Anyone else suffer from SBCD? Self BBQ Criticism Disorder like me? Brisket Questions


 
J

Jason J

TVWBB Fan
I am the biggest self criticizer there is. I am always tearing apart my smoked meats and getting upset with this and that. Everyone else is happy but not me! Hah, its a flaw. After soo much work and time that goes into one of these, I want it to be perfect!

This weekend I am doing my first brisket since the brisket fiasco of 2011. This fiasco was my very first attempt at smoking ANYTHING in a STOCK ECB. It turned out like leather ;) I am nervous about doing it again. I have been traumatized. I have perfected pork butts and do a good job on ribs. I have bought a wsm and modded the heck out of it including building my own ATC. I can do this!

I bought a choice angus 8lb brisket from sams club. I am going to see if it needs much butchering, but the fat layer looks at about 1/4" already. I will be using Stubbs Brisket rub. I *might* inject with beef broth.I will smoke at 225 using pecan/hickory mix. I will probably use a water pan with water. I will probably texas crutch it at about 160 degrees. I will pull it around 203. I will wrap and put it in a faux cambro until I am ready to serve and then cut.

Should I spritz during the smoke? How much wood should I use?
 
Sounds like you have all the bases covered. I would not trim less than 1/4" and skip the spritz. It just adds to the cook time every time you open the lid.
 
My only advice would be to lighten up on yourself a bit. It's easy to be over critial of your cook and its always dissapointing when something you spent all day cooking doesn't come out as planned. However, if you beat your self up over it you won't enjoy the process and that's half the fun!
 
Good luck ! Remember this is supposed to be enjoyable... Take it easy ... Or drink enough beer during your smoke that even a truck tire with some bbq sauce on it would taste good
 
Thanks everyone! I know I need to be less critical. I just like doing well at anything I take on. It is a personality flaw :) I have taken on the attitude that if it fails, we will just order pizza!

So this brisket is 7.68 lbs. Conventional wisdom says brisket take 1hr to 1hr 15m at 225 if you use the Texas crutch. So thats roughly 10 hours. If I want to eat at 6pm, I should probably put it on around 6am? That sound about right? Or should I just do a early start around 2am or so, and then just pull it, wrap it, and faux cambro it for a few hours to be on the safe side? And I will be using an ATC with the minion method. How much wood, in size of wood chunks the size of fists, should I use?
 
Jason, I think everyone who BBQs is probably their own worst critic. I know I am. Sounds like you know what your doing though.
 
I cook a LOT of things other than Q and let me tell you, I am the hardest critic ever on myself. I am so afraid that everyone is just eating the food because their family or friends and don't want to insult me. I can't ever get them to give me honest criticism, even small things about saltiness or anything and I guess this is why. I appreciate honesty about my stuff and I wish I could get them to open up, but maybe they just enjoy it no matter if it's good or not and that's all that matters I guess. If they're happy I should be happy.

It is fun though all this, even though it CAN be stressful soemtimes no doubt. I guess that's part of the fun, if you never lost a race then winning would never be special.
 
I sometimes suffer from SBCD...but then I take a step back and realize its good...
 
Brother , I know where you're coming from! I have yet to try a brisket for just this reason. I think brisket is not real easy to cook. And you want everyone to like it , so you build it up in your mind and then if its dry or tough you feel like a dunce.
But like everyone here says , I guess you just gotta relax and do your best....and it'll most likely come out great.
I'll be curious how you make out. I gotta do one soon! Good luck , man.
 
Jason J said:
Thanks everyone! I know I need to be less critical. I just like doing well at anything I take on. It is a personality flaw :) I have taken on the attitude that if it fails, we will just order pizza!

So this brisket is 7.68 lbs. Conventional wisdom says brisket take 1hr to 1hr 15m at 225 if you use the Texas crutch. So thats roughly 10 hours. If I want to eat at 6pm, I should probably put it on around 6am? That sound about right? Or should I just do a early start around 2am or so, and then just pull it, wrap it, and faux cambro it for a few hours to be on the safe side? And I will be using an ATC with the minion method. How much wood, in size of wood chunks the size of fists, should I use?
Click to expand...

Last one I did took 13 hours on my Mini so you may wanna get going a bit earlier. I know that they only get better the longer they are wrapped if you can keep em real warm, soak up all that juice over a longer period. Every cut is different though and stalls for different times. I did the crutch though and it took that long. The brisket wasn't terribly great but it was edible, but that comes down to my technique I'm sure.

I just know that if you wanna eat at 6:00 and it isn't ready you'd be real frustrated and it's easy to keep it hot, or at least it has been for me so far and I haven't seen any negative effects of holding it longer. Just my .02 though and I haven't been doing this very long, maybe a year.
 
i bet that small of a brisket would only take 8 1/2 hours at most. if you're wanting to eat at 6pm, then i would be shooting to place it on the wsm at no later than 9am your time. that way the brisket can take it's time and when it's done you can let it rest for anwhere from 15-45 minutes if need be. if you prefer your brisket to have a nice hearty bark on it then i would pass on the spritzing. however, if you are like me, and don't care too much about the bark as long as the meat is tender, then by all means spritz away every 15-20 minutes once you have let the brisket get about 90 minutes of smoke initially. but just take care to not take too long when spritzing or you will prolong the cook, and possibly lose temp or let temps shot too high due to allowing too much air into the wsm when spritzing. just wrap it in HD foil and place it in a cooler with some towels to fill the empty space. you'll be surprised how long the brisket will stay hot in the cooler alone. good luck, and like the others said, don't be so hard on yourself and enjoy the cook. i'm sure it will be better than your last brisket.
 
Thanks for feedback. I am thinking I will get up at 5am to put it on. 13 hours should be enough...I hope!

As for smoke, I will use 4 fist size lumps of wood. I hope that is enough, but not tooo much.
 
I used to be the same way. It took me a while to realize my food is good. It might not be the best out there, but it still tastes pretty darn good. I have a lot of room for improvement I admit. On second thought, it isn't even close to perfect.
Oh crap! My BBQ sucks.


Relax!
 
Jason, with the WSM, once you get your temp locked in and the brisket is on, just monitor the internal temp to where you
want it and go from there. I use a Maverick 732 so I don't have to open the lid and check temps. Brisket to me is
probably the easiest to smoke. But again, it depends on the meat, some is really good and some sucks. Just relax, enjoy,
trust your WSM and set and forget until it's done. ;)
 
It's only a piece of meat and my guess is you did not make perfect ribs the first time and likely your PP has improved since the first butt you cooked. Cooking is an on going learning experience and using our methods no two cooks are the same.
Relax you obviously have the basics down, you just need the practise.
 
Jason, I know that brisket is a huge thing in your neck of the woods, but you need not sweat it. If you've perfected cooking butts to tender and jiggly, a small brisket won't be a problem, especially since you're foiling. Just cook til truly tender, and forget about the IT* after foiling.

As others have already suggested, I'd also forget about spritzing. Because of relatively low air movement compared to offset smokers, bark formation in the wsm is pretty dang slow, ESPECIALLY with water in the pan. I've yet to have a brisket in my bullets needing spritzing prior to foiling, regardless of cooking temp, water in pan or not.

Assuming that is a whole packer and not part of a big one, your original plan sounds just fine as long as you're actually cooking center of grate at 225 and not "warming the meat to death".

As for your "disorder", I can really identify. I've learned that it's ok as long as I do my best to keep any criticism or suggestions for next time to myself and my notes.

Have a goodun!
Dave
 
The one lesson it took me too long to learn--when it comes to brisket, pull it when it's done, not when it hits a certain temp. Depending on the marbling done can be anywhere from 185 to 205. Get it to 185 then start checking it every 30 minutes.

Brisket holds really well in a cooler with towels, so it's better to get done earlier rather than later. At 225 it could take a long while to cook, so if I were you I'd either get up godawfully early or (more likely) put it on late at night, like 11pm. I've never been happy with my smoking experience when I felt like I was rushed, and always had a good time with it when I felt like I had all the time in the world for it to finish.
 
Okay thanks for the great feedback! I just realized the brisket I bought was an 8 pound flat... not a smaller whole packer. I only bought this because it was Angus Select and not choice like the whole packer. Bummer...Should I make any adjustments due to this only being a flat?

I think I will start this around 1am then. I generally stay up late on weekends anyways. If I start it at 1am, I am fairly sure this will be done around noon easily. I hope foiling it in a hot cooler with towels will be okay for 6 hours.

I will foil it on the smoker at 150 and when it hits temp at 185, I will check every 30 minutes to see if it is done. What is the best way to see if it is *done*?
 
Jason J said:
I will foil it on the smoker at 150 and when it hits temp at 185, I will check every 30 minutes to see if it is done. What is the best way to see if it is *done*?
Click to expand...
Poke your temperature probe into the thickest part. If it goes in like a knife through warm butter, it's done.

I haven't had good luck doing just flats, but they were bitty little half flats and I didn't foil. I had much better luck with a packer.

Oh, and don't worry too much about over-cooking. It's tough to over-cook brisket, and when you do it can still be chopped up. When it's over-cooked, it'll fall apart like pulled pork. Tough, dry brisket is generally under-cooked, in my experience. Hence the start early and don't sweat it advice. My first few briskets were all under-cooked and I wondered why they came out dry. When I finally just let them go until I was sure they were done, the outcome was MUCH better.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

 

Back
Top