Thoughts on Smoked Brisket

[The Knize]

Did an 18 lb brisket on Saturday with real post oak simon1 sent me. Cut in two to fit into electric smoker. 250 degrees a bump up from 225 per the BBQ with Franklin video. Large water holder in unit--pure water. No spraying. Total cook time only 11 hours this time compared to 18 last time for a much smaller brisket. Screwed up and let some of the meat get to 207-209 this time, with the coolest parts at maybe 189. No crutch. Put in a plastic cooler for a just a couple of hours after taking off.

Brisket came out different than last time. Looser, I would say, with more crispy pieces. Less intense smoke flavor compared to last time's apple wood. Excellent smoke flavor though. Harder to keep the oak than the apple at a thin blue smoke rather than white clouds of smoke. Could just be the higher temperature caused the hearing element to make the wood burn faster. Took very little wood for the whole thing. Stopped the smoke around six hours in. Excellent results. I would say better than last time. No idea why such a tremendous difference in cooking time/internal temperature. 25 degrees difference does not seem like it would make that much difference. Not sure what I have learned though other than make sure not to let things go above 203 degrees and cooking time varies massively. No smoke ring.

I have photos this time and will try to post later! Brisket is very special stuff! Seems hard to screw it up completely!

 

[danek]

Brisket came out different than last time. Looser, I would say, with more crispy pieces.

Over cooking certainly causes a brisket to be 'loose' and fall apart/crumble/pull, almost impossible to slice.

 

[danek]

No idea why such a tremendous difference in cooking time/internal temperature. 25 degrees difference does not seem like it would make that much difference. Not sure what I have learned though other than make sure not to let things go above 203 degrees and cooking time varies massively. No smoke ring.

It could just be a less moisture content of the brisket to evaporate means shorter time in the 'stall'. Also, I think smoke ring is hugely influenced by the burning combustion of wood; more chemicals are produced other than just smoke. I think it's these chemicals which create a 'smoke' ring.

 

[The Knize]

<Also, I think smoke ring is hugely influenced by the burning combustion of wood; more chemicals are produced other than just smoke.>

I think that is spot on and from what I have read wood placed on an electric element to create smoke just does not create the chemicals needed for a smoke ring.

<Over cooking certainly causes a brisket to be 'loose' and fall apart/crumble/pull, almost impossible to slice.>

Makes sense. Some parts were hard to slice for this reason. But most of it was sliceable. I guessing that even 209 in some places is not a tragedy. Was not what I intended, though. Thanks!

 

[DoctorShavegood]

<Over cooking certainly causes a brisket to be 'loose' and fall apart/crumble/pull, almost impossible to slice.>

...and sometimes it just turns to roast beef.

 

[The Knize]

More like pot roast than a rib roast, I would think. That did not happen here!

 

[DoctorShavegood]

Here's a method I tried recently and had very good results.



Smoked Brisket

1. Buy a good grade of beef. Prime if you can or at least high end choice.
2. Do the bend test on the brisket. Fold it half and see if it gives. If it bends easily that's good. It means the fat content is higher. Also inspect for streaks of fat...that's good.
3. Buy a smaller brisket like 9 to 12 pounds. It''s easier to deal with and chances are it's a younger cow.
4. Open the package and trim only big, hard layers of fat. Leave most of the fat on the brisket. Trim sides if they look and feel mealy.
5. Dry the brisket with cotton towels. Completely dry it off, wrap in towels and place in frig for min. of 2 hours overnight is best.
6. Take brisket out of frig, and let it completely come to room temp. Trying to smoke cold meat is a time and wood waster.
7. Bring your smoker up to heat. It's a range of 250 to 275 for me. I also like to place the brisket as far away from the fire box as possible with the point facing the fire box.
8. Once the smoker is up to heat, salt the brisket. I like the coarse kosher. I keep the salt separate from other spices. Pat the salt down on the meat lightly (no rubbing). The reason you salt right before you place brisket in smoker is to avoid the salt drawing out moisture from the meat. A wet brisket produces a barrier to the smoke and hinders the making of good bark and a nice smoke ring.
9. Then sprinkle with a medium coarse ground black pepper or seasonings of your liking, again no rubbing just a light pat.
10. Immediately after seasoning, place the brisket in the smoker fat side down. The fat helps protect the meat from burning and drying out.
11. Smoke to internal temp. of 160-165 (let science work for you not touchy feely), then wrap in butcher or parchment paper. The butcher paper allows smoke to penetrate but allows the meat to breath. Wrapping in foil is ok but I'm not looking for a roast beef texture or flavor.
12. Smoke until internal reaches 203.
14. Remove brisket from paper, place back in smoker for another few minutes to let the bark firm up some.
13. Wrap back up in butcher paper then in towels and place in cooler for 1-2 hour (this all depends on how hungry you are) or so.
14. Remove point from flat with an angular cut down through the meat. It's not a straight downward cut. It's hard to explain without a video.
15. Cut meat 1/4 slices against or at a slight angel across the grain.
16. Eat....no sauce for me.

 

[The Knize]

Great how to list. Thanks for putting that together. I had not read about drying the brisket previously. After my experience at 250, I am going back to 225.

 

[DoctorShavegood]

Great how to list. Thanks for putting that together. I had not read about drying the brisket previously. After my experience at 250, I am going back to 225.

Each smoker has it's own set of quirks. Mine certainly does. I find that if I get my smoker hot with a good small fire all that's needed is a steady feed of small wood chunks to avoid the big blasts of white smoke. The white smoke happens when the flame goes out or I add too much wood all at once.

 

[The Knize]

I did another 18 lb brisket, cut in two pieces, in my Masterbuilt dorm room fridge electric smoker. I tried putting a few charcoal briquettes in the wood tray over the course of the smoke in order to get a smoke ring. It perhaps had a tiny effect on certain parts of the brisket, but nothing like a consistent or substantial smoke ring. The smoke from the post oak, with a small amount of hickory twigs, seemed hard to keep to anything like a think blue smoke, too.

I used a Maverick remote thermometer this time and took the center of the thickest piece of brisket to 203, confirmed with an insta-read thermometer this time. Cooked at Mb set at 250, although the Maverick indicated it kept creeping up to 260 or a little above, even thought I turned it down to 240 after a while. 9 hours start to finish, starting with cold meat and cold smoker. No crutch. No wrap before taking out of the smoker. Seems a tad over-cooked to me, very smoky, and the piece that was lower down in the smoker has a very thick bark on the bottom. This was in the middle of the night so I only watched things so closely. Lots of water in the smoker.

Got some peach butcher paper. I wrapped the briskets after taking them out and put them in a cooler for four hours wrapped in the butcher paper.

I also seem to have overdone the rub. I used a yellow mustard slaver, with a mix of coarse French sea salt, coarse ground Malabar (sp?) Indian pepper, granulated dried garlic, and sweet Spanish paprika. Left on 24 hours in the cold. Next time I think I will try Aaron of Franklin Barbecues strict 50-50 salt/pepper without a slaver without an extensive wait time after application.

Bottom line, the addition of charcoal was at best neutral, and may have contributed to some temperature issues. So no need to bother going forward. Smoke ring seems to be aesthetes only anyway.

I think I got great flavor and decent, if falling apart texture. I am never a good judge of the quality of anything I cook, much less brisket, at least at first. I thought the last one I did was overdone, but it was a huge hit.

Great, great fun, and fairly painless. Thanks for all the help everyone. Texas smoked brisket still seems an amazing treat to me.

 

[danek]

What a great write-up and explanation of the details that are involved with your 'baby-pit'. By the way, I am calling it a 'baby pit' only because it's a small refrigerator - no offense intended.

My thoughts of your self-described let-downs:
1) 203 in the thick point is probably over done. Rarely do my briskets get above 198.
2) Since the element is so close to the meat in your baby pit, you may want to flip the brisket several time during the cook, or make a heat shield to protect the bottom of the meat from developing an 'asphalt bark'.
3) My rub isn't exactly 50/50 salt to pepper. I view seasoning (salting) and spicing (flavoring) as two separate pieces. I salt the meat appropriately, then apply my spices; for my briskets, it's pepper only. The amount of salt used is probably close to twice the amount of pepper. But, I separate the seasoning/spicing so I can add more or less spices without over or under seasoning (salting) the meat.

Thank you for sharing your smoke results; I love picking ideas from other pit masters.

 

[The Knize]

Thanks. I appreciate all advice and shared experiences! I am about as far from a pit master as I am from a chef, though. Mad respect for those who qualify foe either of those terms!

<203 in the thick point is probably over done. Rarely do my briskets get above 198.>
There sure is a lot of disagreement, at least on-line, about temperatures and whether one should even look at internal temperatures. In this case, I wanted to sleep and have the remote thermometer wake me up with an alarm when it got to a particular temperature, although I am beginning to understand the concept of not relying on internal temperature at all but feel. (Although there is the issue of if you are looking you ain't cooking.) I will see how I really feel about this one and the consumer feedback I get.

<Since the element is so close to the meat in your baby pit, you may want to flip the brisket several time during the cook, or make a heat shield to protect the bottom of the meat from developing an 'asphalt bark'.>

I did not have the rack set at the closest to the heating element, and there was a rather large pan of water between the rack and the heating element--bigger than they use now, if I recall--but I hear you. Given how little time this one took, I think I am back to 225, too. I really do not know how bad the extra hard bark will be. I essentially pulled the meat from the cooler and put it in the regular fridge as I was headed to work this morn. This will be served at an office event tomorrow. I will know better then!

<My rub> Good analysis. I would think it would be hard to overdo pepper--not that one would want to try--given that in a steak au poive (sp?) one coats the meat thickly with pepper and the heat of the pan reduces the impart substantially. I do think I will skip the slaver and, at least, dial back the garlic and paprika, although in the past folks have seems to comment on how much they like the seasoning. I do not want to exaggerate how much I used. Aaon seems to emphasize a light coating.

 

[The Knize]

As I reported in the brisket reheating thread, this last brisket was big hit. A couple of closing thoughts on it:

I left cayenne out of the rub mixture. Did not mean to do that. Even if I shift next time to almost all salt and pepper with no mustard slaver, I think I will put some cayenne in. It is confusing though. Folks seem to comment most often on how much they like the "spicing."

As I indicated in the other thread, it may have been the process of refrigerating and reheating in a large plastic bag in a hot water bath, but by the time I served this the texture was not at all falling apart, and even though when I was slicing it cold there still seemed to be something of an asphalt bark on the bottom of one of the two pieces--the one that was lower in the smoker and thus closer to the smoke and heat source, although there was a large pan of water between it and the heat/smoke source--by the time it was served the bark all around seemed just about right. The brisket did not seem over-cooked.

The consensus seems to be this one was the best of the three of these I have done and them reported on in this thread. No sauce, by the way. Served with dill pickles and raw onion rings, which I understand are traditional. Sliced sandwich bread, albeit so-called "potato" bread, the potato part not being traditional.

My Central Texas Brethren, what are the traditional accompaniments to brisket at the various hallowed houses of brisket, such as Franklin's? I understand, raw onion rings, dill pickles, and cheap plain slices of white sandwich bread. Thin, non-sweet sauce or no sauce. (I do not see a need for sauce.) Traditional sides, I assume, are potato salad, pinto beans. Are collards in there? Any other kind of potatoes. I read the biscuits are kind of avant garde. Anything else?

I assume beer and sweet tea are the traditional beverages. Frankly, smokey beef seems perfect, if not traditional, for big red wines to me! Sort of an American peasant food, meant as the very highest of compliments. Able to hold up great American wines.

Mad props to simon1 for sending me some post oak and hickory twigs. I think the oak makes a big difference.

Again, thanks everyone. I am doing another one this weekend! I am torn as to what rub to use!

 

[DoctorShavegood]

Rob, I think you have the traditional accompaniments correct for Central/South Texas. Most of, or all, the BBQ places I've visited in the last 30 years around here serve; potato salad (there are many different variations on the theme), pinto beans (I like mine a little soupy), pickles or even better pickled jalapenos, white bread...which I don't eat unless I'm making a sandwich, raw white onions, sauce...which is more like a spicy Kansas City thing and last but not least, pecan pie. I've also seen brownie's or peanut brittle. If you are in deep South Texas it could be sopapilla's.

 

[The Knize]

Thanks. That is helpful. Are the pickles always dill? I generally much prefer half-sours or even bread and butter pickles myself. Although a really good dill pickle has its charms. Pickled jalapeno sound good. I saw pickled red onion on one menu.

I had not thought about dessert. Banana pudding seems to come up on various menus, although that seems soul food/pork BBQish. Maybe it is Texas, too. Sopapillas seem like a nice Texas take. Pecan pie seems very Texas, as well as very Georgia. Peach cobbler, I suppose. Buttermilk pie, maybe? Peanut brittle with something else maybe. Brownies seem kind of universal.

 

[oc_in_fw]

Thanks. That is helpful. Are the pickles always dill? I generally much prefer half-sours or even bread and butter pickles myself. Although a really good dill pickle has its charms. Pickled jalapeno sound good. I saw pickled red onion on one menu.

I had not thought about dessert. Banana pudding seems to come up on various menus, although that seems soul food/pork BBQish. Maybe it is Texas, too. Sopapillas seem like a nice Texas take. Pecan pie seems very Texas, as well as very Georgia. Peach cobbler, I suppose. Buttermilk pie, maybe? Peanut brittle with something else maybe. Brownies seem kind of universal.

I have always seen dill with BBQ down here. Bread and Butter may get you run out on a rail (though I love B&B).

 

[cleanshaved]

The quintessential desert for BBQ here is pavlova.

 

[oc_in_fw]

The quintessential desert for BBQ here is pavlova.

Now you went and did it- I need to seek this stuff out.

 

[DoctorShavegood]

Thanks. That is helpful. Are the pickles always dill? I generally much prefer half-sours or even bread and butter pickles myself. Although a really good dill pickle has its charms. Pickled jalapeno sound good. I saw pickled red onion on one menu.

I had not thought about dessert. Banana pudding seems to come up on various menus, although that seems soul food/pork BBQish. Maybe it is Texas, too. Sopapillas seem like a nice Texas take. Pecan pie seems very Texas, as well as very Georgia. Peach cobbler, I suppose. Buttermilk pie, maybe? Peanut brittle with something else maybe. Brownies seem kind of universal.

Bread puddin' is another, certainly peach cobbler, chocolate pie and my favorite is the banana puddin'.

 

[oc_in_fw]

Every time I read the title of the thread, I think some one should write a poem called Ode To a Smoked Brisket.