My first attempt at brisket plus Sunday's Pork Tenderloin


 

Dan C. FL

TVWBB Pro
I'm gonna walk you through the weekend. Before I get to the fun of this, I have to note something. I was going to grill burgers Friday night. The weather had other plans. So, instead, I fried up bacon in my cast iron skillet. Then, I dumped most of the bacon grease...but not all. Then I cooked my burgers in the cast iron skillet with bacon grease. Those burgers were soooooo good.

The misses and I went to Costco on Friday. While there, we saw a nice looking just shy of 8 lbs. choice brisket. I've never cooked brisket before. I had read all of Chris' articles on brisket cooking and thought that I had learned enough to put together something decent. I took her out and coated her in a rub of 1/4 cup of salt, 1/4 cup of black pepper, and an 1/8 cup of granulated garlic.

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I set up the smoker with 3 fist sized hunks of pecan and got her going.

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I ran right around 250* for the first three hours of the cook. At the 3rd hour, I noticed that there was literally no smoke coming out of the smoker. I'm not sure how long it went without smoking, probably about an hour. So, I grabbed another chunk of pecan and put it in and pressed the other two pieces that I could see and reach down into the coals. We were back on track. At hour 4, the meat 165*. But, I was not satisfied with the way the bark was shaping up. It basically was nonexistent, just some fluids and spices sitting on top of the meat. I decided that I didn't want to sacrifice the bark by using the crutch, and I only had tin foil so I was a little unsure about doing the crutch with that. So, I left her going uncovered. Hours 5-6 were uneventful, except for a little spike up to 285* at the grate. Hour 7 it began to rain. So, I took the top two sections off, moved the bottom section under cover and then reassembled. It really didn't matter much because I was in the middle of the stall. (Hr 5 was 169*, Hr 6 was 167*, Hour 7 stayed at 167*). Finally, in the 8th hour, I saw movement. Then, 10.5 hours after I started, it reached 195*. I poked it with the thermometer off and the probe went in really easily. So, I went ahead and pulled it.

Here she is getting ready to rest:
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Sliced it up and took a bite and it was dry. Not terribly bad, but it was definitely dry. In fact, that was the misses first comment. "It's dry." It was really tender and it did that whole bendy thing when you pick it up in the middle of the slice. Just dry. The wife also thought there was too much of a peppery taste. She and I will agree to disagree on that (and I'll make it her way next time. :cool:).
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Served it up with some habanero bbq sauce and some potatoes and onions that had butter, salt and pepper that were grilled in tin foil pouches. They were good.
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Honestly, I thought the flavor of the brisket was good. On a side note, I had run into a friend the day before and he said that he wanted to try it even if it was bad. So, I brought it to him at work. I warned him it was dry, but he replied I like it a little dry. His review? He really liked it. He said he wouldn't change a thing. I just need to figure out the answer to two questions: 1) Why did it take so long for the bark to set up? Was it lack of smoke? Too much rub? and 2) Why did it dry out? My gut is telling me that, because of the texture of some of the meat, allowing it to get up to 205* would have resulted in us eating or throwing away shoe leather.

So, what say you peeps?

Sunday we decided that I would grill pork tenderloin we also got from Costco. We decided, upon my wife's excellent suggestion, to marinate it in a lemongrass saison. Here it is in the bath:
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Since we had two tenderloins to cook (quite the surprise when we opened the cryovac), we decided to do an experiment. Both tenderloins got salt and pepper, but one got fresh minced garlic and the other got granulated garlic.
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I did a reverse sear on these, which worked out great. They were both about 140* when I pulled them off to rest for about 5 minutes.
Sliced with a nice little bit of pinkness to ti:
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We served it with steamed corn. It was soooooo good. The beer gave it a great flavor...oh, and by the way, fresh garlic was the unanimous winner (of course.).
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So, I would say that it was a good weekend. I've got some dishes down, but I still need to practice my brisket and my baby back ribs.
 
The loin looks fantastic. A great bath your wife came up with. The brisket is not bad, no doubt you'll improve on it. I'm with your wife, that is a lot of pepper. I don't cook brisket, I tired twice and it was unpostable
 
The loin looks fantastic. A great bath your wife came up with. The brisket is not bad, no doubt you'll improve on it. I'm with your wife, that is a lot of pepper. I don't cook brisket, I tired twice and it was unpostable

Thanks Chuck! The wife really likes brisket. I knew going into it that it's one of hardest to get right. But, you know that expression about the definition of insanity? Yeah, that's me. Time to go find some ibuprofen. :p
 
I can't offer any advice on the brisket as I've only done four. They all came out great, but why I can't say, just luck I guess. The loin looks fantastic, can't remember the last time I had steamed corn, got to give that a try again.
 
I can't offer any advice on the brisket as I've only done four. They all came out great, but why I can't say, just luck I guess. The loin looks fantastic, can't remember the last time I had steamed corn, got to give that a try again.

Don't tell her I told you, but she "cheat steams" it...corn in the pyrex dish, cover the corn about 3/4 of the way with water and milk, microwave...I think it's only about 5-8 minutes. Can't remember for sure, but can ask if you'd like to know. :cool:
 
It's all in the learning. Thankfully, we can always (well, mostly ;) ) eat our mistakes without too much trouble. And learn from it.

I don't do brisket (too $$$ even if I could find it) but I wonder: wouldn't an injection (low salt beef broth for example) help a bit?
 
It's all in the learning. Thankfully, we can always (well, mostly ;) ) eat our mistakes without too much trouble. And learn from it.

I don't do brisket (too $$$ even if I could find it) but I wonder: wouldn't an injection (low salt beef broth for example) help a bit?

That was something that I was thinking about this morning...either an injection or just let it soak in a bath/brine over night. And using the crutch.
 
The brisket and port tenderloin looks delicious. Like corn but I grill mine, using EVOO, butter and seasoning of choice.
 
That was something that I was thinking about this morning...either an injection or just let it soak in a bath/brine over night. And using the crutch.
Unless you're looking for corned beef, I wouldn't brine. Just injection if anything. And that might not help anyways.
 
I've done two so far and they are worth every minute of fuss! Both of mine have been 14 pounds and were about 14-16 hours, no foil, no wrap at all. I have been lucky, they were both delightful! Looking forward to the next one!
 
I've done two so far and they are worth every minute of fuss! Both of mine have been 14 pounds and were about 14-16 hours, no foil, no wrap at all. I have been lucky, they were both delightful! Looking forward to the next one!

Glad they've turned out well!! Curious...it sounds like you were doing packers. This one was just the flat. Wondering if that might be part of the difference?
 
Nice cooks Dan. Don't be discouraged by the brisket being a little dry. It is probably the hardest thing to cook on the smoker. I have been there myself.
 
Glad they've turned out well!! Curious...it sounds like you were doing packers. This one was just the flat. Wondering if that might be part of the difference?

I would say that, without question, that is the difference. The packer has the full fat cap (even if you remove some of it) and the point section is much more marbled with fat than the flat is. If smoking a flat (which I've never done), my first thought would be to cover it with thick sliced bacon to help with the fat issue. (But that MIGHT affect the flavor -- maybe? Ya think!? And probably not in a bad way.). Alternatively, I would forego the desire for crisp bark and use real pink butchers paper to wrap after about 155*. I'm not sure that would really save you from the lack of fat in the flat, but it's worth a try. Perhaps a think layer of mayo before wrapping? (That comes from the "perfect burger" article I just read.)

As I say, I've never done a brisket flat. I'm surprised it takes almost the time that a 10-11 pound packer would take.

So this is a good start with brisket regardless. It was good and you learned some things to work with next time. You might want to try a full packer sometime, though the 10-12 pound ones are little scarce. 12 -14 pounds are more common but can take considerably more time to cook. And then you get to start all over with the wrap or don't wrap dilemma. :coolkettle:
 
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The brisket looks good Dan. I know my first was on the dry side as well. It's not something I'm used to cooking. The last time I followed (in general) the method from the High Heat Brisket post. https://tvwbb.com/showthread.php?7188-High-Heat-Brisket-Method-A-Compilation

Was pretty happy with that one.

Nice cooks Dan. Don't be discouraged by the brisket being a little dry. It is probably the hardest thing to cook on the smoker. I have been there myself.

Both meats look great! That tenderloin is perfect!

Nice job on both Dan!

Thanks guys!! i appreciate the encouragement!
 
I would say that, without question, that is the difference. The packer has the full fat cap (even if you remove some of it) and the point section is much more marbled with fat than the flat is. If smoking a flat (which I've never done), my first thought would be to cover it with thick sliced bacon to help with the fat issue. (But that MIGHT affect the flavor -- maybe? Ya think!? And probably not in a bad way.). Alternatively, I would forego the desire for crisp bark and use real pink butchers paper to wrap after about 155*. I'm not sure that would really save you from the lack of fat in the flat, but it's worth a try. Perhaps a think layer of mayo before wrapping? (That comes from the "perfect burger" article I just read.)

As I say, I've never done a brisket flat. I'm surprised it takes almost the time that a 10-11 pound packer would take.

So this is a good start with brisket regardless. It was good and you learned some things to work with next time. You might want to try a full packer sometime, though the 10-12 pound ones are little scarce. 12 -14 pounds are more common but can take considerably more time to cook. And then you get to start all over with the wrap or don't wrap dilemma. :coolkettle:

Thanks. One question, Rich: I would think that since the point is only one side of the brisket, that the far end of the flat could still be in jeopardy of drying out. Right?

All the packers they had were HUGE, and it was only the two of us. So, I decided to try the flat. If I do one again, I am definitely following your idea to cover it in bacon...my homemade bacon. :cool: I'll keep my eye out for a smaller packer and maybe next time invite the nieces and their boyfriends over. Just wanted to have one under my belt. It was a learning experience, and a good one at that. Thanks for the encouragement and the information!
 
Glad they've turned out well!! Curious...it sounds like you were doing packers. This one was just the flat. Wondering if that might be part of the difference?

Hard for me to say since the only ones I've done have been full packers as you say. My suggestion is the same as I was told by Tony UK, " Put on the big boy pants and see what happens!"
It's been far more habit forming than is probably good for me but, the reward is watching the feast being enjoyed by friends and family!
 

 

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