First brisket, minimal fat cap


 
P

PFanelli

New member
Hi all, I am new around here and relatively new to smoking. I am doing my first brisket on a WSM this weekend. I ordered a whole brisket from Porter Road. Upon inspection, it appears that it is well trimmed and has a minimal fat cap. It weighs about 10 pounds. Initially I was planning on following the Aaron Franklin method, but now I am thinking of injecting it with beef broth and panning. What is the consensus around what I should do? Should I do HH instead of LNS? Thank you for any help for a newbie.
 
Do you have any pictures of the brisket? That would help me determine which way I would cook it.
 
Welcome to the forum!
For a first brisket I'd go low and slow to have a larger window of catching it at the right doneness.
No help about injecting, I never inject beef or pork.
 
Yeah, that's a little trimmed up, but maybe your bark will set up sooner allowing you to wrap sooner(?). I'm no brisket expert, and will let others chime in.

I would *maybe* cook this one fat side up? IDK for sure.
 
Thanks for the input. Why no wrap? I would think I should wrap to help to keep it moist. I was thinking butcher paper.
 
No wrap takes longer but keeps the bark firm.

Foil wrap takes shorter but can make the bark mushy.

Butcher paper wrap is a compromise between the two.

I go fat cap down. Then butcher paper wrap and fat side up (so the paper won't stick to the fat side). Then cooler/towels for 1-6 hours.

For your first rodeo, I say no to anything fancy (injection, hot/fast, etc. etc.). Keep it simple, get a baseline, and experiment more down the road. Chris' Central TX butcher paper recipe is what I started with.
 
Thanks all for the help, it looks like I will stick with my original plan. I agree Jim, was hoping to get a baseline cook done, and Chris' recipe is what I was going off of. I appreciate the feedback! I'll post a picture when it is done.
 
All in, great first effort and baseline to start with. Dalmatian rub worked really well. My second cook using jealous devil briquettes which were $$ but held the temperature really well. Got more sleep than expected, and my temperature alarms never went off. Post oak chunks following the traditional central Texas style. I put it on at midnight, spritzed with apple cider vinegar at 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7. Around then it had a nice bark and reading 170 internal. Wrapped in butcher paper and cooked until 203 internal around 12:30pm before resting 2 hours or so. It passed the pull test, and was not dried out at all (especially because I was worried about that given the fat cap trimming). Nice cut of meat from Porter Road. Extremely juicy and well rendered. Frankly I could not be happier with how it came out. Room for improvement of course though. Need a better carving knife (and better skill), as a few slices I made a little too thick.

My guests loved it which is what mattered most. Added another picture for good measure. Looking forward to leftovers tonight!
 

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Looks great! I don't wrap and I don't go by a set temp either, I will check temps from time to time but I go for how easy it is to probe, as in probe like butter. I don't like to complicate things or get stressed out about temps and such. Each piece of meat will finish at different times due to fat content and connective tissue so you can't really rely on a set time for it to be done that's why resting in a cooler works great so if it gets done sooner it can rest until time to serve it.
 
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