Bored with BBQ, need ideas

[bamabob]

Looking for ideas to change things up with brisket and pork butt.  Typically just apply rubs and smoke until done.  New flavor profiles?  Brining?  Injecting?  Getting bored with the same ole' thing.

[Ka Honu]

Tons of ideas for brisket out there. One of my faves is to corn it, cook/serve the flat as corned beef, and make pastrami from the point. Good recipes/guidance for both at amazingribs and seriouseats.

[IR2dum]

Turtles idea of corned beef/pastrami is an excellent idea.

Every once in a while, I will grind up an entire brisket and turn it into sausage. I use 85% brisket, 15% pork butt, salt, lots of course black pepper, and a little  cayenne pepper. That is the formula for the famous central Texas Smitty's Hot Guts in Lockhart, TX. It is a good change of pace for brisket and goes amazingly well with smoked sliced brisket, potato salad, and bbq beans.

[Jaxon]

A while back I added a griddle to my small list of cookers.  I used to have 9 cookers...now I have 4 and seldom use number 3 or 4.
Number 3 is a large kamado grill and number 4 is a Weber kettle.  My go to grill is the MB 560 Gravity fed and running a very close 2nd is the Blue Rhino 36" griddle.
I have learned a lot from watching videos and Deb really likes what I'm cooking thereon. 
I think it'll add a whole new style of cooking and you'll be able to do things you can't do on a conventional grill.

[Old Dave]

Turtles idea of corned beef/pastrami is an excellent idea.

Every once in a while, I will grind up an entire brisket and turn it into sausage. I use 85% brisket, 15% pork butt, salt, lots of course black pepper, and a little  cayenne pepper. That is the formula for the famous central Texas Smitty's Hot Guts in Lockhart, TX. It is a good change of pace for brisket and goes amazingly well with smoked sliced brisket, potato salad, and bbq beans.

If you stuff this, do you use fresh gut and what size?If casing, again what do you use? Any Other spices other than what you have listed used in this mix?
Thanks, Don

[IR2dum]

Hey, Dave (and Jan), I use fresh pig guts that they sell at a local meat market close to me. I'm not sure what size they are, but I stuff them with a coarse grind to a little over 1 inch diameter. There are no other spices or cures in the mix, but I do add a little extra beef fat to make them really juicy (and greasy). They go on the smoker immediately after stuffing. I got this sausage recipe from the pitmaster at Smitty's in Lockhart, TX while I was waiting for teesquare to show up for dinner. The hot links are really not too hot or peppery even though they are called hot guts.

If you might remember, I brought a bunch of the original links to the Augusta Gathering two or three different times. I think that you were there at least one of those years.

[RG]

Bob, the next time you do a brisket, trim it, inject it with beer and apply your rub. Let it sit out on the counter to come to room temp and smoke per usual. The beer helps tenderize it and having it a room temp, not ice cold, helps the meat in tenderness department too as the meat fibers are not put into shock going into a hot cooker.

Now, this isn't revolutionary by any means, but it may give you a better result over what you've been getting. Flavor profile wise, well there's many ways to change that. On butts, you can do like Nate and rub'em with molasses or cane syrup. He seems to have good results with that. Maybe he'll chime in.

[bamabob]

Thanks everyone for the suggestions, got me thinking.
I like the idea of using brisket for sausage, lots of possibilities there.  Corned beef and pastrami are favorites here.
Injections are something I will explore, that can get really creative.
All I've ever used as a smoker is my keg kamado.  Not the best for smoking, so efficient at heat retention the fire doesn't burn hot enough for good smoke.  So maybe a new smoker would rekindle that BBQ fire in me. 

What about brining?  Anyone ever brine a butt or brisket?

[ClimberDave]

Looking to stay  with low and slow?

How about ribs?  Beef or pork?

Different beef roasts, I like tri tip,  many here do a lot with  chuck roasts.

Pork belly?   So   many things  to do with this, burnt ends or a slab.

Turkey breasts,  from time to time will do  some turkey to mix it up.


If  not  only  low and slow  there are so many options for grilling,  chicken, chops   burgers, steaks,   fish, shrimp, scallops...

[bamabob]

Looking to stay  with low and slow?
How about ribs?  Beef or pork?
Different beef roasts, I like tri tip,  many here do a lot with  chuck roasts.
Pork belly?   So   many things  to do with this, burnt ends or a slab.
Turkey breasts,  from time to time will do  some turkey to mix it up.
If  not  only  low and slow  there are so many options for grilling,  chicken, chops   burgers, steaks,   fish, shrimp, scallops...

Dave, thanks for the ideas.  Looking primarily for ideas for brisket and butts, any method.  You reminded me that I used to do pork steaks, marinated in mojo crillo or something like that, an orange flavor.  Also used to use butts for tasso and al pastor.  Forgot all about those things, I guess I just got in a rut.  The posts here are getting the creative juices flowing again.

Never did pork belly.  I would like to experiment with brining.  Whether it be turkey breasts, pork butt or whatever.  Any ideas for that?

[tlg4942]

Bob, I kept watching Mike and some of these guys cooking chuck roast. I tried a couple over the years and they always tasted good but leaned to the tough side. 
  Yesterday, I decided to try one on my bullseye. I set it to 225 and when the internal temp was around 150 or so I wrapped it in foil. let it run another hour. Then I let it cool off in the wrap.
   I sliced it fairly thin and cut it to fit slider buns. Other than the Instapot I have never had such a tender chuck roast. It had a lite pull to the bite and nice smoke & beef flavor. I will definitely be doing more of these.
  Give one a try, It should be a nice change
 

[RG]

Thanks everyone for the suggestions, got me thinking.
I like the idea of using brisket for sausage, lots of possibilities there.  Corned beef and pastrami are favorites here.
Injections are something I will explore, that can get really creative.
All I've ever used as a smoker is my keg kamado.  Not the best for smoking, so efficient at heat retention the fire doesn't burn hot enough for good smoke.  So maybe a new smoker would rekindle that BBQ fire in me. 

What about brining?  Anyone ever brine a butt or brisket?

A brined butt is something that I did a lot when I had the Smokin'-It #3. A user on their forum, Divotmaker, posted this recipe and it works very well.

1 gallon water
1 1/8 cup kosher salt
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
1 tblsp garlic powder
1 tblsp onion powder
1 tblsp cayenne
2 tsp black pepper

Overnight in "The Briner" made for some outstanding pulled pork.

[pmillen]

As smoke said in this post, "Larry Wolfe's Pepper Stout Beef recipe is one of BBQ's great recipes."  It's an often requested party-food recipe and might get you a bit out of your rut.

[pmillen]

What about brining?  Anyone ever brine a butt or brisket?

I never had any luck when trying to infuse big pork chunks with subtle flavors thru a brine.  It seemed to be neither cost effective nor achieved the desired result.  So I mix in whatever flavors I want when I pull the pork.

My sincere advice is, Don’t get caught up in a complex brine.  I have been using brines for 40+ years and, to my taste, for pork, once I get past salt and sugar, I'm wasting my time and money on extra ingredients.

Obviously, other cooks relish the taste of multi-flavored pork brines.  So, I guess we have varying tastes and tasters.

I think brisket brining is very uncommon.  Probably for the reasons I mention above.  My advice—inject the brisket if you want flavor deeply penetrated.

[Ka Honu]

... You reminded me that I used to do pork steaks...

That reminded me that whenever I buy pork steaks or cut up a pork shoulder I check my freezer supply of tasso and make more if necessary. It's a go-to flavor enhancer for so many dishes (Cajun and otherwise) - it pays to keep some around (and it ain't bad on it's own if you've got the hungries for a highly spiced and peppery snack).