Fitting brisket and wood on wsm and timing

[Chris Allingham]

If you look at the geometry involved I think you'll see it's not critical that your cut be perfectly perpendicular to the fibers...

I would agree to not agonize over it. But I'm always surprised by how many times I go to restaurants and get brisket that's sliced almost exactly with the grain, so that tells me that even people working in professional kitchens can't figure out how to slice a brisket across the grain! "Marking" the brisket just takes the guess work out of it, if it's something you care about. Much more important in competition than in the backyard.

 

[Steve Porter]

I saw an interesting video recently on how to fit a large brisket on the 18.5 WSM. The top rack was tipped down and resting at an angle on the bottom rack, with the brisket also at an angle on the top rack. It looked like it worked great and was a good idea that I plan on trying with the next large brisket I do on my 18.5.

 

[PaulBz]

Thanks guys! I'm trying to do this in my new sports bar and I want the best in town. I guess I'm a little OCD. But I want my bbq perfect!

 

[JayHeyl]

I would agree to not agonize over it. But I'm always surprised by how many times I go to restaurants and get brisket that's sliced almost exactly with the grain, so that tells me that even people working in professional kitchens can't figure out how to slice a brisket across the grain! "Marking" the brisket just takes the guess work out of it, if it's something you care about. Much more important in competition than in the backyard.

I didn't mean to imply the "marking" wasn't useful. I think that's a very clever technique, particularly if you're going to lose that corner anyway in trimming away the too thin stuff that will just dry out anyway. But if you forget, don't think all is lost. If there are 180 ways to slice a brisket, about 140 of them will provide adequate results, so the odds are greatly in your favor even if you just pick an angle at random.

I would have to think those restaurant workers have been inadequately trained. They remembered the proper slicing had something to do with the grain and then got it exactly backwards.

A friend with whom I used to regularly dine out owned a restaurant in a long ago life. When things went wrong with the food or the service he was not the least bit bashful about complaining to the manager. Can't tell you how much free food we got by way of apology for the restaurant messing up. I think we got free appetizers at Red Robin for most of one year because they couldn't bring soup to the table at the right time. Somewhat to their credit, after countless fails they did eventually fix their system so the soup always came at the proper time. Point being, if they've done it seriously wrong, you might want to talk with the manager.

 

[PaulBz]

Yeah I have never had a brisket cut with the grain at a bbq restaurant. I assume that place won’t be open very long. I have had dry chicken and ribs that are over cooked and have been sitting forever. The biggest thing that restaurants do and people think is good ribs is to overcook them so they fall off the bone. Smoked ribs are not supposed to fall off the bone.