Tom R London
New member
I cooked my first brisket on Saturday so I thought I'd write up a bit of a report on how it went.
The Meat
Most butchers in the UK don't cater to the bbq market, well not in the WSM sense at least, and I had to order my brisket through my local butcher and therefore had a choice of one. It hadn't really been trimmed correctly and there was an extra bit of meat and fat on the bottom but I was able to sort that out. I also thought the fat cap was a little thin in places. The cow was grass fed which is common in the UK however I know there is a preference for grain fed in the US. Still I trimmed the meat up and it seemed like a decent piece of meat.
The Rub
I decided to make a wet rub which was based closely on the wet rub method on TVWB cooking topics page however I personalised it a little. Here's what it had in it:
3 tbsp brown sugar
2 tbsp paprika
1 tsp cayenne pepper (I would have liked to have added more but more might have killed my wife)
1 tbsp maldon sea salt
1 tbsp onion powder
1 tbsp pepper
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1 tbsp mustard seeds and 1 tbsp cumin seeds, toasted lightly and ground in a pestle and mortor
1 tbsp Marmite (a popular yeast extract we have in the UK)
4 tbsp worcester sauce which I had used to soak some dried mushrooms
The Marmite and mushrooms were used as natural sources for glutamate and another chemical responsible for the flavour of Umami.
The cooking
I fired using the minion method at around 7:30 AM and was up to temperature by 8 AM when the beef went on. I turned and basted at 2 Pm 5 PM and 6:30 and the beef had reached an internal temp of 190 by 7:30. I took the meat off and allowed it to rest for 45 minutes wrapped in foil.
My temperature had stayed pretty much in the 225 - 250 range throughout however around 4 PM my temperature dropped off and it wouldn't come back up so I fired another 20 or so briquettes and refuelled. I did also manage to stir up a bit of ash when trying to get the temp back up which did get on the beef however I used my baste to wash most of it back off.
Served the beef around 8:15 in some bread rolls I'd made earlier in the day. I'm very pleased with the results as were my guests.
Thank you to everybody who has posted brisket posts here before as I read through lots before the cook and they helped greatly.
Cheers,
Tom
The Meat
Most butchers in the UK don't cater to the bbq market, well not in the WSM sense at least, and I had to order my brisket through my local butcher and therefore had a choice of one. It hadn't really been trimmed correctly and there was an extra bit of meat and fat on the bottom but I was able to sort that out. I also thought the fat cap was a little thin in places. The cow was grass fed which is common in the UK however I know there is a preference for grain fed in the US. Still I trimmed the meat up and it seemed like a decent piece of meat.
The Rub
I decided to make a wet rub which was based closely on the wet rub method on TVWB cooking topics page however I personalised it a little. Here's what it had in it:
3 tbsp brown sugar
2 tbsp paprika
1 tsp cayenne pepper (I would have liked to have added more but more might have killed my wife)
1 tbsp maldon sea salt
1 tbsp onion powder
1 tbsp pepper
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1 tbsp mustard seeds and 1 tbsp cumin seeds, toasted lightly and ground in a pestle and mortor
1 tbsp Marmite (a popular yeast extract we have in the UK)
4 tbsp worcester sauce which I had used to soak some dried mushrooms
The Marmite and mushrooms were used as natural sources for glutamate and another chemical responsible for the flavour of Umami.
The cooking
I fired using the minion method at around 7:30 AM and was up to temperature by 8 AM when the beef went on. I turned and basted at 2 Pm 5 PM and 6:30 and the beef had reached an internal temp of 190 by 7:30. I took the meat off and allowed it to rest for 45 minutes wrapped in foil.
My temperature had stayed pretty much in the 225 - 250 range throughout however around 4 PM my temperature dropped off and it wouldn't come back up so I fired another 20 or so briquettes and refuelled. I did also manage to stir up a bit of ash when trying to get the temp back up which did get on the beef however I used my baste to wash most of it back off.
Served the beef around 8:15 in some bread rolls I'd made earlier in the day. I'm very pleased with the results as were my guests.
Thank you to everybody who has posted brisket posts here before as I read through lots before the cook and they helped greatly.
Cheers,
Tom
