First-ever brisket tomorrow.


 
PeterD

PeterD

TVWBB Super Fan
T minus 12 hours and counting for my first-ever brisket cook. This will be a HH affair. I'm pretty good with loin back pork ribs, and my St. Louis-cut spares usually come out OK too, but brisky and me are complete strangers and The Wife is giving me "the look" now, because of the extra-high price I paid, so it's gotta get done right! I confess to having a real case of nerves here that not even a strong cigar and a glass of Scotch has put much of a dent in
icon_biggrin.gif


First off, what should I use to season it? I don't eat anything spicy-hot at all and don't particularly like much garlic and onion either (a light flavoring of these is fine, but not "add 2 cloves of garlic and a sliced onion"). BRITU and Jane's Butt Rub for ribs comes off just nice IMHO, but I know it's gotta be different for brisket. Kosher Salt and coarse black pepper to start but then?? I was thinking a little Ancho chili powder (not hot, but flavourful) maybe? Someone else suggested Old Bay??

Is there anything I could or should be doing tonight before turning in?

I will minion-start with a full ring of Blue K and a good helping of hickory and a little apple wood. The brisket is a 5-1/4# flat (USDA Choice grade) that was very aggressively trimmed by my butcher...probably more than I'd have trimmed it myself, to be honest.

My intended cooking procedure so far is to set it on for about 2-1/2 hours, grate temps around 350 give-or-take. Foil up (no steam pan available, just HD foil) at that point for about 75 minutes or so then check for fork-tender, re-checking every 20 minutes thereafter. Once in foil, I'll crack the door to get the temps up as high as they'll go.

At this point I'm kinda floundering in terms of process. I'm after a very crisp, black bark if possible. What to do with the juice from the foil? After pulling it off, what's the best recommended resting process? I can time this however I want for supper around 7 or so, so resting for 2+ hours isn't necessary for logistics, unless the process calls for this step.

We don't have any sauces in the house except KC Masterpiece, which I've been reading doesn't go especially well with beef. Is there a nationally-available sauce I should be looking for in the market while the clod-o-cow is cooking? What is the #5 sauce I've heard referenced?

I will post pictures of tomorrow's festivities either during or afterwards. Thanks to all in advance.
 
Originally posted by PeterD:

I will minion-start with a full ring of Blue K and a good helping of hickory and a little apple wood.

What to do with the juice from the foil?

What is the #5 sauce I've heard referenced?



I did two HH briskets about two weeks ago, first time with that method. I wouldn't do the minion start, it will take forever to get up to a high temp. I put one chimney of unlit K in the ring, dumped another chimney of fully lit K on top, put some apple wood on that and assembled everything. Even on a 110 windless day in Arizona, I had to prop the access door open to consistently keep the temp above 325.

I dumped the juice out of the foil pans into a glass measuring cup about 15 min into the rest. I let it finish resting in the foil pan, covered. Bark was fine (I left it fat side down the entire cook) because it was up out of the liquid inside of the foil.

Keep the liquid and use it to make #5 sauce. The article on TVWB home page has a quick link to it. The sauce was unbelievable and the brisket was great. Relax and have fun with it!
Click to expand...
 
Here are the first pics of the meat, before cooking. You can see the fat cap has been almost eliminated. Sadly, the butcher didn't understand enough English when I said 1/4" or so. To him, fat is bad, I guess. Gotta find a better source for meat, that's for darned sure. We had an excellent high-end supermarket in town that actually sold prime and Waygu, but it closed down, has been gutted and will re-open in about 8 to 10 months as a Stop and Shop (i.e. another suburban-ho-hum supermarket).

Top.jpg

Fat_Side.jpg
 
Peter relax and enjoy, your brisket will turn out fine, and if it doesnt, well then get another one and start all over again.
 
Hi,

With such a small fat cap and a high heat cook you might want to lay down a nice bed of thick sliced apple wood smoked bacon on the rack first. Just plop the brisket fat side down on top of the bacon and cook away.

Al
 
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">I wouldn't do the minion start, it will take forever to get up to a high temp. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>
It doesn't take forever but does take more time, of course, than cranking the cooker up full tilt from the get-go - but that's the point. A Minion start allows for additional smoke time, necessary, imo, for better smoke flavor. I start with 25 lit.

In the future do not allow the butcher to trim at all.

I'm not one for covering things with bacon. That just smokes the bacon, not the meat. For a small piece of brisket, which is what you have, especially one that's trimmed, plan on foiling sooner, when the internal hits 160.

Put the meat in cold.

Do not temp after foiling. Note the time when you foil and check for tender the first time 75-80 min later. Gauge from there.

Frankly, I'd suggest getting the process down before worrying about bark texture. Reestablishing bark texture means unfoiling before tender is achieved then returning to the cooker to finish. This is more easily achieved using a thick whole brisket.

I rest 20-30 min, tented only, and suggest the same, so don't start the cook too early.

No. 5 sauce - but read the thread and consider other additions like some meat drippings and a little fruit.
 
Half an hour in and the temps woudln't go above 275, even with the door propped open an inch and a half. Note to self: check bottom vents! Once they let more air in it shot up to 320 in about 10 minutes and held nicely (grate temp, not dome). Almost two hours exactly and the food probe said 160 so into a foil pan it went, covered with HD foil. I checked with a thermopen and it was registering higher elsewhere...again, I go back to my unease with the ET-73's accuracy!
 
Peter, next time u cook a brisket please leave the fat cap on and score the fat cap, cook it fat side up that is the rite way of cooking a brisket, lots of people turn the brisket that is a no no, after the 1st hr or so start basting the brisky with a mop sauce, 50% oil 50% vinegar or citrus as long as its acidic, when brisky hits 160-170 wrap in foil double the foil also known as the Texas crutch, 2hrs is usually enough time in the foil but check it as always brisket should come out delecious
 
There are many 'rite'[SIC] ways of cooking brisket. Though I too leave the fatcap on I always cook fat down. It protects the meat from the stronger heat emanating up from the bottom, and keeps the rubbed side off the grate so avoids the loss of rub that often occurs when the brisket is placed fat up.

One can certainly mop if one desires. I never do. It doesn't do or add enough to make it worth the bother, imo, and I have better things to do than hang out near the cooker.
 
I agree with K about so many sick ways of cooking brisket, but in reality there is really only a couple of ways to cook brisket without having to worry about messing it up, as for mopping i disagree with K, mopping is just a way of protecting the brisket from the heat just like the water pan does, u can either mop the brisky or pour liquid in the foil when u wrap it 1 or the other
 
Mopping - if a water-based mop is used - will slow the cooking due to evaporation. Fat-based mops will speed the cooking. Both can add flavor if applied often enough. After many, many hundreds of briskets, with and without foil, low/slow or not, mopping is not required. One certainly can - for many reasons (all worthwhile) - but it is not necessary.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

 

Back
Top