Well the wife brought home a 5 pound trimmed brisked flat the other day. They had it marked down 50% as the sell by date was the next day. Not the brisket cut I would have preferred, but hey I have to give her an A+ for the effort and the value (I would have preferred a full brisket).
It was already trimmed to about 1/8" to 1/4" fat on the cap side and squared off into a rectangle so not much meat prep involved. Figured I would slather it with the Worcestershire and beef bouillon paste and them hit it with some rub. So I set the cryovac package out on the counter and prepped the WSM.
Plan "A" was to see if I could use my new AMNPS pellet tray in the WSM. Found out a WSM is not the best environment for a pellet tray, especially with a BBQ Guru power draft. Since you have all the vents closed down and the fan from the power draft is the only air source, and at the start of a smoke when the coals are fresh there is really no run time for the fan, there is little air flow. The AMNPS does not stay lit in this setup. So it was worth a tray (in all fairness I doubted it would work and this is not why I bought the tray, but though I would try it. The tray works just fine, just not in a WSM which really does not need it anyway).
So back to reality, took out the tray and tossed in 3 hunks of hickory on the lit coals and let the pit settle back down to around 205*. Meanwhile, back inside the kitchen, it's meat prep time.....
Opened the cabinet to grab the Worcestershire and ?????? It's not there!!!!! For some reason that is the one thing I did not check inventory of yesterday when I made plans to smoke the brisket today. I was certain I had about 1/2 a bottle, but nope. None!!!! Ok, plan "B" time. Grabbed some Moore's marinade out of the fridge and mixed the bouillon with that to make a thin paste. Slathered this all over the brisket and then patted in the dry rub.
Started prepping the WSM around 8:30, but lost a lot of time fiddling with the AMNPS tray. So by 10AM the WSM was stable at 215* (I wanted to go 205 as this is a thin brisket flat and it will cook rather quickly, but I had the clay pot base in instead of a water pan due to trying the AMNPS tray first so it's a little harder to keep the temps down that low with that setup). The thin blue hickory smoke is visible in the sunlight.
OK, no hating on the coating outside my WSM, that's my eco-friendly insulating blanket of dust for cold weather smoking (it was 23* here this morning) - really looks bad in this photo but does not look that bad in real life.
Mangled a large foil pan to act as a drip pan and heat shield for the two ends and put the brisket on the smoker fat side down. 1/2 pan was to small and the large chaffing insert was to big, so bend and crunch the large one to fit.
And off we go...... (will update through the day)
Now that the WSM is set up and running, it's back inside for a bite of breakfast. Made what I call "Dave McMuffins" which is my takeoff on the sausage McMuffin. Instead of using the whole muffin at a time, I use both halves to make two of them (it's too thick with muffin on top AND bottom). Construction is high fiber multi-grain muffin half, slice of cheese, sausage, one egg scrambled and folded over, and a slice of cheese on top. Throw in a yogurt cup and a big cup of fresh coffee to complete the picture. Mmmmmm......
I'm going to leave the brisket alone (no peaking, no photos, etc...) for 3 hours then put the meat probe in (I forgot to put it in when I put the meat on, but it's not big deal). Plan is to get the brisket to around 165 and then foil with about 3/4 cup of beef broth (I'm generally following the Chris Lilly plan here). Then take the foiled brisket up to 195 to 200* and let rest in cooler. I want to keep the WSM temp around 205, but it is holding at 215* right now (hard to get it to 205 with a clay saucer base and the Guru is not even running with it at 215* and 2 1/2 hours into the smoke). Being a fairly thin brisket it will get to 165 fairly quickly and slowing this down will give it a little more time to take on smoke before foiling. Then after foiling it will still need time for the collagen to break down as it approaches the final temp.
It was already trimmed to about 1/8" to 1/4" fat on the cap side and squared off into a rectangle so not much meat prep involved. Figured I would slather it with the Worcestershire and beef bouillon paste and them hit it with some rub. So I set the cryovac package out on the counter and prepped the WSM.
Plan "A" was to see if I could use my new AMNPS pellet tray in the WSM. Found out a WSM is not the best environment for a pellet tray, especially with a BBQ Guru power draft. Since you have all the vents closed down and the fan from the power draft is the only air source, and at the start of a smoke when the coals are fresh there is really no run time for the fan, there is little air flow. The AMNPS does not stay lit in this setup. So it was worth a tray (in all fairness I doubted it would work and this is not why I bought the tray, but though I would try it. The tray works just fine, just not in a WSM which really does not need it anyway).
So back to reality, took out the tray and tossed in 3 hunks of hickory on the lit coals and let the pit settle back down to around 205*. Meanwhile, back inside the kitchen, it's meat prep time.....
Opened the cabinet to grab the Worcestershire and ?????? It's not there!!!!! For some reason that is the one thing I did not check inventory of yesterday when I made plans to smoke the brisket today. I was certain I had about 1/2 a bottle, but nope. None!!!! Ok, plan "B" time. Grabbed some Moore's marinade out of the fridge and mixed the bouillon with that to make a thin paste. Slathered this all over the brisket and then patted in the dry rub.
Started prepping the WSM around 8:30, but lost a lot of time fiddling with the AMNPS tray. So by 10AM the WSM was stable at 215* (I wanted to go 205 as this is a thin brisket flat and it will cook rather quickly, but I had the clay pot base in instead of a water pan due to trying the AMNPS tray first so it's a little harder to keep the temps down that low with that setup). The thin blue hickory smoke is visible in the sunlight.
OK, no hating on the coating outside my WSM, that's my eco-friendly insulating blanket of dust for cold weather smoking (it was 23* here this morning) - really looks bad in this photo but does not look that bad in real life.
Mangled a large foil pan to act as a drip pan and heat shield for the two ends and put the brisket on the smoker fat side down. 1/2 pan was to small and the large chaffing insert was to big, so bend and crunch the large one to fit.
And off we go...... (will update through the day)
Now that the WSM is set up and running, it's back inside for a bite of breakfast. Made what I call "Dave McMuffins" which is my takeoff on the sausage McMuffin. Instead of using the whole muffin at a time, I use both halves to make two of them (it's too thick with muffin on top AND bottom). Construction is high fiber multi-grain muffin half, slice of cheese, sausage, one egg scrambled and folded over, and a slice of cheese on top. Throw in a yogurt cup and a big cup of fresh coffee to complete the picture. Mmmmmm......
I'm going to leave the brisket alone (no peaking, no photos, etc...) for 3 hours then put the meat probe in (I forgot to put it in when I put the meat on, but it's not big deal). Plan is to get the brisket to around 165 and then foil with about 3/4 cup of beef broth (I'm generally following the Chris Lilly plan here). Then take the foiled brisket up to 195 to 200* and let rest in cooler. I want to keep the WSM temp around 205, but it is holding at 215* right now (hard to get it to 205 with a clay saucer base and the Guru is not even running with it at 215* and 2 1/2 hours into the smoke). Being a fairly thin brisket it will get to 165 fairly quickly and slowing this down will give it a little more time to take on smoke before foiling. Then after foiling it will still need time for the collagen to break down as it approaches the final temp.
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