High Heat Brisket on the Kettle from Cook's Country


 
Very interesting articles. It's a high heat Brisket and they lay out the differences in HH and low and slow Brisket. I probably won't cook one on the grill but it's still an option.
 
Well, 4 cups is a quart. So use 12 cups of briquettes? That is silly! I'd just make the snake the way they say. Personally, I'd use my WSM. I think they are just trying to make a foolproof recipe which is hard to do with brisket. This also uses a $100 grill.
 
Dustin, that's exactly what CC is trying to do. By & large, they generally do awfully well at that.

I've been trying to make brisket on 4 different grills & smokers now over the last 10 years....first one came out awfully good (from an earlier ATK method,) and I spent the next few years chasing it, not able to replicate it, until I really started to thoroughly control heat & process. Once that variability has been removed, I can turn out good brisket consistently.
 
I've done one on my 26er with the snake setup. It was fun and I know that I can do it on a kettle. That being said, since I got my 18WSM all the briskets will be cooked on that. It's just so much easier.
 
I will have to admit to a dirty little secret.... I'm not using a Weber. (hangs head. Sorry, all.) But I can smoke about 100 lbs. at a time, and burn about 1-2 lbs of charcoal per hour.

There is one other thing about brisket.... the long rest after the smoke. Minimum of an hour, 4 hours or more is not out of the question. I have to believe that as long as a fairly even heat is applied such that the exterior isn't scorched, it's heated all the way through, and you get a good rest at the end, you'll have some good food.
 
I am thinking about using their techniques but with a propane grill. With one burner, I can keep the temperature under 300F.
 
I've done baby backs on the performer like that and they came out great. But I only do a brisket on smoke day and always use the 18.5 WSM. One large brisket + two people = Brisket for about eight months.
 
Well, 4 cups is a quart. So use 12 cups of briquettes? That is silly! I'd just make the snake the way they say.

The recipe says make the snake with 58 unlit briquettes (plus 10 lit). Four or 5 hours later, you wrap the brisket and "pour 3 quarts unlit briquettes about halfway around perimeter of grill over gap and spent coals." Then go another couple hours.

Snake is stage 1. The 3 quarts comes in later. I agree quarts is a silly way to measure charcoal, but I bet the meat will be okay if you are off by a pint or two.

I appreciate that they emphasize the time the brisket spends in the cooler. I think that is an important part of the process on high-heat brisket cooks.

For maximum tenderness, we found it best to let the wrapped meat rest in an insulated environment (a cooler or a turned-off oven works well) for 2 to 3 hours so it spends more time between 180 and 200 degrees—the sweet spot for breaking down tough collagen. This results in the moistest, juiciest brisket possible.
 
Reading this article made me think of doing brisket in my WSM without the water pan. That way the fat drips onto the coal to get that wonderful (but probably carcinogenic) smoke. Anyone ever tried this?

I've made brisket on a Weber kettle - using the snake method - and Big Green Egg. By far, the Weber kettle was more flavorful, which is why I just bought the 22.5 WSM.

Also, fat cap down? I've always done up
 
People do cook them with without the water pan in kind of a high heat style. I imagine it's delicious. I've never done it though. There's a Baby Back Maniac video on youtube where Harry Soo cooks one that way.
 
I am at a loss for how to measure 3 quarts of unlit briquettes.

The standard Weber chimney starter has a 6 quart capacity, so half a load is 3 quarts. When counted out (I've done it), 6 quarts is about 100 Kingsford briquets, so 3 quarts is about 50.

In the Harry Soo video mentioned above, he erroneously says that half a Weber chimney is 20 briquets and a full chimney is 40.
 
Reading this article made me think of doing brisket in my WSM without the water pan. That way the fat drips onto the coal to get that wonderful (but probably carcinogenic) smoke. Anyone ever tried this?

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Also, fat cap down? I've always done up

People do cook them with without the water pan in kind of a high heat style. I imagine it's delicious. I've never done it though. There's a Baby Back Maniac video on youtube where Harry Soo cooks one that way.

High Heat Brisket in the WSM...been rockin' that since 2010: http://virtualweberbullet.com/brisket4.html

Hot & Fast is a great way to quickly cook a brisket. In the video mentioned above, Harry does it without the water pan in place, but that creates a tremendous mess in the charcoal bowl, so I use an empty foil-lined water pan and that works great for me.

Most people these days are cooking brisket with fat cap DOWN in the WSM since the heat source is directly below the meat. This allows the fat cap to shield the flat during cooking.
 
Seems like those guys could have saved themselves a lot of time and trouble coming here, reading a bit and asking a couple questions. Been doing hh and l&s briskets on my kettle for years.
 

 

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