About 6 months ago I shelled out the $179 for one of SRF's Gold Grade American Kobe briskets. I just needed an excuse to cook something so expensive and for enough people. So I decided Christmas Day would be perfect. I have done multiple briskets on the PBC and have tremendous success, all in the 12-14lb range. I did all of the trimming the day before, did the salt and pepper rub the day before too, and put the brisket back into the fridge.
At 10:45 am I followed the standard 20 minutes with the lighter fluid and Stubb's charcoal. I placed 4 big Hickory chunks on top of the coals (my standard practice). I placed the brisket on the grate instead of hanging it. I placed one rebar back into the holes.
I left my brisket and went to go see a 1230 showing of Star Wars. At 315 PM when I get back from the movie the brisket is sitting at 205!!! I checked multiple spots of the brisket. The thermometer was sliding in an out of the brisket like butter everywhere. Some spots were showing even 210. I pulled the brisket, wrapped it in parchment paper, and placed it in the oven (I didn't have a clean cooler available). I kept it wrapped for over 2 hours and at 6 PM I pulled it out of the oven so I could slice it. The internal temperature had only dipped to 183 (I left the thermometer in while it was in the oven). One thing I did was preheat the oven to 175, and once I placed the wrapped brisket in the oven I turned the oven off (keeping the oven door closed and the radiant heat from the brisket kept the inside of the oven warm (not all that different than the towel effects in a cooler was my theory).
The end result was nothing short of amazing! The Kobe brisket is FANTASTIC. If you can ever justify the nearly $14 per lb, it's worth trying just once.
I couldn't believe that it cooked in 4 hours, but the effects of the brisket being Extremely fatty greatly impacted the barrel temperatures. Yet the brisket was melt in your mouth tender. There was not a dry spot in the brisket The grease fog smell from the PBC was quite strong, but about an hour after the cook all of the grease had burnt off and I was able to grill 2lbs of scallops. The brisket fat clearly was doing excessive dripping onto the coals. I was disappointed I didn't get to wrap the brisket at 165 but this brisket was so fatty, even the flat, that it wasn't needed. I suspect there was no stall time, although I wasn't there to know one way or another.
Also, I did the brisket fat side down, which is what Noah mentions in his video, but with a brisket this fatty, I'd probably try it fat side up.
Hope everybody had a great holiday and has a great New Year!
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