Fixing to rub the First Brisket


 
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Vernon N

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Just picked up the 8.5 lb flat at Sam's. I think that it is probably too closely trimmed so I have 2 lb of bacon to throw on top.

I am thinking about the Raichlen "salt free lemonade chili rub" w/o the celery seed. Fixing to rub about noon to one, put on the smoker about 11 or 12 tonight, and set the Guru to about 215-220. Planning on eating about 6 Sunday evening. Any comments?
 
Thanks, Jim. I will do as you recommend. Following your instructions in other posts. The meat has some fat cap.

Mixed the rub. Did real well until I got down to all the spices and I kept using the TABLE spoon instead of the teaspoon. The bride and I smelled the result and decided that there was no problem with the extra spices. We decided that we had to "kick it up a notch" so we added some cayenne to the mix and added some Tone's Southwest Chipotle seasoning. May sprinkle a little sugar on the meat later to sort of crust it up.
 
How much fat cap do you usually look for?

I get my brisket from a butcher, so I can tell him exactly what I want. But I think it was too lean last time. Any other recommendations for how to get it cut?

Grim
 
Vernon
If I am going get a dried out section it is the side that is on the grate. By cooking fat side down or placing a bed of bacon as an example on the grate and the brisket on top I protect the brisket from this result.
The top of the brisket may have a very small amount of crust but if you foil at the end of the cook and place in a cooler that side down the juice that collect in the foil will soften it back up during the resting period.
Have a good time.
Jim
 
Vernon, good luck on your brisket-I have not tried one yet. I will be interested in seeing your comments.
 
It is on. Here is a pic.

Quick Lesson learned, apparently the Guru requires the power cord in the top and the fan in the bottom. With the leads reversed, the fan runs all the time.
 
One other method I saw for avoiding dried out brisket is to place a piece of cardboard underneath the meat in the cooker.

A team did this at a cookoff in Minnesota a couple years back. They placed the raw meat on a square piece of cardboard, carved the outline of the meat on the cardboard and trimmed it so it would not overlap the meat.

It absorbs some moisture, plus most times, your cooker is not hot enough to ignite the cardboard.

I thought it was weird the first time I saw it, but they took 1st place out of 30 teams in brisket, so who's to say what is right.

Another idea I have used with some success. Lay the bacon on the grill, layer on sliced onions, chili peppers, celery stalks, etc. (I've also repeated the process on the top). Problem with this is it tends to leave the rub/surface of the meat soft/gummy if you leave it on too long. I do it for 3/4 of the cook then remove and eat it so the bark can crisp up.
 
0500 -- woke up by the #!@*#$$ alarm on the Guru. Meat 260, pit 166. Looks OK. Guru says the meat is below temp. NO fan, just that invernal beeping. (meat looks great) ???? Hm m m m . . . Hooked the leads to the ET-73 backwards. NO wonder I was entering data into the spreadsheet in a "normal" fashion instead of backwards like the previous times. Shut the shutter down and am riding the curve down to where the Guru wants to run again.

Moral of this story: If your guru is running very little and maintaining temp on the front end of MM, close the fan shutter some more.
 
Vernon, how did you hear that alarm loud enough to wake you? You sleeping outside again?
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If I may offer a suggestion: Start drinking AFTER you get the meat on and the probes hooked up. That way you'll have less chance of getting your "wires crossed."
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Have a good one and looking forward to the final pics.

Rick
 
The back patio and the WSM is right outside the bedroom window. My natural clock generally has me sleeping lightly at that time. At first I thought one of the house-apes had left something in the dryer and it was calling.
 
Besides, look at it this way -- We now know one more thing (not isted in the Guru manual, by the way) that can cause the fan to run continuously. For those of us who cannnot read the labels on the face of the Guru . . .
 
Decided that the temp was never going to get there. Only 182 (down from 183) after loading a small chimney of hot lump and the temp spike and decay. (8 minutes to go from 230 to 315, then about 30 min to decay to 250. Went and got the foil. Ate some of the bacon that had been on top with some rub attached.

WOW.

Oh, did I fail to mention WOW!!!

It is tough not going and opening up to steal a few more strips. Even the bride was impressed with the rub flavor.
 
Pulled it at 187. It passed the "fork tender" test, at least IMO. It looked really juicy. Took it out of the foil, turned it over to fat cap up and double foiled it. It is in the cooler resting.
 
Result: Extremely good. Good enough the next flat will start about 9:00 pm 12/24 for Christmas Dinner. Not as juicy as I had hoped, however, was rated "Perfect" by some folks who had had a few briskets in Texas. Was hard to get critiques because no one would stop eating long enough to comment. Thanks to Jim Minion and the rest of the board for all of your helpful comments and advice, whether in this thread or not.
 
Looked delicious Vernon! I'll bet that bacon WAS good! Am I seeing 3 meat probes and 2 grate/smoker probes? What unit is the 3rd meat probe hooked up to? And why 3 meat therms.?
Pat yourself on the back for a job well done!
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Rick
 
1) Back to Rick's first post. Don't start drinking until everything is hooked up!
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2) Man that looks good. And I bet that bacon was great.
3) I must have had my phone turned off when you tried to call me for supper.
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4) Rick's second post. All the meat and pit probes. Chris says , "You think you would have connected at least one set correctly!?!?
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Rick -- probes as follows:

GURU Meat and Pit. When I started I thought I might be gone when it was close to finishing so I turned the ramp mode on.

ET-73 Meat and Pit. For some reason, the Guru's nearest 5 F or 12 F or 25 F or whatever does not suit me nearly as well as 1 F with remote readout. I always (when home) confirm the Guru at work.

Third meat probe was me trying the NU-Temp. I think that the ET-73 and the NuTemp conflict, maybe. I quit using the NuTemp and went with the ET-73. After I moved the NuTemps to the other end of the house (across the never-never-zone that nothing seems to work across) the ET-73 and the NU-temp remained in communication. WHen I had the transmitters and the receivers all sitting next to each other, they were dropping the connection left and right.
 
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