John K BBQ
TVWBB All-Star
I did my first overnight brisket on my 22" WSM. I didn't get that many photos, but overall the brisket turned out great. This was probably my 5th or 6th brisket in my own yard on my own smoker, so I'm still learning. Here's what I did; I bought a 14.3 lb, prime packer brisket at Sam's Club, and on Saturday mid-morning, I put a fairly aggressive trim on it. Most advice says try to leave a 1/4" of fat layer where you can, but I tend to cut too deep (lack of practice), so I ended up trimming most of the fat it off. After trimming I put a heavy coat of salt on it and put it on a wire rack over a sheet pan and stuck it in the fridge. About 8 PM, I took it back out and put a bunch of fresh ground pepper on all sides and to let it set out to get closer to room temp before putting it on the smoker.
I lit my coals (using about 90% Rockwood lump and 10% Kingsford original) around 9:30 PM. I dumped about 3/4 of a large chimney in the middle of my charcoal basket, and assembled the WSM with the fire dial, and connected the Thermoworks/Billows ATC all set for 225F. The temperature overshot by about 50F so I put a 9 x 13 aluminum pan, about 2/3 full of tap-cold water on the lower cooking grate to help cool things off, then put the brisket on around 10 PM, and a 9" x 4" x 4" oak chunk in the fire basket and crossed my fingers. I stayed up for about 2 hours and watched a movie and kept half and eye on the temperature, and luckily it locked in at 225 with the with the cold water pan and cold brisket in place.
I went to sleep around 12 AM and slept like a rock until my Thermoworks gave the low-temp alarm at 5 AM, so I got up like a new dad with a tired wife to go see why my baby was crying. Luckily, I still had plenty of fuel, and just needed to the charcoal basket up a bit, so I did, then went in the house and picked another movie to watch and had some coffee. I didn't check internal temperatures till about 10 AM (about the 12 hour mark) and it was basically stalled at 150 F, so I wrapped it in butcher paper, and inserted a meat probe, expecting to be close to 198F by around 1 or 2. At 2 PM, it was around 183, so I bumped the temperature up from 225 to 250. At 3 PM, the internal temp was about 186, and the WSM was hungry for more fuel, so I put a large chimney of unlit lump in the fire basket and another 9" x 4" x 4" oak chunk, and cranked the heat up to 260F. I finally hit 198 around 4 PM but it didn't feel quite tender enough, so I let it go another 20 minutes, and did a little anger mowing after the Chief's lost at Arrowhead to the Raiders.
Here's a pic of the brisket before I wrapped it.
After my anger mowing, I felt a little better about things. Then, I took some advice from Kosmo, and let the brisket set out on the countertop for 30 minutes, still wrapped in butcher paper. After the 30 minutes, I wrapped it in saran wrap, nice and tight, and put it in an oven that I preheated to 200F. I used a maverick readi-temp to check the temperature of the oven, to make sure it wasn't over 250..... apparently saran wrap melts around that temperature according to the Koz
At around 6 o'clock our guests were all ready, and all the other sides were ready, so I finally got to unwrap and carve. This was probably my best brisket yet. Even my wife and daughter were on board. I had good texture and flavor thru 90% of the brisket, only the tip of the flat was a bit dry.
So, this cook felt like it took a lot of patience, but, I have to admit, I was rewarded. The only think I'd do different is probably set the temperature for 275 after wrapping in order to get thru the stall a little faster. This 14.3 "aggressively trimmed" brisket fed 10 hungry people and one 9 year old picky eater with about 1 lb left over. At the end of the evening, the WSM was resting comfortably and looking sexy so I had to share this pic. I'll try to get a few more photos on my next cook. Let me know what you think, especially thoughts on hot and fast brisket vs. low and slow/overnight.
I lit my coals (using about 90% Rockwood lump and 10% Kingsford original) around 9:30 PM. I dumped about 3/4 of a large chimney in the middle of my charcoal basket, and assembled the WSM with the fire dial, and connected the Thermoworks/Billows ATC all set for 225F. The temperature overshot by about 50F so I put a 9 x 13 aluminum pan, about 2/3 full of tap-cold water on the lower cooking grate to help cool things off, then put the brisket on around 10 PM, and a 9" x 4" x 4" oak chunk in the fire basket and crossed my fingers. I stayed up for about 2 hours and watched a movie and kept half and eye on the temperature, and luckily it locked in at 225 with the with the cold water pan and cold brisket in place.
I went to sleep around 12 AM and slept like a rock until my Thermoworks gave the low-temp alarm at 5 AM, so I got up like a new dad with a tired wife to go see why my baby was crying. Luckily, I still had plenty of fuel, and just needed to the charcoal basket up a bit, so I did, then went in the house and picked another movie to watch and had some coffee. I didn't check internal temperatures till about 10 AM (about the 12 hour mark) and it was basically stalled at 150 F, so I wrapped it in butcher paper, and inserted a meat probe, expecting to be close to 198F by around 1 or 2. At 2 PM, it was around 183, so I bumped the temperature up from 225 to 250. At 3 PM, the internal temp was about 186, and the WSM was hungry for more fuel, so I put a large chimney of unlit lump in the fire basket and another 9" x 4" x 4" oak chunk, and cranked the heat up to 260F. I finally hit 198 around 4 PM but it didn't feel quite tender enough, so I let it go another 20 minutes, and did a little anger mowing after the Chief's lost at Arrowhead to the Raiders.
Here's a pic of the brisket before I wrapped it.
After my anger mowing, I felt a little better about things. Then, I took some advice from Kosmo, and let the brisket set out on the countertop for 30 minutes, still wrapped in butcher paper. After the 30 minutes, I wrapped it in saran wrap, nice and tight, and put it in an oven that I preheated to 200F. I used a maverick readi-temp to check the temperature of the oven, to make sure it wasn't over 250..... apparently saran wrap melts around that temperature according to the Koz
At around 6 o'clock our guests were all ready, and all the other sides were ready, so I finally got to unwrap and carve. This was probably my best brisket yet. Even my wife and daughter were on board. I had good texture and flavor thru 90% of the brisket, only the tip of the flat was a bit dry. So, this cook felt like it took a lot of patience, but, I have to admit, I was rewarded. The only think I'd do different is probably set the temperature for 275 after wrapping in order to get thru the stall a little faster. This 14.3 "aggressively trimmed" brisket fed 10 hungry people and one 9 year old picky eater with about 1 lb left over. At the end of the evening, the WSM was resting comfortably and looking sexy so I had to share this pic. I'll try to get a few more photos on my next cook. Let me know what you think, especially thoughts on hot and fast brisket vs. low and slow/overnight.
