Daniel Cárdenas
New member
Hi everybody, want to share with you my experience doing my first brisket, wanted to cook one time ago, but haven't had the time needed until yesterday/today, and i would like to ask you some doubts i left with.
Since the beginning I thought to do an overnight cook, feel sure about it because I already came to know how my WSM works, but I had the doubt choosing between minion (the one that I have been using) or to switch to the snake method, I had reading that snake gives you more control in temperature especially in the bigger 22 and in my mind I was thinking that it would consume fuel more efficiently so at the end I decided for the snake.
I bought the Brisket at an HEB, it was about 14 pounds, full packer, I wanted to find a choice grade for being the first time, but couldn’t find it and I pick up a select grade, I know it’s not the best choice but I wanted to start with something cheap if things went wrong, at home I trimmed it the most uniform way that I could and end with this:
actually the fat cap was not very thick so i take of just a little and round the edges.
Then I dry brined it with salt and let it all night in the fridge. I prepare a rub with pepper, garlic and onion powder as a base, and add some dried chipotle and paprika and a little of sugar.
Then yesterday in the afternoon I started preparing the smoker, assembled the snake like this:
Used mesquite chips for smoke.
I started the fire at about midnight, and for this cook, I start the snake with only 10 lit briquettes, I wanted to have the temperature as close as possible to 225 and I thought that with 10 would be enough, so I started with it and assemble the rest of the cooker, meanwhile it came to temp I put the rub in the brisket using some steak sauce as binder:
And you know, its not an adventure until something start to go wrong, the temp took a lot to climb to 225, I had all vents open and even had to open the door for some period to give it a boost, after some time (I don’t remember exactly how much) It came at around 245, so I placed the vents like 3/4 open and I started to put the brisket on it and to place the probes, put the lid and… second part of the adventure, the temp drop A LOT, And didn’t look like it was going to climb, so I fully opened all the vents again, started to climb very slowly it was taking some time, so I started to open the door for periods to give it a boost. Even then after some time it doesn’t get up to the target temp. So I add 5 fully lit briquettes, it helped a bit, but even with that the temp just don’t come up, so after some more time (again, not sure how much) I added another 10 fully lit briquettes, and finally temp started to went up steadily, it reaches around 235-237 and after keeping an eye on it and make sure that looks steady, I went to bed, during the night I take a look at the temp twice on the screen of the remote, actually it hold steady without problems.
,
then next day in the morning I went to take a look and… third part of the adventure, to my surprise the snake was almost over, I didn’t expect that, it looks that it could last some one or one and a half more hour at much, so I moved quickly, take the brisket out, disassembled the middle part and move the remaining lit briquettes to the middle and refill the chamber all around, I decided to switch to minion for the rest of the cook, assembled the cooker again and went on, water pan was fine, no need to refill, temperature spike a bit but this time I could bring it back and stabilize it without much problem.
Before I had to make this move I looked at the brisket, it looked some dried in the bark so I lightly spritzed it with water.
It came the 8 hour of the cook, take an eye again and at this point I wasn’t completely sure if the bark were set, I make the nail test, it looks to me that it was good so I proceed to cover the brisket with the butcher paper and back to the smoker.
At 10 hour mark I gave it a probe test, it felt tough, so I leave it again, 12 hour mark gave it another check with the probe, it feels almost done to me so I leave it another hour, at the 13 hour mark I take it out, poke it with the probe and it felt to me that it as done, covered it with foil and into a small Cambro to rest for an hour.
And here the final result:
So this is it, was very fun to do it, next time I'm going to get a prime grade and I'm going to stay with the minion. Deep in my bones i know that i shouldn't try a new method, for a first time overnight cook, but i did it anyway lesson learned.
About the Snake method, what do you think? i found videos at YouTube where people say that the snake could last for 12 hours, in this case it last like 5 hours, also i think that the same briquettes could have been interfered with the vents because they were very close to them, i don't know, i will try the variant with the coffe can and the bricks it should last longer.
About the brisket, i liked a lot, never do one before but in my opinion it came out as juicy as it could, about the bark, I'm not sure, it felt like humid to me, i don't know how much set its supposed to be, next time i will let it set for more time.
thank you and good night/days to everyone, Saludos.
Since the beginning I thought to do an overnight cook, feel sure about it because I already came to know how my WSM works, but I had the doubt choosing between minion (the one that I have been using) or to switch to the snake method, I had reading that snake gives you more control in temperature especially in the bigger 22 and in my mind I was thinking that it would consume fuel more efficiently so at the end I decided for the snake.
I bought the Brisket at an HEB, it was about 14 pounds, full packer, I wanted to find a choice grade for being the first time, but couldn’t find it and I pick up a select grade, I know it’s not the best choice but I wanted to start with something cheap if things went wrong, at home I trimmed it the most uniform way that I could and end with this:
actually the fat cap was not very thick so i take of just a little and round the edges.
Then I dry brined it with salt and let it all night in the fridge. I prepare a rub with pepper, garlic and onion powder as a base, and add some dried chipotle and paprika and a little of sugar.
Then yesterday in the afternoon I started preparing the smoker, assembled the snake like this:
Used mesquite chips for smoke.
I started the fire at about midnight, and for this cook, I start the snake with only 10 lit briquettes, I wanted to have the temperature as close as possible to 225 and I thought that with 10 would be enough, so I started with it and assemble the rest of the cooker, meanwhile it came to temp I put the rub in the brisket using some steak sauce as binder:
And you know, its not an adventure until something start to go wrong, the temp took a lot to climb to 225, I had all vents open and even had to open the door for some period to give it a boost, after some time (I don’t remember exactly how much) It came at around 245, so I placed the vents like 3/4 open and I started to put the brisket on it and to place the probes, put the lid and… second part of the adventure, the temp drop A LOT, And didn’t look like it was going to climb, so I fully opened all the vents again, started to climb very slowly it was taking some time, so I started to open the door for periods to give it a boost. Even then after some time it doesn’t get up to the target temp. So I add 5 fully lit briquettes, it helped a bit, but even with that the temp just don’t come up, so after some more time (again, not sure how much) I added another 10 fully lit briquettes, and finally temp started to went up steadily, it reaches around 235-237 and after keeping an eye on it and make sure that looks steady, I went to bed, during the night I take a look at the temp twice on the screen of the remote, actually it hold steady without problems.
,
then next day in the morning I went to take a look and… third part of the adventure, to my surprise the snake was almost over, I didn’t expect that, it looks that it could last some one or one and a half more hour at much, so I moved quickly, take the brisket out, disassembled the middle part and move the remaining lit briquettes to the middle and refill the chamber all around, I decided to switch to minion for the rest of the cook, assembled the cooker again and went on, water pan was fine, no need to refill, temperature spike a bit but this time I could bring it back and stabilize it without much problem.
Before I had to make this move I looked at the brisket, it looked some dried in the bark so I lightly spritzed it with water.
It came the 8 hour of the cook, take an eye again and at this point I wasn’t completely sure if the bark were set, I make the nail test, it looks to me that it was good so I proceed to cover the brisket with the butcher paper and back to the smoker.
At 10 hour mark I gave it a probe test, it felt tough, so I leave it again, 12 hour mark gave it another check with the probe, it feels almost done to me so I leave it another hour, at the 13 hour mark I take it out, poke it with the probe and it felt to me that it as done, covered it with foil and into a small Cambro to rest for an hour.
And here the final result:
So this is it, was very fun to do it, next time I'm going to get a prime grade and I'm going to stay with the minion. Deep in my bones i know that i shouldn't try a new method, for a first time overnight cook, but i did it anyway lesson learned.
About the Snake method, what do you think? i found videos at YouTube where people say that the snake could last for 12 hours, in this case it last like 5 hours, also i think that the same briquettes could have been interfered with the vents because they were very close to them, i don't know, i will try the variant with the coffe can and the bricks it should last longer.
About the brisket, i liked a lot, never do one before but in my opinion it came out as juicy as it could, about the bark, I'm not sure, it felt like humid to me, i don't know how much set its supposed to be, next time i will let it set for more time.
thank you and good night/days to everyone, Saludos.
