CorySwartz
New member
So I decided to go big on my first smoke. Picked up a 13 lb brisket for my 22.5 WSM and planned out an overnight cook with burnt ends.
Trimmed the brisket (sorry, no pics), which was an adventure. Hit a little low in spots, and I think I left a little too much in others. Noted for next time. Applied the rub and threw it in the fridge. I probably took 2 lbs or so of fat off. Some was pretty hard, which was much easier to remove.
I started with a full charcoal ring. Flipped the chimney and fired up 25 briqs. I set up a drip pan and added a beer to it. I noticed that things weren't quite level (it was tilting toward the back of the lid), but didn't think much of it. Also to note, I went with the clay saucer and foiled pan. Top vent was at 100% the entire cook.
I threw the hot coals on along with four chunks of apple around 10:45pm. This is where it got fun, real fast. Temps shot up very quickly and I had the vents at 0/0/25% in about 30 min. After almost 2 hours, it was cranking at 285* which had me a bit worried as I didn't want to cook quite that hot. Then I started thinking about it being unlevel and added a paver to the one leg. Within 5 min the temp was down to 265*. I think it being tilted toward the back was forcing more of the air up the front (and toward the lid therm) and artifically inflating the reported temp. I had about an hour of 265* and then I cut the vents to 0/0/15 (slightly more than cracked) when it hit 285* again at 3AM. At that point I had to sleep for a bit.
6:50am and the temp was down to 215*. I bumped the vents back up to 0/0/25. Took my first meat temp and it was 190 in the point and 170-180 in various places on the flat. I could have pulled the point off the gril by now as it was butter tender, but the flat was too tough still. That really didn't bother me too much since I knew I was doing burnt ends.
From 7:15 till 10:30 temps were between 215* and 240*. Finally I hit the time where the flat was tender just about everywhere. Pulled it off the smoker, wrapped in triple foil (it poked a few holes) and in the cooler it went. I tried to keep the smoker around 245* to get ready for the point to go back on.
Separating the point and flat was super easy. I had to cut very little. It pulled apart like two post-it notes. The point went back on around 11:45am after a re-rub and I added some very small bits of apple since the point had some exposed meat due to removing the point/flat fat. Temps stayed much more stable, between 225* and 245* which was nice to see. Had to add a bit of charcoal during the burnt ends cook, but nothing too major.
RESULTS:
Taste and aroma were great. Half of the flat was very tender and moist (under the point). The other half was what I would consider "brittle" and a little dry. Probably overcooked. I didn't turn the brisket at all, which I'll try next time. I didn't do anything special with the drippings. Degreased them, added a little rub, heated them up to get things mixed and added them to the burnt ends, which were awesome. My wife ate more of them than I did... so I have a fan there.
Right off the smoker:
Brisket split:
Sliced:
Point back on for burnt ends:
Chopped burnt ends:
In the end, I was slightly disappointed, but definitely not deterred. The high temps threw me for a loop (since I was shooting for 225-245) and I have a better understanding of what I can do try and control it next time. I'm not quite sure what made the brisket act like it was two different worlds (20* difference between the halves). Now that I think about it, the part of the flat that seemed overcooked started on front side, which had the tilt initially. This might have hit it with too much too fast. I realize that it was very ambitious first smoke and I'm already planning a pork butt smoke.
I want to say thanks to the community for all of the info, tips, and tricks I've been able to absord. It's what made me confident in trying something so ambitious right out of the gate!
Trimmed the brisket (sorry, no pics), which was an adventure. Hit a little low in spots, and I think I left a little too much in others. Noted for next time. Applied the rub and threw it in the fridge. I probably took 2 lbs or so of fat off. Some was pretty hard, which was much easier to remove.
I started with a full charcoal ring. Flipped the chimney and fired up 25 briqs. I set up a drip pan and added a beer to it. I noticed that things weren't quite level (it was tilting toward the back of the lid), but didn't think much of it. Also to note, I went with the clay saucer and foiled pan. Top vent was at 100% the entire cook.
I threw the hot coals on along with four chunks of apple around 10:45pm. This is where it got fun, real fast. Temps shot up very quickly and I had the vents at 0/0/25% in about 30 min. After almost 2 hours, it was cranking at 285* which had me a bit worried as I didn't want to cook quite that hot. Then I started thinking about it being unlevel and added a paver to the one leg. Within 5 min the temp was down to 265*. I think it being tilted toward the back was forcing more of the air up the front (and toward the lid therm) and artifically inflating the reported temp. I had about an hour of 265* and then I cut the vents to 0/0/15 (slightly more than cracked) when it hit 285* again at 3AM. At that point I had to sleep for a bit.
6:50am and the temp was down to 215*. I bumped the vents back up to 0/0/25. Took my first meat temp and it was 190 in the point and 170-180 in various places on the flat. I could have pulled the point off the gril by now as it was butter tender, but the flat was too tough still. That really didn't bother me too much since I knew I was doing burnt ends.
From 7:15 till 10:30 temps were between 215* and 240*. Finally I hit the time where the flat was tender just about everywhere. Pulled it off the smoker, wrapped in triple foil (it poked a few holes) and in the cooler it went. I tried to keep the smoker around 245* to get ready for the point to go back on.
Separating the point and flat was super easy. I had to cut very little. It pulled apart like two post-it notes. The point went back on around 11:45am after a re-rub and I added some very small bits of apple since the point had some exposed meat due to removing the point/flat fat. Temps stayed much more stable, between 225* and 245* which was nice to see. Had to add a bit of charcoal during the burnt ends cook, but nothing too major.
RESULTS:
Taste and aroma were great. Half of the flat was very tender and moist (under the point). The other half was what I would consider "brittle" and a little dry. Probably overcooked. I didn't turn the brisket at all, which I'll try next time. I didn't do anything special with the drippings. Degreased them, added a little rub, heated them up to get things mixed and added them to the burnt ends, which were awesome. My wife ate more of them than I did... so I have a fan there.
Right off the smoker:
Brisket split:
Sliced:
Point back on for burnt ends:
Chopped burnt ends:
In the end, I was slightly disappointed, but definitely not deterred. The high temps threw me for a loop (since I was shooting for 225-245) and I have a better understanding of what I can do try and control it next time. I'm not quite sure what made the brisket act like it was two different worlds (20* difference between the halves). Now that I think about it, the part of the flat that seemed overcooked started on front side, which had the tilt initially. This might have hit it with too much too fast. I realize that it was very ambitious first smoke and I'm already planning a pork butt smoke.
I want to say thanks to the community for all of the info, tips, and tricks I've been able to absord. It's what made me confident in trying something so ambitious right out of the gate!