Memorial Day Weekend Brisket on the BGE (couple pics haha)

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Misplaced Nebraskan

Master of the Pit
Original poster
OTBS Member
Sep 20, 2018
1,072
1,103
Austin, TX
First, a couple huge thanks to tx smoker 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 :emoji_laughing:. 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


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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.


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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.


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Got the egg lit up around 6 am with lump and pecan chunks.


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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.



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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)



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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.



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Progress check after a couple hours and a spritz



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Spritz was made up on the fly



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Further along progress pic



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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.



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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.


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Finally broke the first stall after a few hours


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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


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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!)



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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.



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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 Smokin' in AZ , here ya go.
 
Wow Zach everything looks phenomenal! The brisket, the whiskey, the egg, the yard!!!

I love the shot of the Jack Daniel's with the egg smoking in the background! That's straight-up magazine quality advertising. JD should pay you for that picture.

Again awesome job. Happy Memorial Day and thank you for your service.
 
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Wow Zach everything looks phenomenal! The brisket, the whiskey, the egg, the yard!!!

I love the shot of the Jack Daniel's with the egg smoking in the background! That's straight-up magazine quality advertising. JD should pay you for that picture.

Again awesome job. Happy Memorial Day and thank you for your service.
Thanks! I was real happy with that pic. Just played with some editing. No idea what I actually did, but I do like it haha. I'd give them the pic for some more Jack :emoji_laughing:

And no thanks necessary, but appreciate it.
 
Looks good from here too ! Nice comfy set up you have there as well .

I know what you mean about the " weird " I just had one that was like a thick skin , no fat cap .
 
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Really nice lookin' brisket there Zac!

Looks like you and the new toy are going to get along just fine.

From one ex-navy JD drinker to another :emoji_thumbsup:

Like!

John
Thanks John! I think we'll be alright together haha.

I'll have to send you a pic of my Jack setup in our home bar!
 
Looks good from here too ! Nice comfy set up you have there as well .

I know what you mean about the " weird " I just had one that was like a thick skin , no fat cap .


Thanks! sometimes it's just how it is. Still got there in the end. just took the scenic route lol.
 
As always you're more than welcome my friend. It's a pleasure any time you and your lovely wife can come visit. Sadly she wasn't able to make it this go round. I did however warn you when you told me you were on the way that dinner may wind up being done about that time. Didn't figure you'd sit there and twiddle your thumbs while Tracy and I ate hickory fired tri tip right off the Santa Maria...and of course fresh garlic mashed taters. There was also a salad but Zach stuck to the meat and taters mantra.

Now to the Egg....yes, it's certainly an animal of a totally different breed. I'd never noticed any hot spots in it but am not surprised. I never really looked for them :emoji_laughing: It's odd that the brisket took that long to cook. Typically things cook on a BGE faster, even at the same temp, as they would on a different cooker. That's due to the radiant convection style of heating. Once you play with it a bit you'll get it dialed in (sounds like you pretty much got it first time out!!) you can easily sleep tight for an overnight cook. Those things are rock solid stable and will perform in any weather. You're gonna have a good time with that thing. On a different note, did you get the old Dynasty grill fired up yet and did the regulator work? I cooked thousands and thousands of pounds of meat on that thing. It's bullet proof and built like a tank. It served me flawlessly for over 20 years and still looked great when you took it out of here. I just would like to see it getting used, which it wasn't here, hence you getting it.

Now to the cook. WOW!! That was an excellent looking meal. Even better taking into account it was the first time with the Egg. Another beautiful carousel worthy presentation without a doubt. Excellent job and kudos for the patience you showed getting that brisket to the finish line.

Robert
 
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As always you're more than welcome my friend. It's a pleasure any time you and your lovely wife can come visit. Sadly she wasn't able to make it this go round. I did however warn you when you told me you were on the way that dinner may wind up being done about that time. Didn't figure you'd sit there and twiddle your thumbs while Tracy and I ate hickory fried tri tip right off the Santa Maria...and of course fresh garlic mashed taters. There was also a salad but Zach stuck to the meat and taters mantra.

It was a great meal indeed!


Now to the Egg....yes, it's certainly an animal of a totally different breed. I'd never noticed any hot spots in it but am not surprised. I never really looked for them :emoji_laughing: It's odd that the brisket took that long to cook. Typically things cook on a BGE faster, even at the same temp, as they would on a different cooker. That's due to the radiant convection style of heating. Once you play with it a bit you'll get it dialed in (sounds like you pretty much got it first time out!!) you can easily sleep tight for an overnight cook. Those things are rock solid stable and will perform in any weather. You're gonna have a good time with that thing. On a different note, did you get the old Dynasty grill fired up yet and did the regulator work? I cooked thousands and thousands of pounds of meat on that thing. It's bullet proof and built like a tank. It served me flawlessly for over 20 years and still looked great when you took it out of here. I just would like to see it getting used, which it wasn't here, hence you getting it.

I figured it would've cooked faster too! Well, it may have taken 24+ hours on a different pit also haha. I did the regulator on. I got it all put together again and then found out I was out of propane :emoji_sweat_smile:. I've got another now so it'll get "burned off" real soon. got a nice steak thawing out. Thinking smoked on the egg, then seared off on the Dynasty! and mabe some of that peach cobbler CI style you made that one time! fantastic.


Now to the cook. WOW!! That was an excellent looking meal. Even better taking into account it was the first time with the Egg. Another beautiful carousel worthy presentation without a doubt. Excellent job and kudos for the patience you showed getting that brisket to the finish line.

Robert


Thank you! I have also learned this Egg is my Arch Nemesis in a way. I'm a picture taking fool and I can't keep burping the egg for pics. So it goes nice and slow without me interfering much :emoji_grin:
 
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