
Hi and I posted a perhaps an overlong review of a Char-Griller 980 2 years ago or so. I did a brisket on this 4th for a crowd of 12 and thought I would update that review via what I think was a successful brisket cook description.
I began with a 14 lb USDA prime full packer brisket. I trimmed the fat, rendered the fat into beef tallow, injected with Butcher BBQ mixed with cider, rubbed with Amazing Ribs recipe beef rub, and let sit in the reefer for 24 hours.
Note the rub recipe I used is not salted. If you are injecting with a salt solution - and Butcher BBQ contains salt - I don't think you need to add salt to the rub.
The 980 is a great value priced temperature controlled offset smoker. But it's control app sucks. To make sure an alarm would go off and wake me if the temperature was off, I used a wireless Wi-Fi thermometer (ChefIQ is brand I have but there are many others). Suggest that if you need an alarm to reliably alert you, an actual Wi-Fi thermometer, wireless or wired, is better than Bluetooth.
The 980 benefits from having some rust-be-gone and flat BBQ spray paint handy, and periodically wire brushing the rusty bits and then de-rusting and spraying.
Would also note that channel where the blade is inserted to shut down the 980 rusts. If you want the blade to work it really helps to periodically use some persistent high temperature lubricant in that channel.
I have occasion to do a brisket maybe twice a year, so don't have the experience to know what of the following technique was necessary and what might not be.
I lit off the 980 at 930 PM with two disposable bread pans inside filled with water and by 10 the temperature was steady at 225F and the smoke was a light haze. I put the brisket in the smoker with the thermometer inserted into the flat and went to bed. I set my alarm to wake myself up twice during the night to mop it with the Amazing Ribs recipe Texas mop sauce. I also set the Wi-Fi thermometer app to go off if the ambient temperature varied more than 10F in either direction from 225F.
The water filled bread pans were used both as heat sinks to further stabilize the temperature as well as provide humidity. I don't know if they are necessary but several people on this site recommend their use.
The smoker hopper was filled with a mix of apple wood chunks and briquettes. Per a lot of advice on this site, you don't need a lot of wood chunks.
By 8 AM on 4 July the brisket had reached 165F. I removed it from the smoker, rubbed it with beef tallow, wrapped it with pink butcher paper, reinserted the thermometer, and put it back in the smoker.
By 12 brisket was at 200F in the flat. I removed it from the smoker and placed it, with pink butcher paper still on, in a big disposable aluminum pan, and placed that into a beer cooler which I had warmed previously by pouring boiling water into it.
By 330 PM the brisket temperature had dropped to 145F. I removed it and sliced it. I began with the flat, slicing against the grain. When I reached the thick bit of fat separating the flat from the point, I rotated the point and began slicing that against the grain. If I was better at slicing brisket, I would have just separated the flat from the point and sliced each separately.
The liquid from the resting pan was served as a gravy. I could have made a pan sauce out of it but I was too lazy.
The brisket was served with sliced pickles and Texas toast I made with brioche bread, fresh garlic, flat leaf parsley, butter, olive oil, and a little minced anchovy, toasted on my gas grill. A useful garlic technique is to smash whole cloves, then slowly poach at low temperature in the olive oil and butter mixture until the cloves are more or less liquified and can be mixed into the olive oil and butter mixture. If you're stove doesn't have an ultra low simmer setting, you can use a double boiler, or set the pan with the olive oil and butter on top of a cast iron pan, and set that on top of your burner.
Other people brought potatoe salad, macaroni and cheese, and an actual green salad. I was trying to keep it a thematic Texas brisket experience with sides a Texas brisket place would serve. As far as I know there isn't a Texas brisket place here in upstate NY.
12 people ate all of 14 pounds of brisket.
Also got kudos for serving the brisket at about the time I said I would. When I invite people over for a smoked protein dinner, it's often ready hours after I say it will be and sometimes people get cranky and leave before eating.
Bourbon goes well with brisket, and with a nice cigar after the brisket is done.
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