Brett Grant
TVWBB Fan
So it turns out that the local university has a Meat Science Lab. On Fridays, and only on Fridays, the general public can go down and buy whatever they have butchered recently. Having never been down there, last week I went and checked it out. They offer both corn- and grass- fed beef, pork, and lamb. They also make sausage and bacon. So, I get a brisket, a flank steak, something called a cowboy steak, beef ribs, some pork bacon and some beef bacon. Total for everything was $80. The cuts were all a little strange to me. It was clear that they mostly sold rib eyes and t bones. Anyway, I digress. The guy puts the brisket up there and the first thing that I notice is how small it is. And there is no fat on it at all. And it is nearly uniform in thickness. I asked for a packer, and he told me that it was the flat and the point. Total weight: 5.7 lbs. Well, I just got paid, so I thought I would try it anyway.
As a side note, the cowboy steak (which looked like a chuck steak to me) and the flank steak were both excellent. I just grilled those up on the gas grill and everyone loved them.
So after doing a little research, I decided to do a High Heat Brisket with a simple Salt & Pepper rub. I've done large, all night briskets before. The only time that I did a HH one, it didn't turn out well.
Here is the brisket, out of the package. I didn't trim it at all, so on the plus side, I lost nothing.
The tiny bit of fat on the left is the point. In the package, I didn't really believe that there was a point, but the seam was there, so I went with it.
I put it on the WSM at 12:15. I don't have a fancy monitor, I just check the dome temperature. Two hours in, it was at 170*, so I put it in a foil pan, covered it, and left it for another 1 1/2 hours. I go out to check it. It was over 200*, but there wasn't super soft tender, so I left it in for another 1/2 hour. Then I thought it was pretty tender, so I took it out and let it sit for about 45 minutes. That was just the convenient time to wait for dinner.
I separated the point and sliced her up.
Everyone thought it was pretty good. I thought that it was slightly overcooked. Also, I did a 50-50 salt/pepper mix. Next time I will tone down the pepper a little bit. Probably more like 70-30. Still it was pretty tasty. I thought the flat was just a smidge dry, but my wife really like it, so that wins. She liked it enough that she took it for lunch today.
It was a little hard to hold the smoker at 350*. Toward the end it was more like 300, but I just let that go. I didn't really want to add more charcoal. Total cook time was 4 hours. It took me 5 minutes to prep (nice that there was no trimming) and about 20 minutes to get the smoker going. I was a little leery of the HH method, mostly because the first one that I did turned out so poorly, but this one worked out really well.
I used KBB and hickory and cherry wood.
As a side note, the cowboy steak (which looked like a chuck steak to me) and the flank steak were both excellent. I just grilled those up on the gas grill and everyone loved them.
So after doing a little research, I decided to do a High Heat Brisket with a simple Salt & Pepper rub. I've done large, all night briskets before. The only time that I did a HH one, it didn't turn out well.
Here is the brisket, out of the package. I didn't trim it at all, so on the plus side, I lost nothing.
The tiny bit of fat on the left is the point. In the package, I didn't really believe that there was a point, but the seam was there, so I went with it.
I put it on the WSM at 12:15. I don't have a fancy monitor, I just check the dome temperature. Two hours in, it was at 170*, so I put it in a foil pan, covered it, and left it for another 1 1/2 hours. I go out to check it. It was over 200*, but there wasn't super soft tender, so I left it in for another 1/2 hour. Then I thought it was pretty tender, so I took it out and let it sit for about 45 minutes. That was just the convenient time to wait for dinner.
I separated the point and sliced her up.
Everyone thought it was pretty good. I thought that it was slightly overcooked. Also, I did a 50-50 salt/pepper mix. Next time I will tone down the pepper a little bit. Probably more like 70-30. Still it was pretty tasty. I thought the flat was just a smidge dry, but my wife really like it, so that wins. She liked it enough that she took it for lunch today.
It was a little hard to hold the smoker at 350*. Toward the end it was more like 300, but I just let that go. I didn't really want to add more charcoal. Total cook time was 4 hours. It took me 5 minutes to prep (nice that there was no trimming) and about 20 minutes to get the smoker going. I was a little leery of the HH method, mostly because the first one that I did turned out so poorly, but this one worked out really well.
I used KBB and hickory and cherry wood.
