First hot-fast brisket - amazing!

[mgwerks]

I just finished my first hot & fast CAB choice brisket today on the WSM 22 at about 300 degrees. It was an eye-opening experience (thanks, Konrad!). One thing I tried which was a bit of extra work was to separate the point and flat and trim of all the excess fat. These I panned separately. I flipped them over and foiled the pans as each got to 165. In the pans was the au jus that the brisket had created to which I added some water and flavoring liquid.

Without having to heat up all that fat must have made an immense difference! The panned point was at 200 after only 3 hours, and the flat was at 185! Half an hour later I checked the flat at 200, and pulled it as well. They rested for an hour in a 170 degree warming oven, swimming in the juices. Doing the pieces separately made it easy to control consistency without it being a compromise. Both had a great smoke ring as well. I saw no issues from having removed all that fat cap and the stuff surrounding the point. It was still very juicy, very tender and had a great flavor.

That's going from into the pit to into the stomach in less than 5 hours, including resting.

 

[meateater]

Nice looking smoke ring and it looks very tender and moist!

 

[bigolboysbbq]

Good looking brisket man. That is a nice smoke ring looks like it kept the moisture very well, did you inject it?

 

[badfrog]

They look great. did you trim the fat completely? I have always left as even a layer as i could with the belief that it helped to keep the meat moist, but your pics and report seem to make me think I might not need to do that... I have always done brisket about 225 too... Hmmmm -

 

[ronp]

One word: NICE.

 

[pops6927]

The outer fatcap is really irrevalent to the internal meat; it is the internal fat and connective tissue fat that is revalent (aka 'marbling') to how tender and juicy it will be. F A T is an acronym anyways.. Flavor And Tenderness is what it's about! The fattier a piece of meat indicates what usage the animal had for that muscle group; the less usage, the more fat, the better for tenderness and marbling. Brisket is somewhat of an oddity as the muscle groups are fibrous with large-tube cellular structure because it is part of the locomotion system of the forequarters, but fatty because they are non-flexed muscles where fat can store.

 

[mr mac]

Very nice looking brisket! Watching BBQ Pitmasters one episode had Myron doing his brisket at 350* and he said, "I ain't waitin' no damned 12 hours to cook a piece of meat. Let them other guys get up at 2 in the mornin', not me, I'm sleepin'!" Not an exact quote, but I think it's close enough.

I've thought about speed cooking one myself but need to wait until I can get back to the SAFB commissary to get one.

 

[deltadude]

GREAT LOOKING Brisket! Thanks for the process write up too, puts another arrow in my smokin quiver!

SMOKE ON DUDE !

 

[dick bullard]

Wanta try that for sure !!!


Rick

 

[rbranstner]

Man that is a nice looking brisket.

 

[bottomline]

That sure looks good!!! Thanks for the Qview.

 

[mike chs]

I was glad to see this thread since I had stopped smoking brisket because of the excess fat on those things.

 

[chisoxjim]

really nice looking brisket there.

I have heard of the high heat brisket method for the WSM but havent tried it yet. looks like you hit a home run with it.

 

[cheech]

Thanks for the info here. I learned my new thing for the day.

 

[mgwerks]

Wow, thanks for the great comments. To answer some questions - no, I didn't inject it with anything. Yes, I trimmed just about all of the fat cap off, as well as the layer between the point and flat. It really worked out well, because the point and flat are very different pieces of meat, so I could cook them as befits each piece.any if the IM fat was of course still there, and definitely rendered helping the meat become tender. Additionally, but removing the fat the au jus in the pan wasn't smothered in a layer of grease. I have a 4-cup grease separator and there was maybe a 16th of an inch on top of the liquid. Also, I didn't slice until it was time to eat, and laid the slices in the liquid before plating.

Okay, one thing. Obviously cooking like this doesn't get you a big crusty bark. TBH, I'm not a great fan of bark, I'd rather taste the meat, which did pick up a lot of the rub flavoring.

Thanks for looking!

 

[caveman]

Nice cooking of a particularly tough piece of meat. I have never had bark before I came to SMF but you should try it at least one time. Plus, it gives you time to actually enjoy that beer while you let it smoke up, low & slow. Nice JOB!