Help me not screw up a brisket

[jbauch357]

Brisket has always been my nemesis, I've never managed to produce one that was good for anything other than chopping up and making chili out of...

After multiple successes on my SI-2 with Auber, I'm finally going to attempt a brisket.

I'm thinking for maximum chances of success I should:
- Brine for ~24hrs, others have mentioned using pork butt brine and this one worked great on our last pork butt.

• 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

- Remove from brine and pat dry
- Inject with a mixture of beef broth and dry rub
- Rub with bone suckin rub
- Wrap and refrigerate overnight
- Early morning put on smoker at 225 with Hickory and Maple until IT of 192
- Remove, wrap, rest for ~2hrs

That sound like a workable plan?  The brisket I picked up was 8lbs, so maybe 8-10 hrs from the time I put it on to the time it is rested and ready to eat?

That last time I did a 1.5lb hunk of corned beef it was on for 8hrs and still didn't get past 170.  I pulled it anyway since it was late and I had to work the next day, it was dry as a bone and tough as nails.

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[Walt]

That's basically the method I use.  Your time sounds reasonable.  Most flats I do range from 6-8lbs & I have not had one go over 9hrs to reach 195-203.  Make sure you wrap it & rest it before slicing.

[jbauch357]

Idea from another thread...

What if I took some big bakers potatoes and cut them in half, then put them under the brisket cut side up so they could catch drippings/flavor and bake while the brisket smokes?

I also ordered up a 5lb bag of pecan as it seems to be the wood of choice for brisket.  Will do a test smoke tomorrow to see how quickly/hot it burns and where the chunks need to be placed in the fire box.

[jbauch357]

All in at this point.  The meat is brined, rinsed, dried, coated, rubbed, and waiting to be racked.  We also prepared some potatoes with oil, Johnny's and pepper.

4AM (while I'm no where near conscious) the smoker will start up and do its thing, sometime tomorrow afternoon we'll see how it all turns out.

Taking a bath


Rinsed and ready


Coated and rubbed


Starch waiting for some fat and salt


6oz of pecan on the modified fire box ready to smoke

[jcboxlot]

That's a lot of wood???  7oz?

In the box.

[jbauch357]

I wasn't sure how much to put in, 6oz is what I thought the cookshack brisket 101 recipe said but now I'm seeing it said 3oz. 

Looking at the instructions from other people they used around the same amount for long smokes, hopefully it won't be too much.

[NDKoze]

6 ounces should be perfect!

[jbauch357]

It was a success!

12hrs into it we were sitting at 190, so on the longer side of my expectations at 1.5hrs/lb.  Smoke had stopped a while back and steam was only a wisp - so to keep it from drying out we pulled it for two hours of rest wrapped in towels in a cooler.

The potatoes were tough as leather on the outside and tasted of creosote, but nice and moist and tender on the inside.  They'd caught so many drippings from the meat they were really salty, so we scooped the guts out of a couple and tossed the rest.



I had a crowd gathered for the unwrapping and slicing, so I got in a hurry and only took the below pic...  But the meat was absolutely fantastic, still dripping juicy and fork tender on the inside with a nice bark on the outside.  Even on day two we warmed some up over a water pan in the oven and it was still delicious and tender.



The next time I'm going to reduce the wood by an ounce or two, and maybe include something which smokes slower so I get longer duration less intense smoke.  Also I'll include a larger water tray next time, there wasn't a drop of water left in either of my beer can boats by the time this smoke was over.  Oh, I forgot to inject the stupid thing too, which I didn't realize until it was way too late.

All up my best brisket ever, and learned quite a bit along the way.  Next up, ribs!

[SuperDave]

Josh, the picture of your box lid makes me think that you are getting regular flare ups with your wood.  Are you using any foil wrap?  I cover the top of my wood with a piece of foil to reduce oxygen and there by minimizing fire to prolong the smoldering period. 

[jbauch357]

Yeah, I have been fighting flare ups and have so far been approaching the issue by adjusting the flame holes in the fire box as well as the size of wood I'm putting in it.  Progress has been good, but I do think some foil will get utilized with the next smoke.  Thanks for mentioning it.

[DivotMaker]

The brisket looks great!  And yes, that's a LONG time to smoke taters!  I'm surprised they looked as good as they did! lol.  Cool thing about our addiction - it's ALL a "learning process!"  Every smoke will make you better and better.  It's amazing the things you'll learn that work and don't work so well.

[Barrel99]

"The next time I'm going to..." is the secret Josh to getting better. Nice job!