.

-- Mache

Mache if you want to cook the ultimate brisket its not hard, Take the largest roaster pan you can fit on the top grate of your WSM, set the wire rack inside the roaster pan, add 1"-2" of liquid in the pan, place your rubbed brisket inside the roaster pan fat side up the pan will protect the meat from the direct heat and the fat cap will protect the brisket from the top, cook brisket @ 275+ till done. No need to foil or butcher paper, guaranteed your brisket will be just as good if not better than Franklin's. Make sure the original water pan is removed during this cook.

Hi Noe,

That's interesting. You are saying that the liquid in the roaster will insure that the meat does not lose significant moisture and the finished product will be even more moist and have as good or better bark than you can get with butcher paper. Given you have 1,537 posts and live in South Texas, I am assuming you have done this many times with very good results.

-- Mache

Mache...

Tried to pm the list to Mark, but due to constrains within the pm system, ended up just pm'ing Mark the url.

For California, that url is http://www.kcbs.us/events.php?str=CA&fromDate=04/18/14&toDate=12/31/14&search=Search
One can search for contests, within their state and within a date range, as needed.

Another place to look for contests, specifically in California, is the CBBQA site...
http://www.cbbqa.org/wiki/index.php?temp=0
Contests, and events, are listed on the right side.

Hope this helps.

On a slightly different note, my goal as a KCBS judge is to someday judge this event : http://www.kingofthesmoker.com/

Bob

Mark R (LR) said:

Bob, that is exactly what I am planning on doing. Unfortunately, the next BBQ competition in my town doesn't have a brisket category. I still have a few leads on some local talent and am considering offering to buy a practice brisket for one of them if they'll let me probe it as it goes from undercooked to done.

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Mark, while I certainly probe and probe some more, I'm not in the camp that says there should be no resistance when probing, like pork shoulder. I guess as they say, it should be like warm butter. I am no brisket expert, because I don't cook them enough. I will say this though. I think you learn more from overcooking than undercooking them.

It's been a while since I messed one up, but this last one was one of my better ones. Fork tender is one thing, but I think it should be "cheap plastic fork" tender and should drape down like this when you hold a slice on your finger. As you can tell from the picture, the point (on the right) was tender long before the flat and I didn't have a knife sharp enough to slice it. It was some of the finest beef you could put on a sammich or nachos, though.

Mache said:

Since the WSM water pan is directly below the brisket catching all its rendered fat and drippings and because fat floats on water, I believe that water evaporation would be inhibited during a smoke and you would not get humidification. That is why is put a disposable loaf pan filled with water beside the brisket on the grate.

-- Mache

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Believe me, i always use water in water pan in my 22.5 WSM smoking at 225/250f (never more until now) ribs, briskets and shoulder and i run out of water always. Grease melted in the water do not stop evaporation, at all! I usually check for moistness during the cook session with a spoon over the exhaust vent. It is always plenty of.

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