Ambitious?


 
Looks like the flat is beginning to push past the stall, but the point is being stubborn. Oddly even though this one is quite a lot smaller than the one I cooked over 4th weekend, the point on it is huge compared to that one. Hoping it too pushes on through soon. I want to get that baby resting for as long as I reasonably can
 
If the flat finishes before the point you can separate the two muscles and rest the flat while finishing the point wrapped and with a higher temp to push it to the finish line.
 
LMichaels said:
Oh yeah. Not to change the subject. But rather than put in an extra breaker the electrician here simply did "double taps", and if he ran out of electrical tape? No worries he found whatever spare packing tape around the site and wrapped wires with it. And then don't even start me on the plumbing......................watch the 3 Stooges short "A Plumbing We Will Go" to see what mine looks like. It's been 30 years of corrective hard work on electrical. My next project if my body holds out is to pull down all the plumbing and start from scratch. Here I may just use PEX as while I know how to solder very well (go figure but I can't weld), I don't like doing it.
When our bathroom was being remodeled my contractor almost fell through the ceiling as well because they failed to run long enough ceiling joists to make it to the center beam of the house. So then the mystery of the sag in my kitchen doorway was solved. So I hired the guys to restructure the ceiling joists and brace it all up while they were up there insulating. The electrical issues I have found explains why so many of the homes in my sub have gone up in flames from electrical fires
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Ok, I'm running late on this tread, but it sounds like "congrats" are in order -- so "CONGRATS"! But even late I wanted to ask if you have looked at the High Heat Brisket article in Cooking Topics. I've had success with that method twice now including a 19 pounder in my 14.5 WSM. Much shorter times for brisket if you need it and I can't tell that the result was any different.

As to my reply -- WOW! Sounds like a nightmare. Much worse than any house I had the bad luck to buy, but it reminded me of the shower in that house. The bottom pan was nailed through and eventually leaked under the floor in into the walls -- so much the water soaked insulation stain reach almost 4' up the wall from osmosis. Later I was in the crawlspace and discovered that the drain for the shower was sort of loosely connected (two pipe ends run together with no fitting) at an angle to the line going to the septic system leaving a good 1/4" gap for shower water to drain into the crawlspace. But all in all, that was trivial compared to what you've had to deal with Larry. :oops:
 
Lew Newby said:
If the flat finishes before the point you can separate the two muscles and rest the flat while finishing the point wrapped and with a higher temp to push it to the finish line.
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Lew, DO I need to rest it before I separate them? The flat is probing tender and is at 207. The point is at only 176 or so. I need to serve by 4. I never thought this small brisket would take so darn long
 
Well, I separated the point from the flat. Sadly it was just a little too late. Flat over cooked just a bit. But, was still incredibly delish! Outstanding smoke on it, super tender and really good flavor. The point needed another 2 hours before it "came up" and began to probe tender. I left it in the cooler. Oldest daughter and son in law took home a nice big hunk of the flat so other than that it all went. Point was untouched. Other than I took a nice hunk off for care pkg to youngest daughter. Everyone ate with "gusto" even old Fred was here and chowed down pretty good for being 96. Mashed taters and fresh picked this morning from right here in Cherry Valley corn. Corn went on the MM at 425 and came out great. So the majority of the point is in the fridge now. Tomorrow I will cut it into dinner sized pieces for wife and I and she'll vacuum seal it and freeze it.
I learned a lesson today. Never buy a brisket with a huge over sized point. The flat was already proving tender late this AM and had only reached just shy of 180. They were cooking even for quite a while and then the point went into a second stall. Bottom line Lew helped save the day. with his advice. (y)
 
Yeah, quite honestly if Lew had not come to the rescue I likely would have kept trying to "push" it through and totally ruined the flat. When I bought this brisket I was not paying as much attention to the details as I likely should have. I was more concerned it was "prime" and it was 11 to 14 lbs max.
I found I thought the perfect one with the thickest flat, prime and 13.2lbs. It had not occurred to me the ratio of flat to point. This one was REALLY point "heavy". Actually being hard to handle because of it. So lesson learned. Pay attention to that. Because that point needed a full 30% more time than the flat.
But, in the future I am curious if there is a way to get them to "come together" so to speak without the last minute heroics I had to go through? I.E. wrapping sooner, cooking longer @ lower temp rather than raising to 250 after wrap, different wrap technique (foil over the paper), foil only, etc. Racking my brain because I am sure the people who run BBQ joints don't sit there and hand pick a piece of meat. They get them delivered by the case load, prep and throw them on. So did I miss something? I am sure I did being new to this (only second time) and having been put in a last minute time crunch.
Really want to learn on this as even my wife enjoys the brisket so much so I do want to put this into my regular rotational cooks
 
LMichaels said:
Yeah, quite honestly if Lew had not come to the rescue I likely would have kept trying to "push" it through and totally ruined the flat. When I bought this brisket I was not paying as much attention to the details as I likely should have. I was more concerned it was "prime" and it was 11 to 14 lbs max.
I found I thought the perfect one with the thickest flat, prime and 13.2lbs. It had not occurred to me the ratio of flat to point. This one was REALLY point "heavy". Actually being hard to handle because of it. So lesson learned. Pay attention to that. Because that point needed a full 30% more time than the flat.
But, in the future I am curious if there is a way to get them to "come together" so to speak without the last minute heroics I had to go through? I.E. wrapping sooner, cooking longer @ lower temp rather than raising to 250 after wrap, different wrap technique (foil over the paper), foil only, etc. Racking my brain because I am sure the people who run BBQ joints don't sit there and hand pick a piece of meat. They get them delivered by the case load, prep and throw them on. So did I miss something? I am sure I did being new to this (only second time) and having been put in a last minute time crunch.
Really want to learn on this as even my wife enjoys the brisket so much so I do want to put this into my regular rotational cooks
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As you've probably read, the Smokefire is hotter on the right side. At least it is on mine so I orient the Brisket to have the point in the hot side and flat in the cooler side. I get a more even cook but I will separate the muscles if the cook calls for it. If that doesn't apply to Big Z then just give your self extra time. An extra 2 hours in the cooler won't hurt the flat. Like you, I cook to the wife's dinner time and adjust my cook to meet her timeline. I'm not adverse to wrapping and kicking the temp up to 300. I know you know this but I'll send your words back to you. Every piece of meat is different. Smoke on. :D
 
As a little "update" I did not cut the point when I served the brisket. We only used the flat. I kept the point "unmolested" figuring to cut it into pieces large enough for Mrs Capone and myself. Well the freeze has not happened yet. Last night I got home late after we (my sister and I), got movers lined up, and got our dad's stuff moved from his house to the assisted living facility we're helping him move to. So with my blood sugar ready to tank, I boogied home from McHenry IL to our home salivating over some mashed taters, a salad and a slice of brisket point warmed up.
I have to say that point warms up BEAUTIFULLY as a simple slice on the plate, but keeping the Panasonic MWave in the 50% power range for a few minutes. You'd swear I'd just sliced it off right out of it's rest. And if any of you have not tried them, Sam's and Costco both carry a prepared mashed potato product which we love. I could not make them better myself (honestly). Likely because all that is in them is potatoes, milk and butter. No ingredients you have to Google to try and figure out. We add just a tad more grass fed butter though (after all a little potato is good with your butter). Anyway a VERY productive day for my sister and I, today she and my oldest daughter will be doing final furniture arrangement for his arrival tomorrow. It will be such a relief to us both (sister and I) knowing he'll be in a truly beautiful place (the place is like he'll be living on a cruise ship), and we won't have to worry about rushing to his aid.
 
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