Let's Talk BBQ
FORUM SPONSORS => Pit Barrel Cooker Co. => Topic started by: Deathbot3 on June 25, 2016, 11:55:23 AM
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I'm a newbie to the forum but you all convinced me to pull the trigger on a new PBC a few weeks ago. I'm two cooks in and LOVE it. I started with a 14-pound packer and did chicken last night. Both turned out great. Amazed at how little of a learning curve there is on this thing. My previous set-ups were all on my 22.5-inch Weber Performer using the smokeanator and more recently the slow n sear. I was able to cook some really good barbecue but finally tired of the constant tweaking that had to be done to maintain consistent temps through an entire cook.
So, for my next cook I've volunteered to provide the protein for a family reunion next weekend. We've got 30 people attending and I'm planning to do three packers and a handful of chickens. My question is how many briskets do you think I can do in a single cook on the PBC? My plan is to hang them and then wrap at 170 degrees. I will also have my weber at my disposal and I'm thinking maybe I move two of the briskets over to the weber using the slow n sear once I wrap them. I also considered separating the point and flat before the cook - I've never done this before but seems pretty straightforward. The chickens will just go on once the briskets are resting in the cooler so I'm not really worried about that aspect. Also, I'm wondering if loading this thing with 40 pounds of meat will affect the total cooking time very much.
Thanks for any and all input.
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I'm a newbie to the forum but you all convinced me to pull the trigger on a new PBC a few weeks ago. I'm two cooks in and LOVE it. I started with a 14-pound packer and did chicken last night. Both turned out great. Amazed at how little of a learning curve there is on this thing. My previous set-ups were all on my 22.5-inch Weber Performer using the smokeanator and more recently the slow n sear. I was able to cook some really good barbecue but finally tired of the constant tweaking that had to be done to maintain consistent temps through an entire cook.
So, for my next cook I've volunteered to provide the protein for a family reunion next weekend. We've got 30 people attending and I'm planning to do three packers and a handful of chickens. My question is how many briskets do you think I can do in a single cook on the PBC? My plan is to hang them and then wrap at 170 degrees. I will also have my weber at my disposal and I'm thinking maybe I move two of the briskets over to the weber using the slow n sear once I wrap them. I also considered separating the point and flat before the cook - I've never done this before but seems pretty straightforward. The chickens will just go on once the briskets are resting in the cooler so I'm not really worried about that aspect. Also, I'm wondering if loading this thing with 40 pounds of meat will affect the total cooking time very much.
Thanks for any and all input.
Figure on 8 ounces per child, 12 ounces per female, and 16 ounces per male cooked weight. Figure 20% more for cooking when calculating needed raw meat weight.
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Never tried to weigh out a brisket after cooking, but I have done a lot of Boston Butts. They lose 40%-50% of their pre-cooked weight. There's a lot of fat on a brisket, so, depending on how you trim it, you could easily lose that much as well.
I would recommend keeping the flat & point together. The only reason I can think of to separate them would be to shorten the cooking time. I'm planiing a brisket next weekend (along with wings and ribs) for our family 4th of July gathering and will be giving it the full 12 hours, if need be.
Good Luck & post some pics ! ! !
BD
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Thanks for the suggestions. I picked up three vacuum sealed prime briskets from Costco today - roughly 35 pounds total which should feed the group (and at $3.39 per pound - wow!). I'm doing some chickens as a supplement too so there should be plenty of food.
Has anyone tried to do three briskets at once on the PBC? I think there's enough room to hang them but just not sure if I could wrap them and stack them on the grate. Seems like there might not be enough real estate.
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Welcome...there is a learning curve with the PBC,but it is sure worth it.
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Welcome from SE Georgia! Please visit the New Member Introductions and introduce yourself to everyone. Not everyone on this forum has PBC's and it will give everyone a chance to meet and greet you.
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Thanks for the suggestions. I picked up three vacuum sealed prime briskets from Costco today - roughly 35 pounds total which should feed the group (and at $3.39 per pound - wow!). I'm doing some chickens as a supplement too so there should be plenty of food.
Has anyone tried to do three briskets at once on the PBC? I think there's enough room to hang them but just not sure if I could wrap them and stack them on the grate. Seems like there might not be enough real estate.
My friend did two large packer briskets on his PBC and was able to put them side by side on the grate once they were wrapped. I'm not sure if stacking them would do much, or you could always finish them in the oven since they are done receiving smoke.
As far as cook time, I think it took slightly longer. The other thing he ran into was one of them cooking faster than the other (he moved them both to the grate, but only one of them was ready to be wrapped).
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Thanks mpls. Great info! I'll keep everyone posted on how it goes.
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I've finally recovered from the largest cook I've done in quite some time last weekend. I did three packers and six racks of backloin ribs (Costco was all out of spares) last Saturday. I was able to almost do the entire session on the PBC. I started out by hanging the three briskets on the PBC around 9 a.m. By noon, all of them had hit the 165 temperature range.
At that point, I decided they'd been hanging long enough and it was time to go on the grate. Instead of trying to squeeze all three back on the PBC, I had my Weber fired up with the Slow N Sear. I put two of the briskets on the Weber (unwrapped) to see if I could get a little more bark on them before wrapping. I wrapped the third and put it on the PBC grate. At about 1:30 p.m., I decided to wrap the two briskets on the Weber and I moved one over to the PBC to accelerate the cooking (both had only reached 178 degrees in the 90 minutes they were on the Weber). At about 2 p.m., the brisket that had only been in the PBC hit 204 in the point and was ready for a nice nap in my cooler. The brisket I moved back to the PBC hit 200 about 30 minutes later and upon inspection had that nice jelly wiggle when I poked it. So it went off to the cooler.
At the point (a little before 3 p.m.) I got the ribs on the PBC while the final brisket continued to finish up on my Weber set-up. Amazingly the ribs actually finished before the third brisket at about 6:15 p.m. This was a great reminder why I bought the PBC in the first place. Even with the Slow N Sear, brisket just takes so long and that set-up is really hard to maintain enough temp to keep the meat progressing. Thankfully, the third brisket wasn't even necessary so I let it finish up and didn't even slice until the next day.
All in all, it was a really fun day and reaffirmed my love of the PBC. Cooking was fast, food was delicious and effort was as minimal as possible for handling about 50+ pounds of meat.
Oh, and the best of the three briskets was without question the one that never left the PBC. It had a nice bark and was ridiculously juicy. It just may have been the best brisket I've done.
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A lot of meat and looks like you did well!!! Don
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Wow what a spread!
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Nice! That meal looks delicious!!