Hi-temp Brisket Dinner

A rundown on yesterday's dinner:

13.5-lb packer (no-roll); I decided to do no trimming at all.



82 degrees and sunny with light variable breezes. I did not want to tap my low supply of lump (it's only R.O. as I haven't made it to Tampa to get better lump but I am not sure if I'm ccoking here through Sunday and hence needing the lump or leaving today) so I used Kingsford.

MM start but instead of 12-15 fully lit coals I used twice that and only waited till they were partially lit. Empty water pan; no Guru or Stoker; 6 small pieces of hickory and I managed to find one small piece of apple (I'm now offically out of apple). The only therm I used was one stuck into a top vent hole (the one from BBQ Guru with the silicone plug). I did not temp the meat during cooking at all.

I made two rubs: a paste to apply to the brisket first, and a dry to go over the paste. (Recipe here.)



Had I known the previous day that I was definitely going to be here to do the brisket I would likely have applied the paste rub then, wrapped the meat in plastic, and fridged it, applying the dry rub just before cooking. One over the other applied just before cooking is fine though.

Paste-rubbed:



Dry applied over the paste:



The paste is a puree of onion, garlic, a splash of Worcestershire and some pickled jalapeños. A little salt finished it. The dry rub includes ground coffee; several 'sweet' spices (fennel, clove, coriander, cardamom); the aromatics onion, ginger and garlic; thyme and marjoram for herbs; and black and white pepper plus Aleppo pepper for the pepper and chile components. No sugar. Since I was putting the dry rub over the paste rub I included some salt in the dry rub.

The meat went into the cooker at 3:20pm, just after pouring on the partially lit and assembling the cooker. Lid temp climbed to 280 over the course of 30 min but did not want to go higher. The farrier showed up at 4 and, needing to help him and wanting to move the cook along, I propped the door open an inch. When I checked at 4:20 or so the lid temp was 350. I closed the door and checked later: it was nearing 300 so I propped the door open again.

For most of my high heat brisket cooks plateau is broken somewhere between 2 and 2.5 hours. This brisket was a little larger than most I do and, as it was untrimmed, I decided to go a little longer and foiled the brisket at 2:40 into the cook. I did not check the internal temp. I did not add anything to the foil. The cook continued at 350-370 lid for the duration.

I checked the brisket for tenderness about an hour later and could feel that it needed more time. 20 min later I checked again and the probe went in smoothly. The brisket had thrown off quite a bit of juices, 2 cups of which I removed to a fat separator, then I added a piece of foil to the brisket, wrapping it well, and left in on the counter to rest, under a towel.

Brisket just off the grate:




I never see butter lettuce in town, never. Surprisingly, I found a single head of hydro butter when shopping the day before and nabbed that. Salad was butter lettuce topped with local ripe tomato (the season is starting nicely here), local Kirby cuke slices, and a dollop of a sort of thick cesar-like dressing topped with toasted almonds, with a garnish of avocado slices.



The brisket rested about 30 min, ample time for high-heat briskets cooked till tender though one can go longer. It sliced very easily, was very tender and moist. I was quite pleased with the rub flavors but thought it lacked a little salt. A sprinkle of that and the brisket was delicious on its own--my requirement for barbecue.

But(!) I love sauces of course. I had scored some delicious ripe Chilean nectarines for the previous day's cook and decided to make a sauce based on them as I felt ripe nectarine would go so well with the flavors of the two rubs. So the sauce was ripe nectarine sweetened further by red bell pepper, onion, shallot and garlic, with a touch of turbinado, smoked paprika and a little chipotle for smoke and heat, and ketchup for balance. (Recipe here.) I finished the sauce with a generous pour of the juices I had (mostly) fat-separated--the juices I'd saved from the brisket after I'd pulled it from the cooker. Worked very well.

I blanched then sauteed chopped kale in a little butter with a little garlic then folded in freshly roasted quartered fingerling potatoes. Garnish: Chilled nectarine slices topped with toasted almonds.

Kevin,
I like that idea of the paste rub. I think the ingredients in it would work well with the dry rub I make for my brisket.
Thanks for the poast and the idea.
Of course, there's a fella at my church that says my brisket with the dry rub only is the best he's ever had, (older guy from LA (Lower Alabama)) so I take that as a big compliment.
But the next one I do for me will be tried this way.
All Hail K!

Kevin, Liked the color of your finished brisket. Mine have a tendency to come out a little paler on the high temp cooks. How was the smoke flavor?

The brisket has a decent smoke ring for a quick cook. Looks moist and tasty on the plate too.
All of it looks like it was way better than the chili dogs I had for supper!

Kevin

Adding up the times you stated, it looks like you cooked the brisket for about 4 hours. Is that correct?

Dan

Kevin,

Looks great.

I use a paste with the seasonings in the paste. Think I'll try it your way next time.

I did maybe my best brisket ever on sunday. Had to prop the door open for most of the cook as it was overcast and breezy. I foiled for about an hour after 3 hours.

The cool thing though, is that I did NOT use any therm for the meat. Not even the thermapen (which I used the previous brisket cook). I only used the probe end of the unplugged therm for feel.

This one I bought from Sanwa in Tampa..wet aged about 2 weeks....and was well marbled ($1.80 lb for packer cut). I'm guessing it was a choice cut.

Gonna have to get another one.

PS- Question about wet aging- If I buy a packer and want to freeze it, can I or should I wet age prior to freezing?....or reverse?....or not at all?

PS2- let me know if you need help w/Sanwa.

Craig-- On the freezing: You can go either way. On the rub: I frequently make paste rubs with a mix of fresh and dried ingredients but do like the dry-over-fresh approach. On Sanwa: Of course, once you told me of them I have not gotten one single load into Tampa. I keep thinking I will and have thus avoided making a single trip from here to there and back to pick up lump, but if the non-Tampa flow continues I will just have to do that anyway. I'll let you know when that happens. It might be nice to grab some of their other stuff--meats in particular--as well. On therms: Often, when using probes to check cook temps and internals one feels the need to monitor a lot. The single lid therm is sufficient to monitor cooktemp and a glance its way from time to time is enough. As you know, temping internals during a hi-temp brisket cook is unnecessary; they can be all over the place, particularly after foiling. A probe to test for tender is all you need. Very freeing, no?

Daniel-- Yes, 4 hours. My hi-temp briskets tend to run 4-4.5 or slightly more, but they are often mostly in the 310-325 range. As this cook was mostly higher I thought it would come in shorter and it did.

Dale-- The ring is decent; typical for the briskets I've been doing. From the fridge to the cooker is maybe 20 min tops so they're cold going in. (Bet the chili dogs were good though!)

Paul-- The smoke flavor was very good. With a shorter cook and the foiling it's necessary to have all the wood going early on--so no burrying of wood. I prefer smaller chunks regardless of cooking approach but it's necessary, imo, when doing a high heat cook so as to get them lit sooner and more thoroughly than would be the case if the chunks were large. The MM start with double the amount of partially lit fuel allowed me to spread it over the top of the ring and spread the wood chunks on the lit. I think this worked well.

It's possible for high heat briskets to be less smokey than those low/slowed, as you might suspect. This can be 'adjusted', at least somewhat, by wood quantity (though time in smoke will remain a factor), but also by the smokiness of rub ingredients and/or the sauce.

Clark-- Try a paste approach and see what you think. You can mix the dry ingredients into the paste or can do the dry-over-paste thing. Pastes can allow introduction of interesting or different flavors that aren't available dry, sometimes, but can also be thought of as a replacement for typical rub 'glues', like mustard or Worcestershire.

I've wondered about the Guru thermometer with the silicone plug, how secure is it?
Just when I have a brisket question, the answers appear!

That little therm is handy. I use it on my kettle as well. Even with the kettle lid tipped the therm stays in place in a vent hole.


The sauce recipe and one for the two rubs are now in the Rubs section of the board.