60-Day Dry-Aged Brisket, Here We Go..!

[mneeley490]

I see that I'm not the first one on here to try this, but I came across a couple videos on YouTube the other day, and it looked like fun with possibly a big payoff at the end.
So I went to my local business Costco where you can get some very large cuts of meat; usually for a little cheaper than the regular Costcos. I was looking for one that had a thick flat end, so it wouldn't be too thin after the trimming. The best one I could find was a Prime packer at 15.5 lbs.

I thought I had the right sized Umai bag stashed away, but wouldn't you know it, I didn't. But I did have these, from Sausage Maker:

It has 3 stretchy sheets about 2' square that you wrap around the meat. It took 2 to cover this brisket. (I only hope that the moisture won't have difficulty going thru 2 layers in some places.) Then you wrap with netting to keep it tight. I didn't think the netting would fit a hunk of meat this size, but it did. And, it scrunched the flat a little bit more, so hopefully it won't be too thin at the end.

Now to wait for "...the miracle of time..." as the BBQ Pit Boys say.

Has anyone else tried these Sausagemaker Steak Wraps?

 

[SmokinAl]

Did a dry aged brisket & really lost a lot of meat after trimming. Ended grinding it up for sausage. Hope yours turns out better.
Al

 

[SmokinVOLfan]

I'm in for the ride. Curious to see how it turns out!

 

[HenryB277]

wow, good luck and im tagging along

 

[mneeley490]

Instructions said to flip to "meat side up" after a week. I did that yesterday, and already it was pretty stiff.

 

[disco]

Watching!

 

[daveomak]

Hey Neely, I do hope you are successful......

Dave

 

[mneeley490]

Thanks, guys. I've had good results with Umai bags in the past, but this is the first time I've tried Sausagemaker's product. So far, there are no bad odors coming off the meat, so I think we're good. I think the addition of the netting really helps keep the membrane in contact with the meat. I may try some next time I use the Umai bags as well.

 

[mneeley490]

Ok, today was the unveiling day!

The Sausagemaker product is a bit different than Umai bags. Where Umai doesn't shrink with the meat, these do. I couldn't get much of it off by itself. The texture was like very dry turkey skin, and kind of crumbly. But, not a big deal, as you're shaving the dry outer portion off the roast anyway.
There was little smell to it, but what there was, was similar to a good beef jerky. It weighed in at 11.5 lbs, so exactly 4 lbs of moisture loss, or 26%.

It took about an hour with a knife that could have been sharper, but I trimmed it up pretty nice. The meat is very dense and a beautiful mahogany color. It actually looks much better than in the pics.
Squared and trimmed a bit off the flat end. I'll smoke them together tomorrow. Out of 15.5 lbs, I ended up with just over 7.5 lbs of usable beef, and just under 7 for the main piece. So around 55% total loss from the green weight.

Keeping it simple with some SPG on the big piece, and Montreal Steak Seasoning on the small one. Letting them sit in the fridge tonight. No overnight smoke for me on this one!

From what I've seen on YouTube, since there is not as much moisture, they tend to skip the stall and come up to IT much quicker than normal, so I'm going to start tomorrow morning with my GMG Daniel Boone, loaded with Lumberjack Competition pellets. Normally, I go fat-side on top, but I've done a couple briskets on it before, and the bottom tends to dry out. So this will be fat-side down.

 

[Smokin' in AZ]

Watchin' and Waitin'

 

[mneeley490]

It's been in the smoker for 4 hours now, and already it's hit 160° IT. Looks like it's going to power thru the stall. Spritzing occasionally with some apple juice.
For some reason, my GMG has a wide temp swing this morning. Ambient temp has stayed near 40°, and I have a welding blanket on top for insulation, but I'm getting at a 25-30 degree temp swing, while trying to maintain 250°.

 

[mneeley490]

The experiment is over, and it was a rousing success! It took 7.5 hours in the smoker; I pulled it at 203° IT, and let it rest for 3 hours. By far, the quickest cook I've ever had on a brisket.

WARNING: THE NEXT FEW POSTS WILL BE PICS HEAVY

Ready to go at 6am. I did cut out a little more fat from between the point and flat after I took this pic.

As you can see, the outer mahogany color stayed with the meat this time. I don't recall doing one that didn't end up brown before.

Passed the bend test, and the pull test with flying colors!

There was about 1-1/4 cups of au jus left in the foil, so I was a little worried that the meat might be dry.

 

[mneeley490]

Turned out I had nothing to worry about. This thing was a juice bomb! They covered my whole cutting board. Amazing, considering how dry and compact it was after I shaved off the dried outer coating.

Even got a decent smoke ring.

The taste was out of this world! Concentrated beefiness, and a bit of umami coming thru. And this was just with SPG seasoning. I think the next one I do, I'll go the full beef rub route as I've seen guys on YouTube do; but for this one, I just wanted a baseline flavor. Still fantastic, though.

I can say unequivocally that this is the best brisket I've ever done.

 

[sawhorseray]

Well that sure as heck looks great, bet it was some fine eatin'! I dry aged three boneless primes last year in the UMAi bags, 28,35, and 45 days and came to the decision that just wasn't the way to go for me. I just didn't notice enough difference in flavor to make it worth the time and expense, and I lost a lot of what would have been edible meat trimming that hard rubbery skin of the finished dry aged product. I do applaud your patience, and "like" your brisket. RAY

 

[TNJAKE]

Wow you nailed it. Looks amazing

 

[flatbroke]

wow great job.

 

[HalfSmoked]

Awesome looking brisket a fine write up and step by step post.

Warren

 

[73saint]

Looks phenomenal! Now I want to try this again!!

 

[jaxgatorz]

That looks great !

 

[motocrash]

That Sir, looks excellent.