first brisket

[bhambrewer]

I made a couple of technique errors, but overall - not bad.

 

[smokin peachey]

Looks good!

 

[SecondHandSmoker]

Well, the first technical error I see is that there aren't any slices on my plate!

Excellent job!

 

[bhambrewer]

technical error: not enough seasoning. Technical error: didn't cook quite long enough.

So. this was another BBQ-xperiment. I smoked it for 3 hours, then cooked it in a 275F oven till it hit 203F internal. This wasn't long enough, it needed another hour in the oven. The seasoning I resolved by cooking down the juices that rendered out by about half and used them to braise the brisket another hour and a half.

Net result: mostly fall apart tender smoked brisket served au jus. No added sugar, except for the cup of apple juice I added as braising liquid.

I think not bad for my first attempt :)

 

[SecondHandSmoker]

technical error: not enough seasoning. Technical error: didn't cook quite long enough.

So. this was another BBQ-xperiment. I smoked it for 3 hours, then cooked it in a 275F oven till it hit 203F internal. This wasn't long enough, it needed another hour in the oven. The seasoning I resolved by cooking down the juices that rendered out by about half and used them to braise the brisket another hour and a half.

Net result: mostly fall apart tender smoked brisket served au jus. No added sugar, except for the cup of apple juice I added as braising liquid.

I think not bad for my first attempt :)

Regardless, you still turned out a nice looking brisky from my point of view.
It is a learning experience and you will hone your skills to achieve your desired results.

 

[Inkbirdbbq]

Looks delicious

 

[3-2-1]

Why not cook the brisket on the smoker for the duration? The beauty of the pellet smoker is good natural smoke based heat source that is consistent given it is wood. If you are worried about too much smoke flavor just wrap your brisket in butcher paper. Low and Slow Wins the Show

 

[SecondHandSmoker]

Why not cook the brisket on the smoker for the duration? The beauty of the pellet smoker is good natural smoke based heat source that is consistent given it is wood. If you are worried about too much smoke flavor just wrap your brisket in butcher paper. Low and Slow Wins the Show

Sounds like it was a pure experiment along the lines of applying smoke for a couple of hours and then finishing in the oven.
It isn't unheard of technique around here on SMF.
But for all we know, it could have an issue of limited fuel supply.

Case in point, I used to fill up the grill propane tanks for $2.35 per lb pre Covid 19.
I went to fill tanks last month and the cheapest I could find in my area was $4.10 per lb. Talk about price gouging...
I fired off a WTF?!?! letter to the corporate office for the place I usually buy propane at.
Of course, I received the boilerplate, supply/demand, Covid..."we are trying our best during these unprecedented times" blah, blah,blah BS.

I sure am glad I picked up a Lodge Sportsman Cast Iron grill last month just for S&G's and the fact that I had been wanting one for a couple of years now.
But, the kicker came when hardly no one had any charcoal locally.
As luck would have it, I did manage to find an 8lb of Kingsford briquettes.
I jumped on it because this little Lodge grill doesn't require much charcoal.
I ended supplementing my charcoal and wood chunk supply on Amazon, thankfully.
Nice thing about the little Lodge grill is that you can use wood for the coals too.
So in the end, if this ol' boy needs to go gather up dead wood from the desert in order to eat, at least he and the wife won't starve.
End of rant.
Sorry.
Better now.

 

[3-2-1]

Sounds like it was a pure experiment along the lines of applying smoke for a couple of hours and then finishing in the oven.
It isn't unheard of technique around here on SMF.
But for all we know, it could have an issue of limited fuel supply.

Case in point, I used to fill up the grill propane tanks for $2.35 per lb pre Covid 19.
I went to fill tanks last month and the cheapest I could find in my area was $4.10 per lb. Talk about price gouging...
I fired off a WTF?!?! letter to the corporate office for the place I usually buy propane at.
Of course, I received the boilerplate, supply/demand, Covid..."we are trying our best during these unprecedented times" blah, blah,blah BS.

I sure am glad I picked up a Lodge Sportsman Cast Iron grill last month just for S&G's and the fact that I had been wanting one for a couple of years now.
But, the kicker came when hardly no one had any charcoal locally.
As luck would have it, I did manage to find an 8lb of Kingsford briquettes.
I jumped on it because this little Lodge grill doesn't require much charcoal.
I ended supplementing my charcoal and wood chunk supply on Amazon, thankfully.
Nice thing about the little Lodge grill is that you can use wood for the coals too.
So in the end, if this ol' boy needs to go gather up dead wood from the desert in order to eat, at least he and the wife won't starve.
End of rant.
Sorry.
Better now.

So true, I once thought I could BBQ a duck! Live and Learn. We all start somewhere :)

Advice, Briskets take time, lots O time, 12 to 18+ hours time for full size fat sucker. I doubt you could over rub a brisket. Rub her down the night before and set your temp at 225 and let her go. I use a vertical smoker with a water bath so after about 5 hours I open her up to add water and mop the brisket, never turning the brisket. Pull off the point and make some burnt ends with bourbon based sauce to render down into the burnt ends. Making myself freaking hungry lol

I hear you about bs prices rising, I'm a huge Costco fan from meats to gas, can't beat them.

Talk about 5 lb propane tanks and oh this one is too old to be filled or wrong valve bs, Weber has a summit series 4 or 6 burner (went with 4) that is available in Natural Gas model besides LP (propane). Rain or shine I pull the cover off and she fires right up and cooks like a champ.

4 burners, searing station (extra burner in the middle, nice), rotisserie, rear IR burner, smoker box with its own adjustable burner (a must have) side burner. Total bomb, I swear I never have to buy another gas grill. Sure it cost a few bucks but damn it solved all my gas grilling issues and don't have to worry about ever running out of fuel and it grills like boss!!!

Smoke On

 

[gmc2003]

Looks mighty good from my screen,

Point for sure
Chris

 

[SecondHandSmoker]

So true, I once thought I could BBQ a duck! Live and Learn. We all start somewhere :)

Advice, Briskets take time, lots O time, 12 to 18+ hours time for full size fat sucker. I doubt you could over rub a brisket. Rub her down the night before and set your temp at 225 and let her go. I use a vertical smoker with a water bath so after about 5 hours I open her up to add water and mop the brisket, never turning the brisket. Pull off the point and make some burnt ends with bourbon based sauce to render down into the burnt ends. Making myself freaking hungry lol

I hear you about bs prices rising, I'm a huge Costco fan from meats to gas, can't beat them.

Talk about 5 lb propane tanks and oh this one is too old to be filled or wrong valve bs, Weber has a summit series 4 or 6 burner (went with 4) that is available in Natural Gas model besides LP (propane). Rain or shine I pull the cover off and she fires right up and cooks like a champ.

4 burners, searing station (extra burner in the middle, nice), rotisserie, rear IR burner, smoker box with its own adjustable burner (a must have) side burner. Total bomb, I swear I never have to buy another gas grill. Sure it cost a few bucks but damn it solved all my gas grilling issues and don't have to worry about ever running out of fuel and it grills like boss!!!

Smoke On

Heck yeah! I hear you about going with NG.
When I bought the EP-330 quite a few years ago, we were living in a neighborhood area that had no NG service.
All electric subdivision. Imagine that!
When my wife and I retired to the house we live in now, we have NG out the yazoo.
But no service line running to the backyard. SMH
Weber doesn't recommend converting their LP grills over to NG.
Plus, to run a NG line to the backyard/extended patio is around three grand. No thanks!
Ahhhh!! They got us by the short curlys no matter how we play it.

I almost went for the Summit too. Damn nice grill!

 

[3-2-1]

Heck yeah! I hear you about going with NG.
When I bought the EP-330 quite a few years ago, we were living in a neighborhood area that had no NG service.
All electric subdivision. Imagine that!
When my wife and I retired to the house we live in now, we have NG out the yazoo.
But no service line running to the backyard. SMH
Weber doesn't recommend converting their LP grills over to NG.
Plus, to run a NG line to the backyard/extended patio is around three grand. No thanks!
Ahhhh!! They got us by the short curlys no matter how we play it.

I almost went for the Summit too. Damn nice grill!

You can't really convert the burners over easily. Just buy it built ready2go.

Just rent a little ditch witch and trench your own gas line to the backyard!!! Easy peasie :)

 

[SecondHandSmoker]

You can't really convert the burners over easily. Just buy it built ready2go.

Just rent a little ditch witch and trench your own gas line to the backyard!!! Easy peasie :)

Yeah, I've talked with a couple of HVAC guys to see if they could convert the grill over.
They didn't recommend it and said NO WAY!

As for running the line, if it was only that easy....This past Febuary, I had a 20 amp circuit ran for my electric smoker. Had to pull a permit then wait and wait for the inspector to show up to "approve" it. While the electrician and I were waiting, we started talking about running a gas line. He told me he ran his own at his house and the county damn near evicted him from his own house and condemned it because he didn't pull the permit and he wasn't a licensed plumber.

 

[bhambrewer]

Why not cook the brisket on the smoker for the duration? The beauty of the pellet smoker is good natural smoke based heat source that is consistent given it is wood. If you are worried about too much smoke flavor just wrap your brisket in butcher paper. Low and Slow Wins the Show

I have a Char Griller Texas Trio with offset smoker. To keep the smoker going I need to check it every 30 to 45 minutes. I have been homeschooling my son since before it was popular, and the disruption a couple of times an hour is not good for his concentration span.

I also mulled over my anecdata that most of the smoke flavour seems to come in the first couple of hours so I tried this as another BBQ-xperiment - can I get good smoke ring, good smoke flavour, without having to spend the entire day managing the smoker? The answer is a definite and enthusiastic "YES". The only reason I cut the oven cooking part short is because my son was spending overnight with the grand parents, and he was desperate to try some before he went, otherwise another hour, 90 minutes would have got the brisket perfect and I'd have dropped a 12lb packer on the table in 10 hours :)

 

[SmokinAl]

That brisket looks awesome to me!
Al

 

[bhambrewer]

thank you for making this a featured post - I feel humble :)

 

[gary s]

Looks Tasty from where I'm sittin

Gary

 

[tallbm]

technical error: not enough seasoning. Technical error: didn't cook quite long enough.

So. this was another BBQ-xperiment. I smoked it for 3 hours, then cooked it in a 275F oven till it hit 203F internal. This wasn't long enough, it needed another hour in the oven. The seasoning I resolved by cooking down the juices that rendered out by about half and used them to braise the brisket another hour and a half.

Net result: mostly fall apart tender smoked brisket served au jus. No added sugar, except for the cup of apple juice I added as braising liquid.

I think not bad for my first attempt :)

Briskets are like the toughest smoked item out there so you had a good first shot :)

On seasoning a brisket, you can over salt one more easily than you might think but it can handle other seasonings if applied heavily. Just be aware that the flat is much thinner than other parts so don't over salt that area.

As for cooking long enough. Briskets and pork butts are only done when they are Tender. A brisket is tender when you can stab ALL OVER with something like a wooden kabob skewer and it goes in with no resistance. You check for tenderness when the IT/thermometer tells you to check. Brisket is never done by temp or time.

Finally, probe placement on a brisket is like 100X more difficult than you may think. The best spot is the thickest yet center most are of the Flat muscle, never the Point muscle. The point will come up to temp and be tender way before the flat. The flat is the problem child.

Proper probe placement is so hard to get that I use 3 probes from different angles aiming for the same spot and usually i get 1 of the 3 in proper position... its the one that reads the lowest hahaha. I firmly believe this is a major factor in people reporting such wide variations in IT of a brisket when it is tender. Try 3 probes, this is a for real occurence! lol

Keep at it man, each brisket cook can/will teach you something :)

 

[bhambrewer]

thank you, Tallbm. Your post is packed with useful information.

I appreciate all the feedback, especially the constructive criticism. Thanks, everyone!

 

[fullborebbq]

Heck yeah! I hear you about going with NG.
When I bought the EP-330 quite a few years ago, we were living in a neighborhood area that had no NG service.
All electric subdivision. Imagine that!
When my wife and I retired to the house we live in now, we have NG out the yazoo.
But no service line running to the backyard. SMH
Weber doesn't recommend converting their LP grills over to NG.
Plus, to run a NG line to the backyard/extended patio is around three grand. No thanks!
Ahhhh!! They got us by the short curlys no matter how we play it.

I almost went for the Summit too. Damn nice grill!

Running a gas line is not vary difficult. Do a little research on Youtube. If you have a line in the house it is easy to extend one to the back yard.