Here we are in February of 2023. Meat prices are still very high. We search for sales everywhere we go. Whatever protein happens to be on sale, that’s what we buy. This brisket has been taking up real estate in our freezer for quite a while. It was on sale at $3.99/lb. vs. $6.99/lb. I just couldn’t find a good weekend to smoke it until now. This is a choice brisket from Fred Meyer.
I cook for my family quite a bit. I have a large family. I don’t cook for others very often. I get really particular when I cook for folks outside the family. I want everything to be planned to the Nth degree. I did a cook for whippersnapper #9 at his school auction last year. I will do the auction cook again this year. For this cook, we had friends over for dinner. I planned the heck out of this cook.
Planning
Just as I did in July last year, I created a plan for this cook. I really had difficulty planning the start time. The end time was to be at 6:30pm on Saturday. That was when dinner was going to be served. I wanted to do a long rest. I also wanted to do a long dry brine with the seasoning. I went through several iterations on expected timings. In my first iteration, I wanted the brisket done at midnight. Then it would rest for 18-ish hours. Then I wanted it done at noon and it would rest for 6-ish hours. The latter seemed reasonable.
The next decision was when to start the cook. The last brisket I did took about 14 hours. For some reason, I was thinking this one would take about 12 hours. I kept resetting when to start. Finally, I settled on midnight. If it took 12 hours, it would be done at noon. If it took longer, I’d still have time for long rest before dinner time. My hand-written plan is a draft. The timeline represents the final plan.
The plan was this: Trim the brisket and apply the rub. Wrap the brisket in saran wrap and put it in the fridge for at least 24 hours. Smoke the brisket for at least 12 hours beginning at midnight. Rest the brisket in the oven until dinner time. Slice and serve the brisket. Easy!
The preparation
I opened the cryo pack to inspect the brisket. I saw a big gash on the fat cap (top) side. There was another gash on the meat (bottom) side. There was also a section of the flat that was cut at the corner. There is nothing to do about it. You use what you have. I cut the corner section off, as it would just burn. The flat was fairly thick all the way across. I trimmed the fat as usual. I cut the mohawk off. I trimmed the fat cap to about 1/4″ in most places. The point at the very end was very fatty, with not a lot of meat there. I cut that off for use as burgers or to use for tallow.
For the rub, I used 16 mesh black pepper, diamond crystal salt, Lawry’s seasoning salt, and garlic powder. I applied each layer separately in that order. I didn’t apply any of them too thick. My family likes a milder flavor to the rub. They say the beef should be the star. I wrapped the brisket in saran wrap and put it in the fridge Thursday evening.
The cook
I began by lighting a chimney of charcoal. When it was ready, I put it in the firebox on top of some unlit charcoal. I put a few slits of plum wood in and waited for the smoker to come up to temp. I was shooting for about 200°. I put the brisket on the smoker at about 11:30pm. I babysat the fire the rest of the night. I had a few temperature swings through the night as I fell asleep at times. Swings ranged from 160° to 300°. So the brisket didn’t make as much progress through the night. I was able to really pay attention by about 7:00am. Coffee!
I put on a pan of my beans recipe as well. Then I put some tinfoil around the point of the brisket. It was beginning to look a little crispy. I had a water pan in the smoker too. I wrapped the brisket in butcher paper once the internal temp was about 180 ° (after the stall) and the bark was set and the color was good. I also put some Waygu Tallow on the butcher paper. This was about 11:00am. The beans came off the smoker at about 12:30pm and went into the fridge until dinner time.
I have access to a lot of plum wood right now. I have some seasoned stuff. A couple weeks ago I replenished with some unseasoned stuff. I cut and split it and put it in my wood rack to season. I knew I didn’t have enough seasoned wood. I was likely going to have to use some of the green wood. I tried a few splits that were green. I was having trouble with temp and dirty smoke. The brisket was wrapped, so the dirty smoke shouldn’t be much of a problem. I really didn’t feel like fighting with the fire. I moved the brisket to the oven at about 12:45. The brisket temp was about 183° and I set the oven temperature to 275°.
The brisket reached the desired tenderness at about 1:45pm. The brisket’s internal temp was about 200° at the flat and 197° at the point. I took it out of the oven and put it into a cooler to rest. I did not wrap it in towels. In hindsight, that would have been a good thing to do. Later at about 5:15, the brisket’s internal temp was 145° at the point. I thought it was getting into the “danger zone,” so I put it back in the oven at 350° to warm up again.
The brisket’s internal temp was up to 163° by 6:00pm. That is a great severing temperature. I put the brisket back in the cooler to rest. The beans went into the oven as well at 6:00pm. By 6:30pm, the beans and the brisket were ready to serve. We sliced the brisket and served the beans by 6:45pm.
The result
The menu for our friends included smoked brisket, the best beans in the world, cole slaw, and parker house rolls. The brisket turned out great. All of it was tender, moist, juicy, and smokey. It was very flavorful. I thought the bark could have been more flavorful if I had been more liberal with the rub. Our friends really liked everything we served.
Lessons
I always learn something during a long cook like this. The trick is to write it down in my notes so I remember it for next time. Of course, the protein being smoked is very important. The selection, the seasoning injections, wrapping, resting, and a bunch of other considerations all can make or break your cook. Even so, all of these can be very forgiving. The most important activity during a cook is fire management. When you get this dialed in for the temps you want, your cooks will always turn out great. In my case, I was smoking on my Oklahoma Joe Longhorn. I have fire management figured out pretty well.
I recently put fire bricks inside my firebox. For this cook, I built the fire directly on the bricks. I didn’t use a grate. The coal bed along with the bricks maintained a really nice temperature inside the cook chamber. When the firebox door was open just a few inches, the draft through the smoker was great. I have no smoke stack damper. This was the first long cook after adding fire bricks to the firebox and not using a grate. The coal bed was good. It became very thick with ash. I will have to clear the ash more often next time. I was very pleased with the draw through the smoker using this method.
Conclusion
This was a very successful cook. I will be employing the long dry brine and the long rest for brisket and other cuts of meat. I don’t have photos of the finished product. I only have these few during the cook. On to the next cook. Smoke on!
spidersgalore 