Let's Talk BBQ
FORUM SPONSORS => Pit Barrel Cooker Co. => Topic started by: steve0617 on April 11, 2015, 11:05:10 PM
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9lb full packer untrimmed. Had been frozen and thawed at least once (was a freebie given to me by my brother in law, who works for a food distribution company. No clue if it had been frozen/thawed when I got it. I froze it at the time as my Cookshack was too small to cook this. Waited to thaw it until I got the PBC).
Kingsford Blue. Full basket. 40 briquettes removed and started in a Weber chimney. Added three chunks of hickory to unlit coals in basket. 20 mins in the chimney, dumped on the unlit basket coals then hung the meat.
Checked at 2 hours. Was going fine. Checked at 3. Still OK. Checked at 4 hours and was 160. Pulled, foiled, added some beef broth and onto the grate. Took about 1:30 more to get to 200 degrees per the Thermapen (so 5:30 hours total) and pulled it. Then wrapped it extra foil, toweled and coolered. In the cooler for about 90 minutes.
Was OK in the end. Flat was a bit dry and point was of course a bit fatty. OK smoke from the hickory. Definitely onto something will adding chunks under the lit coals. Wood almost completely burned down by the end. Ended up just chopping all the remaining sliced and unsliced pieces together and added a bit of the collected juices from the foil. With some BBQ sauce, won't be too bad reheated for either sandwiches or just eating with a fork.
A bit disappointed with the results but it could have been the meat itself was never going to be very tender since it was frozen/thawed at least once. It's also been in freezer for the better part of a year. That couldn't have helped.
Lots of fat
(http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b2/steve0617/BBQ/b1.jpg)
Different angle
(http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b2/steve0617/BBQ/b2.jpg)
LOTS of fat trimmed off
(http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b2/steve0617/BBQ/b4.jpg)
Point trimmed and folded back from flat per how Noah did it in the video
(http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b2/steve0617/BBQ/b5.jpg)
Hooked correctly
(http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b2/steve0617/BBQ/b6.jpg)
Charcoal basked with the 40 briquettes removed for the chimney but 3 chunks of hickory added
(http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b2/steve0617/BBQ/b7.jpg)
Brisket taken to 160 then foiled to 200. This is after resting for about 2 hours toweled and in the cooler
(http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b2/steve0617/BBQ/b8.jpg)
Flat sliced. Good smoke ring that didn't come through well in pics
(http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b2/steve0617/BBQ/b9.jpg)
Better smoke ring but not as pink as it actually was
(http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b2/steve0617/BBQ/b10.jpg)
Point side
(http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b2/steve0617/BBQ/b11.jpg)
Another point side
(http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b2/steve0617/BBQ/b12.jpg)
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Looks fairly moist!! That is hard to do without putting it in foil and adding a liquid.
Art
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Steve
How long did you have the brisket wrapped toweled and in the cooler?
CM
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Steve
How long did you have the brisket wrapped toweled and in the cooler?
CM
About 90 minutes or so.
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Darn, sure looks good :(
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Brisket looks moist to me.
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Looks pretty good from here. If the flat was dry without being crumbly, it was still probably underdone. Instead of finishing based on a final temp, skewer the thickest part of the flat (the Thermapen works well for that too) until it probes like a room temp butter stick.
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It does look good; especially the point (my favorite part). I can see the smoke ring just fine.
Instead of finishing based on a final temp, skewer the thickest part of the flat (the Thermapen works well for that too) until it probes like a room temp butter stick.
What sliding_billy said! :)
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Looks great from Minnesota
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Steve
I think S_Billy has it right. In the picture your have the meat looks moist. I have not made a whole packer yet on my PBC just a 6 lbs. flat. ( With price of briskets over $5.00 Lbs. for a packer and then toss out 10-15 % of it for fat waste, I'll wait or just wont buy it now.) ???
I'm sure other folks will tell you, " its not ready till its ready" and that is poking the meat in the thickest portion of the meat with a fast read thermometer or toothpick and it should go in and out with little to no resistance. I have read where people have wrapped, toweled and stowed their briskets for 4 -6 hours to get it where they are satisfied. I on the other hand have smoked 10 or more briskets between 10 -14 lbs. over the past 4 years on my CB vertical gas smoker. I always allowed for at least 3 hours in the cooler and that seemed to be the magic number for me with my set up. But I have gone up to 4 hours because I thought it needed to be a little more tender. I have kept records of each and every item that I have smoked in the gas smoker, to maintain consistency and the quality that I and the family enjoys.
So, what I learned from all this data keeping was: #1 The data I collected gave me a good and consistent starting point in all type of conditions. #2. A good average for meat stalling temperatures and flavor I like. #3. All of the same types of meats are not created equal. Which you mentioned. Temperatures are excellent indicators for each step of the process but it is not the end all or be all. Maybe 1 more hour in the cooler would have made it were you would have been satisfied with the outcome. ???
Keep Cook'n
CM
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One thing Bill Cannon told me years ago (and Bill Cannon has cooked his fair share of briskets) is to not trim the fat cap and cook the brisket fat cap down......
There are so many ways to cook a brisket.......... :)
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Steve one thing as you are aware of and mentioned that it had been frozen and thawed a couple times. This can change the texture of meat greatly. The ice crystals that reform into the meat destroy the cell structures and that is not good. So not your fault. You did well with what you had to work with.
With that being said the brisket does look good!
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Looks pretty good from here. If the flat was dry without being crumbly, it was still probably underdone. Instead of finishing based on a final temp, skewer the thickest part of the flat (the Thermapen works well for that too) until it probes like a room temp butter stick.
Flat was definitely not crumbly. It was firm like an overdone roast. Just like all bad brisket I've ever had at a relative's house.
I guess I didn't realize I should toothpick test it for firmness like I do with St. Louis ribs. When my pork butts have been 195/200 or so, I just pull them and they always pull perfectly. Since this was my first packer ever, and from what I was reading, I just thought, like the butts, that 200 degrees was the magic number.
Good to know that it's the toothpick that determines doneness. I'll also get it in the cooker earlier so it can cooler longer. I usually do my butts at 10:00pm the night before (on my Cookshack) and they've done by 2:00pm or so the next day, so that almost always means 4 hours in the cooler before dinner. I'll try that time coolering next time on a packer.
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Brisket looks moist to me.
To me, too. Looks good.
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First: Briskets can be just plain weird. In contests, I've seen two cooked on the same cooker and one was great, the other so-so.
Second: The re-freeze couldn't help.
Last: It DOES look pretty good from here ! !
BD
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It does look pretty good to me, I have had brisket done anywhere from 198 to 210 internal. No rhyme or reason to it. Just the fat, moisture and the cow it came from.
But I love it all
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i know exactly how you feel as my first brisket was nothing spectacular. i agree with everyone's comments regarding the "its done when its done" type feel. i don't know if you read my post about smoking just the point last week but i took it to 210 because that is when it felt to me that the maverick went in like butter. if you go by temp alone, or by recommendation of someone, you could pull it and it's just not ready.
i prob won't cook a full packer anytime soon as i had a really good run with just the point. you might try it and see if you like it! with that being said your cook still looked good!!!
jason
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I'm no Brisket expert but once you wrap it you're better off finishing in a 200 degrees oven, use the probe test for doneness and let it spend as much time in the cooler as possible.
This is why I prefer to start a brisket late in the day, wrap and into the oven around midnight, into the cooler around 6 am.
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I have not done a lot of briskets and no expert. Yours looks pretty good to me!! You can always add dome broth when re-heating. Don
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I have found the temperature needs to be closer to 205 before pulling it completely. Adding broth will help keep it moist, but the 205 temperature helps ensure the meat fibers have been broken down.
Overall, your brisket looks great though!