- Jul 6, 2008
- 193
- 10
Why wildcat style? Cause I"m running without my normal temp gauge. I couldn't find my candy thermometer, so all I have right now is my Taylor meat therm which only goes to 220. So I'm going to go against the grain (pardon the pun) and see if I can use some cooking savvy to get a good product.
First caveat - I live in pig country. I don't have a lot of beef BBQ experience.
Second caveat - while I'm going to try to wing it (no surprise from me, eh?), I'm still going to use the meat therm to try to expand my knowledge of how my new Weber 22"er manages heat. This is as much for me as it is for you <chuckle>.
Third caveat - I'm going to sear.
Fourth caveat - I'm not trying to disprove the "low and slow" thing. I AM trying to see if one can use the final result as a test (getting the brisket to a final temp in a fairly extended period of time) and see if there are other alternatives to a commonly held belief that you HAVE to keep your temps constant, etc. My thought is that if you have a cut of meat that normally takes a long time anyway, that you can tolerate wide swings of temp, as long as the "graph" of the temperature includes lower than average temps if you start with higher temps (or that you have to be super precise with the temps as long as you use some common sense). Obviously, if you are cooking for a competition, it's better to have a good, consistent cooking technique, but I'm talking about cooking at home. Sometimes there's more than one way to skin a cat.
Fifth caveat - all of the photos are "redder" than real life. My camera phone just seems to do that.
And finally, I'm using a smaller than normal brisket.
This is what I got at Kroger:
Obviously, I"m working with a pretrimmed brisket. I got it from the butcher, which was what they use to get their smaller cuts for display. It was cryovac'ed. I thought I'd start with something that didn't require a lot of butchering on my part. I only trimmed off a very small piece of fat.
As I have previously written, I've always left a few half burned coals from the previous session. I'm a pretty thrfty person and since I usually don't cook for a lot of people, I have to consider how many coals I'm creating, so I usually leave stuff for the next time. This is what I started with:
(for some reason, this just isn't displaying, so here's the link):
http://www.pbase.com/teleburst/image/101008245
I did a chimney full of half hardwood charcoal (on the bottom) and half briquettes:
Once again, being thrifty, I don't wait until all of the coals are ashen, so, this is the point that I threw them into the kettle.
Here is the brisket unpacked (again, the link isn't generating a pic, so here's the link):
http://www.pbase.com/teleburst/image/101008470
I rubbed the brisket with palm sugar (natch) and my rub. I tend to leave the rub sitting for several weeks. This means that the flavor mellows so that I can even use it on fish if I want. But if I'm going to do pork or beef, I simply refresh it by adding fresh ingredients. Thrifty again.
Here it is, fat side up, first sear:
This is 11:17. I seared the bottom side for 3 minutes (yes, I was chicken):
I flipped it over and realized that I hadn't put any wood on the fire. So I got out a handful of mesquite and hickory chips and threw them on. In about a minute, I got some flames so I flipped it fat side down. At 11:24 this is what I got. I didn't leave it on as long as I might have since I had actual flames (good thing, as you can clearly see if you click the link):
http://www.pbase.com/teleburst/image/101006992
I moved everything over and threw on a softball of mixed dry chips. Rather than poke holes, I simply left a couple of openings. After it had been on for a few minutes, I got thin white smoke (which you really can't see in the photo):
It was pretty hot, so I left the top off for a few minutes (11:31) and then covered it, leaving a little crack in the top (put if off-center a little). When I replaced the top and put the Taylor in, it still rose to 220 pretty quickly, so I left it a little open (the top and bottom vents are about half open). I added a few small pieces of fresh charcoal (11:45):
At that time, the meat temp was only 115.
It's now 1:04 and when I checked the temp, it was still at least 220 (although it took a while to climb there. So I think that it's just a few degrees higher).
It's now 1:14 and the air temp takes about a minute to get to 220, so I'm pretty close. I'll also take the temperature of the meat. It's 150. Since I have the top off, and the coals are buring down, I thought I'd get a little fire going again. So I used the wood chips as kindling and I added a few more smaller pieces of hardwood charcoal in a little moundl. I got a little fire buring and moved the packets closer to the flames. There is still a lot of fresh wood in the foil, so I'm hoping to get it going a little more. I've got a good stream of white smoke going, so I've covered it again and taken the air temp through the vents - 160. With the top closed and a little fire going, I expect it to rise a bit.
I'm going to check it in about 20 minutes and I'll get back. If it's over 200, I'll just let it be for at least an hour. At that point, if the meat temp is 160, I'm going to foil it with apple butter, apple juice, brandy and a little more of the rub. I'll build another small fire and let 'er go for a while.
OK, 1:36. Air temp is a bit over 220 (it took about 30 seconds to get there so it can't be too much higher than that).
So, that's where I'm going to leave it for about an hour. Think I'll sip a little of the brandy as a quality control.
I'll get back later, and I'll take a couple of more pics.
First caveat - I live in pig country. I don't have a lot of beef BBQ experience.
Second caveat - while I'm going to try to wing it (no surprise from me, eh?), I'm still going to use the meat therm to try to expand my knowledge of how my new Weber 22"er manages heat. This is as much for me as it is for you <chuckle>.
Third caveat - I'm going to sear.
Fourth caveat - I'm not trying to disprove the "low and slow" thing. I AM trying to see if one can use the final result as a test (getting the brisket to a final temp in a fairly extended period of time) and see if there are other alternatives to a commonly held belief that you HAVE to keep your temps constant, etc. My thought is that if you have a cut of meat that normally takes a long time anyway, that you can tolerate wide swings of temp, as long as the "graph" of the temperature includes lower than average temps if you start with higher temps (or that you have to be super precise with the temps as long as you use some common sense). Obviously, if you are cooking for a competition, it's better to have a good, consistent cooking technique, but I'm talking about cooking at home. Sometimes there's more than one way to skin a cat.
Fifth caveat - all of the photos are "redder" than real life. My camera phone just seems to do that.
And finally, I'm using a smaller than normal brisket.
This is what I got at Kroger:
Obviously, I"m working with a pretrimmed brisket. I got it from the butcher, which was what they use to get their smaller cuts for display. It was cryovac'ed. I thought I'd start with something that didn't require a lot of butchering on my part. I only trimmed off a very small piece of fat.
As I have previously written, I've always left a few half burned coals from the previous session. I'm a pretty thrfty person and since I usually don't cook for a lot of people, I have to consider how many coals I'm creating, so I usually leave stuff for the next time. This is what I started with:
(for some reason, this just isn't displaying, so here's the link):
http://www.pbase.com/teleburst/image/101008245
I did a chimney full of half hardwood charcoal (on the bottom) and half briquettes:
Once again, being thrifty, I don't wait until all of the coals are ashen, so, this is the point that I threw them into the kettle.
Here is the brisket unpacked (again, the link isn't generating a pic, so here's the link):
http://www.pbase.com/teleburst/image/101008470
I rubbed the brisket with palm sugar (natch) and my rub. I tend to leave the rub sitting for several weeks. This means that the flavor mellows so that I can even use it on fish if I want. But if I'm going to do pork or beef, I simply refresh it by adding fresh ingredients. Thrifty again.
Here it is, fat side up, first sear:
This is 11:17. I seared the bottom side for 3 minutes (yes, I was chicken):
I flipped it over and realized that I hadn't put any wood on the fire. So I got out a handful of mesquite and hickory chips and threw them on. In about a minute, I got some flames so I flipped it fat side down. At 11:24 this is what I got. I didn't leave it on as long as I might have since I had actual flames (good thing, as you can clearly see if you click the link):
http://www.pbase.com/teleburst/image/101006992
I moved everything over and threw on a softball of mixed dry chips. Rather than poke holes, I simply left a couple of openings. After it had been on for a few minutes, I got thin white smoke (which you really can't see in the photo):
It was pretty hot, so I left the top off for a few minutes (11:31) and then covered it, leaving a little crack in the top (put if off-center a little). When I replaced the top and put the Taylor in, it still rose to 220 pretty quickly, so I left it a little open (the top and bottom vents are about half open). I added a few small pieces of fresh charcoal (11:45):
At that time, the meat temp was only 115.
It's now 1:04 and when I checked the temp, it was still at least 220 (although it took a while to climb there. So I think that it's just a few degrees higher).
It's now 1:14 and the air temp takes about a minute to get to 220, so I'm pretty close. I'll also take the temperature of the meat. It's 150. Since I have the top off, and the coals are buring down, I thought I'd get a little fire going again. So I used the wood chips as kindling and I added a few more smaller pieces of hardwood charcoal in a little moundl. I got a little fire buring and moved the packets closer to the flames. There is still a lot of fresh wood in the foil, so I'm hoping to get it going a little more. I've got a good stream of white smoke going, so I've covered it again and taken the air temp through the vents - 160. With the top closed and a little fire going, I expect it to rise a bit.
I'm going to check it in about 20 minutes and I'll get back. If it's over 200, I'll just let it be for at least an hour. At that point, if the meat temp is 160, I'm going to foil it with apple butter, apple juice, brandy and a little more of the rub. I'll build another small fire and let 'er go for a while.
OK, 1:36. Air temp is a bit over 220 (it took about 30 seconds to get there so it can't be too much higher than that).
So, that's where I'm going to leave it for about an hour. Think I'll sip a little of the brandy as a quality control.
I'll get back later, and I'll take a couple of more pics.
