- Sep 8, 2011
- 197
- 15
Hey all -
(Those who want to skip the back-story and just get to the smoke can jump to the thread below.)
It had been about 8 years since I did my last brisket. I've been a solid pork guy since I "perfected" my pork butt/pulled, BBRibs and pork crown rack. I'd not had the best of luck with briskets previously. Either the flat came out dryer than I would have liked, or I didn't get a good bark I was looking for. I tried doing them naked as well as foil-wrapped about half-way through. The former tended to be dry and the latter didn't have good bark. I made 1 killer brisket probably 10 years ago for wife's surprise birthday party, then I think I got cocky. I didn't document or log my smokes like I should have. I was a pork master, but a brisket wash-out!
Fast-forward to about 2 months ago. Just for yucks I took at look at the briskets at my Costco and was pretty shocked to see full packer cuts of prime (PRIME!!) grade brisket for only $3.69/lb and so I figure, let's do some research and find a good technique and give them another try.
Sifting through a lot of internet info/garbage, I kept seeing really good stuff from Aaron Franklin and kind of focused on that. I came away with 4 primary things, none of which I had done before: proper trimming, minimal rub, butcher paper wrap and post oak. Oh, and 5 - documenting my process!
The post oak rang true for me because the best brisket I ever had in my life was last summer from a place in Chicago called BBQ Supply Co. run by a local guy who had worked at Texas barbecue places for several years and learned the techniques. They had Texas post oak trucked up to the restaurant in Chicago weekly. And in addition to a restaurant, they also did "BBQ class" dinners where they detailed their entire process of making brisket and a couple of their really good sides, and then followed that with a fabulous dinner. It was BYOB and communal table seating and a real blast of an evening. Coolest part was, they gave out all the recipes!
I decided to start back on the road to brisket supremacy slowly. I picked up a couple of smaller Costco flats (7-8 lbs) instead of jumping back into their half-cow sized packer cuts (12-15 lbs). As mentioned above, I followed Franklin's technique with just minimal salt and pepper rub, bought a roll of 24"W by 175' butcher paper and post oak smoking chunks off Amazon. I couldn't follow the method 100% because I still used charcoal in my WSM instead of legit hardwood log smoking; I don't have the rig for that!
I kept the WSM low and slow since it was only the flat and wanted to ease back into it, kept it at ~225F. At 165F internal (about 6 hours in) I pulled the flat off the smoker and double-wrapped in the butcher paper. I kept it on the smoker (without smoke, obviously) until the fire started to die down, and then popped it into 250F oven until it reached 205F internal. Then wrapped in foil and a towel and into the cooler it went for another couple of hours.
Folks, when I finally took it out and carved it, THAT then became the best brisket I'd ever tasted. I was just shocked at how good it came out. No dryness whatsoever, perfect bark, perfect seasoning. I did a 2nd flat a couple of weekends after following the same techniques, except changed the rub slightly in that I used half salt and pepper, and half of my usual rub concoction. I brought this one to a friends house for a group dinner and damn if that wasn't just as good as the first one.
So, my irrational fear of brisket conquered, I decided to step it up and try a full packer cut. The long-term goal is to do a large packer brisket for family Christmas dinner to feed about a dozen people. I figure to try 2 or 3 of them before that, moving up in size each time until I get to the Christmas 17 pounder I've got in the freezer now.
So here we go with the smoke!
(Those who want to skip the back-story and just get to the smoke can jump to the thread below.)
It had been about 8 years since I did my last brisket. I've been a solid pork guy since I "perfected" my pork butt/pulled, BBRibs and pork crown rack. I'd not had the best of luck with briskets previously. Either the flat came out dryer than I would have liked, or I didn't get a good bark I was looking for. I tried doing them naked as well as foil-wrapped about half-way through. The former tended to be dry and the latter didn't have good bark. I made 1 killer brisket probably 10 years ago for wife's surprise birthday party, then I think I got cocky. I didn't document or log my smokes like I should have. I was a pork master, but a brisket wash-out!
Fast-forward to about 2 months ago. Just for yucks I took at look at the briskets at my Costco and was pretty shocked to see full packer cuts of prime (PRIME!!) grade brisket for only $3.69/lb and so I figure, let's do some research and find a good technique and give them another try.
Sifting through a lot of internet info/garbage, I kept seeing really good stuff from Aaron Franklin and kind of focused on that. I came away with 4 primary things, none of which I had done before: proper trimming, minimal rub, butcher paper wrap and post oak. Oh, and 5 - documenting my process!
The post oak rang true for me because the best brisket I ever had in my life was last summer from a place in Chicago called BBQ Supply Co. run by a local guy who had worked at Texas barbecue places for several years and learned the techniques. They had Texas post oak trucked up to the restaurant in Chicago weekly. And in addition to a restaurant, they also did "BBQ class" dinners where they detailed their entire process of making brisket and a couple of their really good sides, and then followed that with a fabulous dinner. It was BYOB and communal table seating and a real blast of an evening. Coolest part was, they gave out all the recipes!
I decided to start back on the road to brisket supremacy slowly. I picked up a couple of smaller Costco flats (7-8 lbs) instead of jumping back into their half-cow sized packer cuts (12-15 lbs). As mentioned above, I followed Franklin's technique with just minimal salt and pepper rub, bought a roll of 24"W by 175' butcher paper and post oak smoking chunks off Amazon. I couldn't follow the method 100% because I still used charcoal in my WSM instead of legit hardwood log smoking; I don't have the rig for that!
I kept the WSM low and slow since it was only the flat and wanted to ease back into it, kept it at ~225F. At 165F internal (about 6 hours in) I pulled the flat off the smoker and double-wrapped in the butcher paper. I kept it on the smoker (without smoke, obviously) until the fire started to die down, and then popped it into 250F oven until it reached 205F internal. Then wrapped in foil and a towel and into the cooler it went for another couple of hours.
Folks, when I finally took it out and carved it, THAT then became the best brisket I'd ever tasted. I was just shocked at how good it came out. No dryness whatsoever, perfect bark, perfect seasoning. I did a 2nd flat a couple of weekends after following the same techniques, except changed the rub slightly in that I used half salt and pepper, and half of my usual rub concoction. I brought this one to a friends house for a group dinner and damn if that wasn't just as good as the first one.
So, my irrational fear of brisket conquered, I decided to step it up and try a full packer cut. The long-term goal is to do a large packer brisket for family Christmas dinner to feed about a dozen people. I figure to try 2 or 3 of them before that, moving up in size each time until I get to the Christmas 17 pounder I've got in the freezer now.
So here we go with the smoke!
