Here's the update.
First off, the brisket was great. I really enjoyed it! And so did the little wifey. Good smoke flavor, still juicy, loved it! I think I've had brisket before, not sure, if I have it was before I learned about "real" bbq and I don't really remember.
The cooker and the meat didn't behave at all like I expected them to though. The meat, didn't bother me so much as it was my first brisket. And the cooker just re-emphasided that I'm still a newbie at this
This email may get a little long and I'll apologise up front for that. I took some notes throughout the day, which I'll share. They were not perfect like the cooking logs on the cooking topics pages and some are from memory. I was also trying to work on my wind screens today. And wouldn't you know that the little wifey also wanted to cut compound mitre angles for the crown molding we are putting up in the soon to come baby's bedroom (since I had the saw out and all).
Ok, so this gig started about 10:20AM this morning. I got the WSM all situated. Make shift wind screens in place as we had a good 5-10 breeze all day here in Buffalo. Cool day, but sunny. High about 70 today. I started with a full chimney of unlit. I took and poured about 1/3 in the ring, enough to cover a good solid single layer. Then I poured in three 5-lbs coffee cans which were full of a prior cooks (two bone in turkey breasts) left over unburnt coals which brought me up to about 3/4 of a ring. I dumped in the rest of the chimney. I'd say the charcoal ring was a full ring, but not over flowing. I then put 2 good chunks of apple on top, 2 good chunks of hickory on top, and tossed on some skinny/small pieces of oak left over from some molding work. I've been looking for an opportunity to burn those up
I tossed in 15 little k's into the chimney and fired 'em up. Took Bryan's advice and headed in to the kitchen to pat dry the brisket and apply the rub. I could have swore I had worchester sauce in the fridge, but I didn't so just went right ahead with the rub. I used the Brisket version of that Texas rub I've read about on here. It's the first time I've used it. I rubbed it in good and headed back out. The coals were nicely ashed over. I filled the foiled Brinkman water pan 1/2 full with hot tap water, put the brisket on the top grate well centered, hooked up my Maverick ET-73, probe in the meat, probe on the grate. I spread out the 15 briqs on the unlit coals, making sure at least one nessled up against each chunk of wood. I assembled the middle section onto the bowl, then the lid on, putting a candy therm through the top vent. At this point it was 11:10AM, all 3 bottem vents 100% open, top vent 100% open. I topped off the brinkman water pan with more hot tap water.
And the rest of the cook goes like this:
11:10 - Brisket on, all vents 100%
11:25 - 190 at grate and lid, turned bottom three vents back to 50%
11:55 - 225 at grate and lid, turned bottom three vents back to 20%
12:45 - 252 at grate and lid, closed all three bottom vents
1:30 - 252 at grate and lid, took out the candy therm from the top vent and dialed it back to 20% open
and this darn cooker ran between 242 and 253 for the next 2 hours and 15 minutes with no vents open down low and the top vent at 20%. I realize I have some leak somewhere that is feeding that fire, but by darned I can't find it. I have molded the door as tight fitting of a seal as I can muster. The bowl and middle section are not "out of round" and fit snugly together. Other than the Maverick wire coming out from under the lid, all fit is snug there. The only thing I can think of is that the bottom three vents don't fit tight against the bowl and some air is getting in behind them even when they are closed. I'm going to work on snugging up the tabs on the inside of those to see if it helps.
3:45 - 242 at grate and lid, turned top vent back to 100% open
4:45 - 257 at grate and lid, Maverick was registering 170 in the meat. Added 3/4 gallon of hot tap water to the water bowl.
This was the first time I opened up anything on the cooker, and I was quick about it, just opened the door, used a watering can, and poured it in and closed it back up. I really wanted to look at that meat, but I resisted!!
5:15 - 254 at grate and lid, meat when down to 169.
5:45 - 251 at grate and lid, meat at 174.
I'm now 6.5 hours in on a 4.25 pound flat and still have 11 degrees to go!
6:30 - 247 at grate and lid, meat at 180.
The wife is hungary (and 8.5 months pregnant), she's starts cooking spirals mac and cheese because she can't hold out any longer
macandcheese
6:40 - scared that my unborn son is going to be too full to experience brisket, I open up all the vents to 100% deciding to finish this off once and for all.
6:45 - 265 at grate, didn't dare look at the lid.
6:55 - 275 at grate, meat at 182.
7:10 - 280 at grate, Maverick probe finally registers 185
maverick
8 hours total time with a bit of hurrying at the end.
But, it did turn out great. This reinforces to me that it is important to cook by temp and not by time. I did spot check a couple other of places in the meat, and they registered less than 185, but I wasn't waiting any longer.
taylor1 taylor2
Here's some pics of the finished product.
brisky1
brisk2
I did cooler it and I let it rest for about 1 hour.
letsopen
thingofbeauty
smokering
lookinggood
And the wife did like it a lot. She didn't put on any kind of bbq sauce. Good thing pregnant women like to eat!!
I enjoyed it very much too, still juicy, nice texture. I tried the first couple of bits without any sauce to get the good full flavor of the smoke and meat. But, I just can't resist this spicy Habenaro BBQ sauce called Wango Tango made by Dinosaur BBQ
dino
And lastly, what the heck do we do with all these left overs?
leftovers
Todd
