Well I got a new toy a few weeks ago, it wasn't the 'Vette I've been looking for, but yesterday I made by far the best brisket I've ever made. I've been planning to build a wood/coal fired brick oven for a while now, but my wife and I saw a Fornetto wood fired oven/smoker at a local garden and patio store that's going out of business (code for closing the giant building they're in, and moving to a smaller space...). It seemed like a fairly portable way to get into something with similar capabilities of what we want until all the stars line up to build the real brick oven.
This thing is built basically like a wood stove, as such the glass is never going to be clean the way I see it... I've fire it twice with wood to make pizza. With a small amount of wood it will go to 700°F and make a fairly respectable pie... now for my technique! That said it's going to take some experimentation to control the heat better.
I've been thinking about this and normally I use lump charcoal in our built in charcoal grill, but a buddy told me about the snake method so I thought maybe it would work with the oven...
Looking for something to cook I found a ~5 lbs chunk of brisket and didn't feel like mixing up my own rub. I put the store bought stuff on then rubbed the whole thing with regular A1 sauce (just because).
An hour later the temp in the oven was about 200°F.
The temp rose to 250°F after a couple hours, and eventually neared 300°F and at about 6 hours I removed the brisket, wrapped it in foil and returned to the ~275°F oven for another 2 hours or so. This is what I ended up with...
I had some of the meat last night and it was a personal best! I saved all the drippings and made a red wine based gravy with the intention of having it all over some mushroom risotto tonight (pics to follow).
In all, even with the closeout this thing is pricy. I think we'll get decent value for what we paid but it's probably not for everyone. Cooking space is limited, and it's going to require quite a bit of experimentation to get the temps just right. On the other hand, this was pretty easy!
This thing is built basically like a wood stove, as such the glass is never going to be clean the way I see it... I've fire it twice with wood to make pizza. With a small amount of wood it will go to 700°F and make a fairly respectable pie... now for my technique! That said it's going to take some experimentation to control the heat better.
I've been thinking about this and normally I use lump charcoal in our built in charcoal grill, but a buddy told me about the snake method so I thought maybe it would work with the oven...
Looking for something to cook I found a ~5 lbs chunk of brisket and didn't feel like mixing up my own rub. I put the store bought stuff on then rubbed the whole thing with regular A1 sauce (just because).
An hour later the temp in the oven was about 200°F.
The temp rose to 250°F after a couple hours, and eventually neared 300°F and at about 6 hours I removed the brisket, wrapped it in foil and returned to the ~275°F oven for another 2 hours or so. This is what I ended up with...
I had some of the meat last night and it was a personal best! I saved all the drippings and made a red wine based gravy with the intention of having it all over some mushroom risotto tonight (pics to follow).
In all, even with the closeout this thing is pricy. I think we'll get decent value for what we paid but it's probably not for everyone. Cooking space is limited, and it's going to require quite a bit of experimentation to get the temps just right. On the other hand, this was pretty easy!
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