First WSM Brisket


 
M

Mike Newhouse

TVWBB Fan
I have cooked many briskets over the years, most recently using my Char-Griller Duo. Today I'm doing my first on my 22.5" WSM using the high heat method.

I took a 10lb packer (untrimmed) and rubbed it with one of my custom rubs last night. I just recently started writing down what I put in my rub, but this one was made some time in the past. It smells smokey so I suspect there's a fair amount of chipotle powder in it.

The WSM is loaded with Stubbs and mesquite. I dumped a chimney of mostly lit Stubbs on top. Foiled bowl w/o water. The meat went on immediately after dumping the lit. All vents full open. Outside temp is ~95F and meat temp is ~39F.

One hour in to the cook, the pit temp (taken @ the center and 1" below the top grate) is 257F and meat temp is 70F. I still have good smoke. I want to be sure the smoke persists until the meat temp gets to about 150F to get a good smoke ring.

I will post updates (and pics) as appropriate.

-mike
 
An hour later all looks fine. Pit temp rose to 350F. I backed the bottom vents down to 50% and opened the door to add some mesquite. Current pit temp 282F and meat temp 106F.

-mike
 
I'm anxious to see your pictures. I have been a bit intimidated regarding briskets... I pretty much stay with high heat pork butts for their "forgiveness" factor. It will be good to hear from a "first brisket" poster about your experience!
 
Mike, sounds like it's going good!

I just hang a therm in the top vent, but I like your therm placement...as opposed to clipping the therm to the TOP of the grate BESIDE the meat. I find that way doesn't reflect what's hitting the bottom of the meat, at least if the grate is mostly full. Did that way once by a brisket, and was amazed at how quick the two big pork butts on the bottom grate were done.
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Hope it turns out yummy!
 
Two hours in and the pit seems stable at ~280. The brisket is up to 145. The vents are still at 50% and I'm debating taking them to 75%. 280 is low for a HH cook and I really need to get to 170 in the next hour or so. The brisket will stall between 170 and 180 for an hour and then race to 200 pretty quickly.

I'm going to open the vents.

-mike
 
I opened the vents to 100% and the pit temp rose to ~310F. At hour 3 the brisket is at 171 so I'm going to pull it and wrap it. I'll put it back on and wait to get to 190 and start checking it for tenderness.

-mike
 
The brisket reached 200 at just under 5 hours. Seems fork tender but I don't want to poke it too much. I'll let it sit for an hour and then slice.

-mike
 
The brisket has been resting for an hour and internal temp is still at 194. It shot up to 205 carry over but that should be fine.

I'm anxious to slice some off.
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-mike
 
The cook is done, the brisket has been sliced and served (to Grandpa Tom at least, Lisa and I will eat later).

First the pics:

Less juice after the rest than I expected.
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The color and general appearance of the brisket is good.
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I now see why others have recommended trimming the fat for this method. Because the brisket is exposed to the heat for significantly less time, there is less opportunity for the fat to render.
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It did take smoke well considering I used about half as much mesquite as I typically would. The meat was certainly moist and was reasonably tender.
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Now my observations:
The quality of my final product completely reminded me of the brisket available in local barbecue restaurants. It was moist, tender and had a noticeable smokey flavor. But not as good as a 12+ hour Low and Slow cook.

I noticed that not only was there a significant amount of fat remaining from the cap but also quite a bit of fat and connective tissue remaining in the flat. Slices would pull apart, but would s t r e t c h before giving way. I admit I did allow the brisket to cook at a rather low temp for a couple hours and this may have contributed to the problems mentioned above.

The bark was quite good however. Much better than I have accomplished over a 12+ hour cook at 225.

Conclusions:
The High Heat method is a viable technique that will produce a good product in much less time than the conventional Low and Slow method. The brisket should be well trimmed if this method is used. However, if time allows, an overnight cook will likely produce a much better product. The ability of the WSM to maintain a stable temp simply by adjusting the vents was clearly demonstrated in this cook. I am confident I can fire up the WSM the night before, lock it in at 225 and it will still be at 225 the next morning.

I think I'll validate my conclusions over the 4th of July weekend. Lisa also wants to grind a brisket for burgers so we may have a lot to post.

All in all it was a fun experiment.

-mike
 
Not bad Mike don't be to hard on yourself, as for the fat try scoring the fat all the way to the meat, i do that all the time works great. I do not like to trim briskets cause the flavor is in the fat. Also when i do HH i try to find briskets 10lbs or less if possible. Also need to be around the 350 temp range when doing HH.
 
Mike, glad you liked how your first wsm brisket cook went. I like 'em fast, I like 'em slow, but when it comes down to tenderness, there's one thing I notice about the HH brisket. Every HH brisket I've cooked was OVER 200* before it was tender....but maybe that's just been my cooks...
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Low-n-slow briskets...I first check for tenderness in the low 180's, depending on how the cook has went. By the way, I notice the same IT/method correlation with pork butt.

Good luck on your low-n-slow July 4th cook. I'd recommend cooking lots of meat and using a substantial heat sink, (water recommended at first) if you want to keep temps down at 225* as you mentioned. As good as the wsm is at maintaining a temp range over a long cook, the boys that buy the Gurus and Stokers don't spend the cash for nothin'. The wsm isn't usually the issue though; it's the charcoal.
 
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