First, a couple huge thanks to
tx smoker
! He was able to get us some briskets in from Piedmontese Beef. They have a great selection and are an amazing breed. Really enjoy doing these! Then, Robert twisted my arm and sold me on his Big Green Egg XL. Not only that, but when I went to grab it, He cooked an amazing dinner and twisted my arm again to eat! Tri Tip and some Potatoes and Gravy! I had just eaten dinner prior but there was no way I was gonna turn that down! Luckily I got all the dissasembly and loading done before dinner. I may or may not have had seconds 
. All of it was outstanding! Thanks again!
I then had a plan to do a break in cook this past weekend with one of the aforementioned briskets. One of them was a 12 pounder ish and was perfect. Friday night came and there was potential for storms so I figured I would start Saturday a.m. Plus, this would be my first time on an egg so I wanted to start fresh. This would later be found to be unnecessary.
Let's dig in!
Briskets: front one is the one selected for this cook
Started trimming it and on the flat it was weird. I'm used to a fat cap but most of this one had a Silver Skin over it. I trimmed off the piece and that was pretty much all that was there. Just that thin skin. Oh well, the marbeling on these are really good and hold up. Onward we roll.
Rubbed with Wooster sauce for binder, light coat of salt, Heavy Pepper, top coat of Pitfaced On Point. Then a dash of more pepper haha.
Got the egg lit up around 6 am with lump and pecan chunks.
Once temps got up to 170-180 ish I backed off the vents and tossed the brisket on. That new looking plate setter (convEGGtor) is just that. New. After carefully transporting all pieces and reassembly with no issue... a couple days later I may have moved it just wrong and "split". Ran off and snagged a new one from a local retailer. I'll repair the old one and move the new one back to "Spare Parts" for the next time haha. Foil lined pan for grease/rendering catching.
After the Brisket went on, I had to have a drink for the BBQ Angels, and also for the fallen. (I'm not retired Navy, less than 9 years, but it's the only one I had handy)
Dialing in the egg was just as easy as I hoped. couple tweks over the first couple hours and it was locked in at 225°F-235°F. Dome Temp was within 5-10 degrees of grate level probe. Impressive. The bottom vent was all but closed and the daisy wheel was around 50%. Thin blue smoke rolling nicely.
Progress check after a couple hours and a spritz
Spritz was made up on the fly
Further along progress pic
Once I was in the stall (first one...) around 165°F, the Barq was set nicely so I wrapped in some butcher paper. This was about 9 hours in. I added about a 1/2 cup of the spritz to the brisket when wrapping.
I also had just received one of my top 3 whiskies! Around Sunset I decided to pop the cork and have a pour. Absolutely amazing stuff! Michter's Barrel Strength Rye. The Egg just kept doing it's thing.
Finally broke the first stall after a few hours
Temps climbed to 179-181 and then stayed there for almost another three hours! Second stall! Been awhile since I've had one of those. I nudged the vents a smidge and the pit slowly drifted up to 275°F for about an hour then drifted right back to 235°F. Guess it was just happier there. Around Midnight I was just playing around taking pics
02:00 and it finally probed tender! Point was like melted butter, and the flat was feeling real nice too, on one side anyway. the other half was a little bit of resistance. I figured it would even out while resting so I pulled it. Transferred to Foil and added some of the last of the spritz. Triple towel folded and into cooler. (super spoiler alert!!!! I have anew holding/resting apparatus coming soon!)
Cleaned up and went to the couch at 3 am. Around 6 I got up with the dogs and the brisket was sitting around 155°F internal, so I started slicing. Brisket for Breakfast!
The Point... just a jiggly soft rendered goodness! Cubed some up. The Flat... Left half was really good on moisture and texture. The right half was definitely dry and tearing. But it was limited to the outer couple inches. I can live with that and not risk overdoing the rest. Sliced up some flat and then some cubes.
Final Thoughts:
I learned a LOT during this cook.
-I can't trim as aggressive as I do for the Pellet Rig. I knew this but the lack of fat cap is what it was. Still really happy.
-I didn't get enough wood chunks near the center of the fire initially so there was hardly any pecan after the first hour. The Lump burned real clean though.
-I am accustomed to Fat Down cooks from my Easy Bake Oven and Weber's so I defaulted to that. Next time, Fat up. There is definitely more heat coming back from the dome than radiating off the plate below. You can see some caramelization on the top in the pics. Bottom was great looking.
-Temps, once dialed in, and weather permitting, I could easily move to overnight cooks on this now comfortably.
-There was definitely a hotter spot where I had the point. Will tweak placement next time but lucked out that the fatty point worked as a heat shield.
This was far from my worst brisket for sure, but there was room for improvement. As far overall, for cooking on a new pit, I am very pleased! The pepper profile was there that I was looking for. Real light smoke profile rounded it out. I'm already looking forward to the next one!
Cheer's Y'all!
Smokin' in AZ
, here ya go.
tx smoker
! He was able to get us some briskets in from Piedmontese Beef. They have a great selection and are an amazing breed. Really enjoy doing these! Then, Robert twisted my arm and sold me on his Big Green Egg XL. Not only that, but when I went to grab it, He cooked an amazing dinner and twisted my arm again to eat! Tri Tip and some Potatoes and Gravy! I had just eaten dinner prior but there was no way I was gonna turn that down! Luckily I got all the dissasembly and loading done before dinner. I may or may not have had seconds . All of it was outstanding! Thanks again!I then had a plan to do a break in cook this past weekend with one of the aforementioned briskets. One of them was a 12 pounder ish and was perfect. Friday night came and there was potential for storms so I figured I would start Saturday a.m. Plus, this would be my first time on an egg so I wanted to start fresh. This would later be found to be unnecessary.
Let's dig in!
Briskets: front one is the one selected for this cook
Started trimming it and on the flat it was weird. I'm used to a fat cap but most of this one had a Silver Skin over it. I trimmed off the piece and that was pretty much all that was there. Just that thin skin. Oh well, the marbeling on these are really good and hold up. Onward we roll.
Rubbed with Wooster sauce for binder, light coat of salt, Heavy Pepper, top coat of Pitfaced On Point. Then a dash of more pepper haha.
Got the egg lit up around 6 am with lump and pecan chunks.
Once temps got up to 170-180 ish I backed off the vents and tossed the brisket on. That new looking plate setter (convEGGtor) is just that. New. After carefully transporting all pieces and reassembly with no issue... a couple days later I may have moved it just wrong and "split". Ran off and snagged a new one from a local retailer. I'll repair the old one and move the new one back to "Spare Parts" for the next time haha. Foil lined pan for grease/rendering catching.
After the Brisket went on, I had to have a drink for the BBQ Angels, and also for the fallen. (I'm not retired Navy, less than 9 years, but it's the only one I had handy)
Dialing in the egg was just as easy as I hoped. couple tweks over the first couple hours and it was locked in at 225°F-235°F. Dome Temp was within 5-10 degrees of grate level probe. Impressive. The bottom vent was all but closed and the daisy wheel was around 50%. Thin blue smoke rolling nicely.
Progress check after a couple hours and a spritz
Spritz was made up on the fly
Further along progress pic
Once I was in the stall (first one...) around 165°F, the Barq was set nicely so I wrapped in some butcher paper. This was about 9 hours in. I added about a 1/2 cup of the spritz to the brisket when wrapping.
I also had just received one of my top 3 whiskies! Around Sunset I decided to pop the cork and have a pour. Absolutely amazing stuff! Michter's Barrel Strength Rye. The Egg just kept doing it's thing.
Finally broke the first stall after a few hours
Temps climbed to 179-181 and then stayed there for almost another three hours! Second stall! Been awhile since I've had one of those. I nudged the vents a smidge and the pit slowly drifted up to 275°F for about an hour then drifted right back to 235°F. Guess it was just happier there. Around Midnight I was just playing around taking pics
02:00 and it finally probed tender! Point was like melted butter, and the flat was feeling real nice too, on one side anyway. the other half was a little bit of resistance. I figured it would even out while resting so I pulled it. Transferred to Foil and added some of the last of the spritz. Triple towel folded and into cooler. (super spoiler alert!!!! I have anew holding/resting apparatus coming soon!)
Cleaned up and went to the couch at 3 am. Around 6 I got up with the dogs and the brisket was sitting around 155°F internal, so I started slicing. Brisket for Breakfast!
The Point... just a jiggly soft rendered goodness! Cubed some up. The Flat... Left half was really good on moisture and texture. The right half was definitely dry and tearing. But it was limited to the outer couple inches. I can live with that and not risk overdoing the rest. Sliced up some flat and then some cubes.
Final Thoughts:
I learned a LOT during this cook.
-I can't trim as aggressive as I do for the Pellet Rig. I knew this but the lack of fat cap is what it was. Still really happy.
-I didn't get enough wood chunks near the center of the fire initially so there was hardly any pecan after the first hour. The Lump burned real clean though.
-I am accustomed to Fat Down cooks from my Easy Bake Oven and Weber's so I defaulted to that. Next time, Fat up. There is definitely more heat coming back from the dome than radiating off the plate below. You can see some caramelization on the top in the pics. Bottom was great looking.
-Temps, once dialed in, and weather permitting, I could easily move to overnight cooks on this now comfortably.
-There was definitely a hotter spot where I had the point. Will tweak placement next time but lucked out that the fatty point worked as a heat shield.
This was far from my worst brisket for sure, but there was room for improvement. As far overall, for cooking on a new pit, I am very pleased! The pepper profile was there that I was looking for. Real light smoke profile rounded it out. I'm already looking forward to the next one!
Cheer's Y'all!
Smokin' in AZ
, here ya go.
