Wish me luck - Two in the #2

[LarryD]

I got an alright deal on full packer briskets yesterday ($1.69 / lb, choice) so I bought a couple (14# and 13#) which are brining right now.  I plan to smoke both of them at the same time overnight tonight.  My thermometer setup has four probes, so I should be able to keep track of points and flats on both.

I haven't quite decided yet if I'm going to stuff them in whole on separate shelves or if I'm going to cut them in half so I can keep points and flats together.  The 14# required more trimming than the 13#, so they are probably very close to the same weight now.  As the topic says, these are going into a #2... I don't think that will be any problem, but that is probably pretty much capacity. 

A couple trivial questions for anyone who wants to answer...

1) Do any of you weigh your trimmings to calculate the actual weight going into the smoker?
2) Does anyone know roughly what percentage weight loss there is from trimmed to done?

I started with 27 pounds and I'm guessing that I trimmed off 2 to 3 pounds total, but that is strictly a guess.  So that brings me down to 24-25 pounds going in.  I wouldn't be surprised at a 20% weight loss which would give me 19-20 pounds coming out.  What do you think?

For anyone wondering (doubt there are many), I'll only save out enough for a couple meals this weekend and I might also try making burnt ends for the first time.  (Is that really a thing with electric smoked?)  Otherwise, the rest will get chunked into meal portions, vacuum sealed, and thrown in the freezer.  I love it when I can come home dead tired and have brisket for dinner with relatively no effort. 

 

[LarryD]

Well... they are both in as of 22:30 central.  Probe #1 says it's inactive even though it continues to report a temperature.  Oh well.. I have 3 more probes going so I'm not concerned.  Decided to go whole and just make it work.  Put fat cap down on bottom one and fat cap up on top one.  Now it's just hurry up and wait... 

I do think that I'll check the drip pan at some point and see if it needs dumped before things are complete.

 

[old sarge]

Good luck Larry.  I re-use my trimmings, fat cap down and trimmings on top.  I think checking the drip tray is a good idea. You are going to have a lot of good eating when those briskets come out of the smoker.  No comment on burnt ends; no experience (maybe the search feature will yield some practical advice). I think your plan for vac sealing and freezing some for later is very sound. I am thinking of getting either the Anova or Chefman sous vide for reheating vac sealed Q without drying it out. Still researching.

 

[EFGM]

Awesome Smoke Larry!
1) Do any of you weigh your trimmings to calculate the actual weight going into the smoker?

I do, usually find it’s about 15% the way I do it.

2) Does anyone know roughly what percentage weight loss there is from trimmed to done?

I find it’s about 40% loss. 25 going in will get you about 15 out.
Rough formula is (untrimed wt) X .85 = going in wt.
(Going in wt) x .60 = net out.
Depending on your trim you will still have some additional fat loss.

I with Dave on checking your drip tray.
On Burnt Ends, do check the searches Tony has given excellent advice on these before.

As you probably found out, probe 1 will start sending temps when it reaches 50* if I remember right.

Good call on Fat down on bottom and fat up on top.

You will love being able to quickly produce a meal from Vac Paks.
Looking forward to Pictures.

 

[barelfly]

2 briskets! That’s good stuff right there. Have fun and enjoy - each day you get to eat it!

 

[polarlys]

Just last week I did my first brisket in my 3d.  It was a 12#er and I brined it for 12 hrs. and lightly coated with mustard along with salt & pepper.  In the 3d at 225* and set for 195* internal.  I wasn't home went it hit the temp and went into hold but I figure it was close to 17hrs.  I re-heated it yesterday and sliced it and it was very, very good.  I trimmed about 1# of fat and smoked it fat side up.  I did not use the trimmings. 

Very satisfied with the final result.  Next time I'll try fat side down to compare.

Roger from NJ

 

[LarryD]

A quick update...  as of noon central I have the twins all wrapped up and put down in the cooler for their nap.  I'll do pictures later and do another update.

I am SO thankful this wasn't my first or even my third brisket...  this was NOT how Lazy-Q was supposed to work.  It is a great reinforcement that there are only two things you can trust - the smoker and your own knowledge/sense. 

For you data/graph junkies, go ahead and pull up this link:  https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1v5RqwZhtfu6aQRjJz7hdnJVc_K8vVmCKaw9GR0uQbBQ/edit?usp=sharing

Highlights

• 22:20 : Load and start smoker.  Temp set to ~235
• 22:30 : Try to set alarms for each probe and find that probe 1 is reporting 'Inactive' even though it's returning data, so that's 1 probe down
• 00:01 : I get alerted that probe 4 has hit its alarm temp (190)... boy howdy, it's reporting 263!  So that's 2 probes down.
• 02:56 : Probe 3 alarm goes off telling me target temp of 190 has been hit.  I ignored it... too tired and that's just the first alrm.
• 03:22 : Probe 2 alarm goes off telling me target temp of 190 has been hit.  At this point I'm incredulous.  It's not even been 6 hours and I'm being told I should check to see if it's done.  Ugh.  Review charts - Where the heck is the stall?!?!  I decide to get up and take a physical look to see if physics has been defied and do a sanity check with a quick read stand-alone probe in different places.  Indeed, there are spots that have hit 190.  However, the look, jiggle, and poke tests all say it's not done.  There has been almost no rendering of any of the fat at this time.  There are spots that are no longer firm, but I wouldn't say they jiggle.  Even the super sharp probe I was using required some amount of force in spots.  I dropped the smoker temp to ~215, change the alarm on probe 2 to 205 and probe 3 to 200, and went back to bed.
• 09:15 : Wake up of my volition and check the graphs...  what do you know, probe 4 has decided to rejoin the party after spiking as high as 365.  I did reposition the probe earlier when I checked on everything... not sure how it could have ever read that high regardless.  There's still no discernible stall, though the temp did drop corresponding to my temperature change of the smoker setting.  I decided to let it just keep going and to check it at the 12 hour mark (10:30).
• 10:30 : Not bad looking...  clearly things have rendered now.  The jiggle and poke tests are pretty good, but not as good as experience tells me they can be.  I decided to do some yard-work and let it go a bit longer.
• 11:15 : Done doing some of the yard-work, but still need to mow.  Turned the smoker off, but left everything as-is, otherwise.
• 12:00 : Pull, wrap, and throw in cooler.

These may not end up being the best briskets I've ever made, but I do believe they are going to be sufficiently edible.  The small piece I sampled (accidentally, of course) was quite tasty.    Based on the final probe temps, I might have been able to turn the heat back up 10-20 degrees for the last hour, but I was really just winging it at that point anyway. 

Anyone else ever have a brisket (or two, even) with no clearly defined stall?  The briskets were positioned high enough in the smoker that there was no risk of them coming in contact with the smoker's probe.  I have no explanation why this smoke was such a technical nightmare.

As far as the drip pan...  never had to empty it during the smoke, but it is quite full and I'll need to exercise caution removing and draining it.

As stated above, pictures and taste-test results later...

 

[LarryD]

And now with photos and a taste report...

Stephanie (wife) and I just ate some of the flat from 'thing 2'.  There was only a hint of dryness...  nothing that even sort-of required sauce.  Taste was excellent!  I've chunked up the rest and vacuum sealed it so there's another 15 future meals ready and waiting.

Based on the hint of dryness and the quantity of fat cap left on the second one, I think it would have been appropriate to leave the smoker on at the end when I was mowing and maybe even bumping the temp up 10-20 degrees.  No real harm done, but just missed perfection by a smidge.

I will definitely do two briskets again in the future... especially when I can get them at this price.  I have additional physical probes, so I'll probably replace probe 1 as I suspect it was an equipment failure.  Otherwise, I'll be more careful with probe placement on the others.

Let me know if you have any questions...