Smoking two meats


 
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lewjeff

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I have an 8 lb butt, and a 5 lb brisket.

I'm guessing that they both will take about the same amount of time, right?

I figure the butt on the top rack.

Does this make sense?
 
5 pound brisket must be a flat and yes you need to put the butt over the brisket, it can use the fat help.
Also maybe you can explain to your wife that the rub goes on the outside of the meat and the kids can have center pieces of what served. Put a light coat of mustard on the meat anfd then rub. Cook and serve. Your wife will not taste any mustard, besides pork butt and mustard go together. I know lots of folks that don't like mustard that eat it evrytime I do pork butt and look forward to now days.
Jim
 
First, I feel truly honored that the infamous 3M (Minion-Method Man) would bother to respond to my obvious beginner question
biggrin.gif


Seriously, thanks for the reply.
You might be confusing me with another post where mustard was a concern. I can assure you, it isn't here!

Anyways, it's good to hear that the butt-on-top idea was correct. How about cooking times? Given the sizes of the meat, how close will they come out together (I'm figuring 6-7 hours)?
 
Your times sound a little short. An 8 pound butt will need to go about 1 1/2 hours per pound at 250?, almost 2 hours per pound at 225?. You want to go to about 190? internal temp on the butt. I'm not sure what to tell you on the brisket flat. I always do the whole briskets and I go to about 180? internal on them, then let them rest. As someone else stated in another thread, the internal temp will rise if you tent it with foil. It's not a bad idea to try to be done 1 to 1 1/2 hour before you want to eat. For one thing, the meat always takes longer than I think it will, for another, I think the rest period tends to make the meat more tender/juicy.

Good luck,
Doug W
 
Hey Lewjeff!!

Here is my take on the times....

An 8 lb. Butt is HUGE!! Plan on at LEAST 1 1/2 hr./lb. That puts you at 12 hours for that monster maybe several hours more. Internal is in the 200? range for pulling

The brisket, as was mentiond, must be the flat only and I think you will find it will cook up at about 1 hr./lb. That makes it only a 5 - 6 hour cook. Internal should be 185 - 190?, too much over that and you have a roast, which isn't real bad actually!

So, you have a huge disaprity in your timimg! Plan for that and as Doug mentioned......ALWAYS plan on 1-2 hours of wiggle time. These pieces are much easier to keep warm as opposed to trying to hurry them up!

On the brisket.....Keep your temps under 250?! I have ruined many a brisket because I let the WSM get out of control. My first brisket was a 10 lb. whole one. I cooked overnight and when I woke up it was already finished.......in 7 hours!! My unit had soared to 350?!!!!! NOT the way to cook a brisket. You will burn the bottom of it if the temps approach 300?.

Good Luck!

Stogie
 
Thanks to everyone who responded.
As Kevin pointed out, my timing wasn't even close.

I have a follow-up question.....

The butt (bone in) had a 1/4" layer of
skin/fat that I trimmed off.
First question should I have trimmed it?

I'm going to start the butt first, then a few hours later start the brisket. Does it makes sense that I lay the butt's skin/fat over the brisket?

I've read that people put bacon strips over their brisket....

Just a thought.

Thanks!

Jeff
 
See the very first section of The Renowned Mr. Brown for my take on trimming pork butt. You can click on the third picture for a larger view of how much fat I trimmed off.

I've heard Jim Minion mention putting bacon on brisket flats, but never tried it myself...yet! Everything goes better with bacon, right?
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Regards,
Chris

[This message has been edited by Chris Allingham (edited 05-04-2001).]
 
I have cooked butts with and without the fat layer, and could tell little or no difference in the finished product. You will have more "bark" (a good thing, IMO) if you trim off the fat before cooking, rather than after.

Steve
 
Jeff...

How quick did that brisket flat cook up? I would be interested to know that.

I trim the fat on the butts. As was mentioned, you will have more bark and the bark, to me, is the best part of the butt.

You can trim it because of all of the internal fat that is found in the butt.....you will not dry it out. The brisket on the other hand is pretty lean, so you need that fat cap to keep it moist.

Stogie
 
I trim the fat off a pork butt because:

  1. <LI>As Stogie says, there's more than enough internal fat to keep the pork moist, and
    <LI>As Paul Kirk teaches in his classes, the additional fat adds to your cooking time, requires the use of more fuel, smoke and seasoning will not penetrate it, and you end up cutting it off and throwing it away afterward anyway.

Regards,
Chris
 
Thanks to everyone here.

Man can the WSM hold the temp or what????

I cooked the brisket/butt today.
The brisket took 5 hours.
The butt took 12 hours.
I hardly had to fiddle with the vents at all.

We ate the brisket tonight...not bad.
I've done brisket before, and everytime I say to myself afterwords, "no/less salt in the rub". Today was no exception.
Also, I like a rub with some kick to it (red pepper/chili powder) and I didn't do that today.

Note to self: Do the right thing and use less salt and more hot stuff.

As I said, the butt took 12 hours to reach that magical temp of 188. I pulled it and nibbled at it...truly amazing. I can hardly wait for some yummy sammiches tomorrow.

I had to refill the water 3 times.
I refueled once, but I probably didn't have to.

Another note to self: Don't overfill the waterpan..makes for nasty ash.

Thanks again to everyone here.

So I've done ribs, brisket and butt...what next?

I'm thinking whole turkey....
 
Go for the birds. I have done 6 big birds (as contrasted to those small chicken things others do) in the last 6 months. Yes, I like turkey. The 12-ish pounders were done with the Apple Cider Brine and Oak, and 2 "Three Mile Island Birds" over 20 lbs were done with the Honey Brine due to the Tender Quick and Cherry/Apple. They all came out wonderful. At Easter I did a 22 lb bird for 18 adults and 3 kids and expected leftovers for sandwiches. I had enough for 1 small sandwich. Arg!

If you do a turkey there will not be any pan drippings for the gravy. Last time I got creative and took a can of good turkey vegetable soup, added chicken stock for quantity, and a medium dark butter roux for thickening and color. I blended the hell out of the soup to get the flavor of all the bits. I made almost 8 cups of gravy and it was all gone!!!

The medium roux was a blend of equal amounts of flour and butter cooked over a very low flame until you get a dark oak color. The longer you cook the darker it gets. It is a great thickening agent and adds richness and sheen to the gravy. I cooked and stirred for 45 minutes to get it to the color I wanted for the fake turkey gravy I made.

I have done a bird for my family of three and then froze the uneaten parts. Came out of the freezer great.
 
I have done all my birds on the vertical roasters. I think my wife got mine from Lecheners. I take out the top grate and it fits fine. I fold the wings back and tuck the legs into the roaster to keep things neat. I foil the wing tips and leg ends when the thigh hits about 140* to keep them from burning.

I think I sent you a couple of photos around Thanksgiving that might show it. If not I'll send them in next time. Do you want a whole series? I also brined it in a tripled up trash bag set inside a cooler. It's a little tricky to do alone. I put the bird in the bags and put the bags in the cooler. I then put a couple of inches of cold water around the outside of the bag. I then add brine until I get to the top of the water level. I put a bunch of ice in the water and repeat until the bird is covered with brine. Don't forget to get brine into the cavity in the bird. I then twist tie the bags shut. This keeps the bird at 32*-35* as long as their is ice in the water in the cooler. It typically takes 2 10 lb bags of ice for a 24 hour brine.

Easier than a bucket in my packed fridge and cleanup is tossing a trash bag out. No need to bleach the cooler unless the bags spring a leak.

Bryan (Don't call me a turkey) Rockoff
 
Bryan,

I went back and found the four pictures you sent on 12/16/00. Just wanted to confirm that you were using a vertical rack for a turkey as large as 22 lbs.

Regards,
Chris
 
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