Hope everyone had a nice St. Patrick's Day filled with a lot of food and adult beverages! This year I decided to make corned beef from start to finish instead of purchasing a the pre-seasoned brisket from my local grocery store. I purchased a 14 lb. packer from Costco and after trimming the excess fat, I would say that we were sitting at roughly 10 lbs .or so of brisket.
I usually brine a turkey for Thanksgiving so I knew how about the extra work that was needed, but did not realize how long I needed to brine the brisket for and the room it took up in the fridge. I started last Friday with everything and had the brisket brining until yesterday morning when I pulled it at 5:15 am. While the brisket was coming to room temperature after I rinsed it, I fired up my WSM and added three chunks of pecan wood. While the smoker was getting up to 250, I used mustard on the brisket as the binder and added pepper to it. Had the brisket on the smoker by 6:05 am and did not check the internal temp until 3 hours in. I ended up needing to reposition the brisket because the flat was roughly 15 degrees warmer than the point and I did not want to burn it. A little over 5 hours in, the flat had an IT of 174 and the point at 159, I decided to wrap the brisket so I would not dry it out. The brisket had a nice bark on it and to make sure it was going to stay moist I added a dash of Guinness on the bottom of the foil. It smoked a little quicker than I thought it would as I pulled it once it both the flat and point were at 203 to 205 and my probe going through nice and easy. With dinner being around 6:00 pm and pulling it a little after 2:00 pm I ended up wrapping it in another layer of foil and putting in a cooler. That baby stayed nice and warm after sitting in a cooler for four hours.
Tossed on my cabbage and smoked that for a few hours until it was tender.
Boiled potatoes and steamed carrots to go along with the dinner.
Brine-
Pickling Spices ( 4 TBSP)
2 GAL of water
300 G. Kosher Salt
1/2 Cup Brown Sugar
Cabbage-
Butter in the cavity
Salt, Pepper, and Garlic Powder
It was mighty good and even my 1 year old was happy with everything as he was in food coma yesterday after dinner!
Happy Smoking!
Stephen
I usually brine a turkey for Thanksgiving so I knew how about the extra work that was needed, but did not realize how long I needed to brine the brisket for and the room it took up in the fridge. I started last Friday with everything and had the brisket brining until yesterday morning when I pulled it at 5:15 am. While the brisket was coming to room temperature after I rinsed it, I fired up my WSM and added three chunks of pecan wood. While the smoker was getting up to 250, I used mustard on the brisket as the binder and added pepper to it. Had the brisket on the smoker by 6:05 am and did not check the internal temp until 3 hours in. I ended up needing to reposition the brisket because the flat was roughly 15 degrees warmer than the point and I did not want to burn it. A little over 5 hours in, the flat had an IT of 174 and the point at 159, I decided to wrap the brisket so I would not dry it out. The brisket had a nice bark on it and to make sure it was going to stay moist I added a dash of Guinness on the bottom of the foil. It smoked a little quicker than I thought it would as I pulled it once it both the flat and point were at 203 to 205 and my probe going through nice and easy. With dinner being around 6:00 pm and pulling it a little after 2:00 pm I ended up wrapping it in another layer of foil and putting in a cooler. That baby stayed nice and warm after sitting in a cooler for four hours.
Tossed on my cabbage and smoked that for a few hours until it was tender.
Boiled potatoes and steamed carrots to go along with the dinner.
Brine-
Pickling Spices ( 4 TBSP)
2 GAL of water
300 G. Kosher Salt
1/2 Cup Brown Sugar
Cabbage-
Butter in the cavity
Salt, Pepper, and Garlic Powder
It was mighty good and even my 1 year old was happy with everything as he was in food coma yesterday after dinner!
Happy Smoking!
Stephen
