The Meat: 13LB USDA Brisket, 10LB Butt, 8LB, Butt
The Cooker : 22WSM
Method Butts over Brisket
The Plan:
To have food ready by 12PM on Sunday afternoon, there for I placed my brisket on the the WSM at 8Pm on Saturday Night,10LB on at 9PM and the 8pounder on at 10PM.
I woke up on Saturday morning at 6AM to trim and seasoned the meats. I had this all done by 8AM , so the meats would have had atleast 12 hours of sitting in the fridge soaking up the seasoning. For the seasoning, I did, for the first time, use the same method that I use for my steaks, I seasoned only with salt. I followed Amazing Ribs, directions of a dry salt brine. So for each lb of meat I used half a teaspoon of salt. Having said this, I am not sure if I used a rub 12 hours ahead instead of just salt if it would have tasted the same. That is to say, I am not sure if the other items in the rub, ie black pepper, garlic, etc could have prevented the salt from truly penetration the bark level of the meat, but the flavor for barks of the meats was unbelievable. Having said this, right before I place all three pieces of meat on the WSM, I then added my rub, which still included some salt, but markedly less amount than a traditional rub, since the meats were salted already.
The cook:
I did butts over Brisket, I used an 18 Lb bag of Kingsford blue charcoal. I put one layer of charcoal down and then added 8 pieces of cherry wood on top. I then dumped the rest of the charcoal on the cherry wood. I created a crater in center to which I added 12 lit KB and one piece of cherry wood. (I had the cherry in the chimney starter from the very beginning). Initially, I used an empty water pan, but my temp was running much higher than I expected for using only 12 coals and one piece of wood. My temps were 265 on the bottom racks and around 250 on the top rack during first few hours of the cook. I wanted to cook at 245. BTW I was using the digi Q to help control the temp. This was also surprising because everything I read stated that the lower rack usually runs cooler than the top rack. All the bottom vents were closed and the top vent remained opened. I presumed that the empty water pan was not acting as a heat shield hence why the lower rack was hotter. Therefore I closed the top vent and added some Ice water to the pan(it wasn't even half way). This seamed to stabilize my temperature and at around 11Pm before I went to bed, I reopened my top vent all the way. And went to bed.
The next morning, I woke up at 7AM. Non of my alarms went off, which meant that my pit temp never went out of my zone. I slept like the dead. When I went outside to check my temps. My pit both levels were at a solid 245, this was my target temp. My brisket was at 181 and my butts were at 193. I slept through the stall, no wrapping no nothing. By 9AM, all three pieces of meats were removed from the pit wrapped in foil and placed in a pre warmed cambro. At 12PM, I removed them from the cambro , pulled, slice and served the best BBQ any of my guests had ever eaten I their entire lives.
The Cooker : 22WSM
Method Butts over Brisket
The Plan:
To have food ready by 12PM on Sunday afternoon, there for I placed my brisket on the the WSM at 8Pm on Saturday Night,10LB on at 9PM and the 8pounder on at 10PM.
I woke up on Saturday morning at 6AM to trim and seasoned the meats. I had this all done by 8AM , so the meats would have had atleast 12 hours of sitting in the fridge soaking up the seasoning. For the seasoning, I did, for the first time, use the same method that I use for my steaks, I seasoned only with salt. I followed Amazing Ribs, directions of a dry salt brine. So for each lb of meat I used half a teaspoon of salt. Having said this, I am not sure if I used a rub 12 hours ahead instead of just salt if it would have tasted the same. That is to say, I am not sure if the other items in the rub, ie black pepper, garlic, etc could have prevented the salt from truly penetration the bark level of the meat, but the flavor for barks of the meats was unbelievable. Having said this, right before I place all three pieces of meat on the WSM, I then added my rub, which still included some salt, but markedly less amount than a traditional rub, since the meats were salted already.
The cook:
I did butts over Brisket, I used an 18 Lb bag of Kingsford blue charcoal. I put one layer of charcoal down and then added 8 pieces of cherry wood on top. I then dumped the rest of the charcoal on the cherry wood. I created a crater in center to which I added 12 lit KB and one piece of cherry wood. (I had the cherry in the chimney starter from the very beginning). Initially, I used an empty water pan, but my temp was running much higher than I expected for using only 12 coals and one piece of wood. My temps were 265 on the bottom racks and around 250 on the top rack during first few hours of the cook. I wanted to cook at 245. BTW I was using the digi Q to help control the temp. This was also surprising because everything I read stated that the lower rack usually runs cooler than the top rack. All the bottom vents were closed and the top vent remained opened. I presumed that the empty water pan was not acting as a heat shield hence why the lower rack was hotter. Therefore I closed the top vent and added some Ice water to the pan(it wasn't even half way). This seamed to stabilize my temperature and at around 11Pm before I went to bed, I reopened my top vent all the way. And went to bed.
The next morning, I woke up at 7AM. Non of my alarms went off, which meant that my pit temp never went out of my zone. I slept like the dead. When I went outside to check my temps. My pit both levels were at a solid 245, this was my target temp. My brisket was at 181 and my butts were at 193. I slept through the stall, no wrapping no nothing. By 9AM, all three pieces of meats were removed from the pit wrapped in foil and placed in a pre warmed cambro. At 12PM, I removed them from the cambro , pulled, slice and served the best BBQ any of my guests had ever eaten I their entire lives.
