There have been a few posts about hot & fast these last couple days and here is one from me. When it rains it pours sometimes.
This h/f cook was kind of a practice for a competition coming up, but I also wanted brisket for dinner too. I have done a handful of h/f briskets and they have all just been ok. I'll go ahead and say this was the best one to date.
I fired up the WSM with only Royal Oak (which was a first for me as I normally use kingsford). Didn't take long to get to 325. I kept the temp between 300-325 the whole time.
Since this was a last minute decision to cook a brisket I didn't inject, but only trimmed up and rubbed with bovine bold. Then onto the smoker. Brisket was 14lbs and about 11 after trimming.
This one cooked really fast in the beginning. It hit 150 after about 1.5hrs, which seemed so fast that it was wrong and I checked it with 2 other thermometers that read the same. Then it stalled for just a short bit around 155 (maybe 30mins). After 3hrs it was 170 so I wrapped in foil.
Took 2 more hours to hit 195 and I started probing for doneness. At 195 it was still firm. so gave it 20mins and probed again. Was at 200 and still firm. Another 20mins and it was at 208 and only slightly more tender. I wondered if it would ever get tender or if it would just suck like all the others i've cooked. Waited another 20mins and it stayed at 208 and then finally the probe went in smoothly. So total time was just a little over 6hrs.
Took off, wrapped in a towel and headed over to my friends place. Smoke ring was nice and the flavor was great at least for me. Tenderness was almost spot on. I would say slightly overtender, but really that was just on the outside pieces that cook a little more. The middle section where I would get turn in slices were as good as I can cook them (at least for now). I have come to learn that my brisket isn't always bad it is just that brisket isn't my favorite bbq meat/flavor, with the exception of burnt ends, though I didn't make them this time :crazy:.
Final verdict is I will keep cooking hot/fast brisket when I do it at home and will practice a few more times before I would use it in competition. For only taking 6hrs this may be the way to go :razz:. When I'm just doing pulled pork at home I do h/f as well. Here are the pics.
Starting the fire.
Pretrimmed. There was a decent amount of fat, but no more than what I normally get.
Yummy fat.
Rubbed
This is at 170 when I foiled it.
Just the flat ready for slicing
My camera phone doesn't do it justice. You can see the "fall apartness" of the outer slices. That right side of the flat was a good bit thinner too. Middle was great.
This h/f cook was kind of a practice for a competition coming up, but I also wanted brisket for dinner too. I have done a handful of h/f briskets and they have all just been ok. I'll go ahead and say this was the best one to date.
I fired up the WSM with only Royal Oak (which was a first for me as I normally use kingsford). Didn't take long to get to 325. I kept the temp between 300-325 the whole time.
Since this was a last minute decision to cook a brisket I didn't inject, but only trimmed up and rubbed with bovine bold. Then onto the smoker. Brisket was 14lbs and about 11 after trimming.
This one cooked really fast in the beginning. It hit 150 after about 1.5hrs, which seemed so fast that it was wrong and I checked it with 2 other thermometers that read the same. Then it stalled for just a short bit around 155 (maybe 30mins). After 3hrs it was 170 so I wrapped in foil.
Took 2 more hours to hit 195 and I started probing for doneness. At 195 it was still firm. so gave it 20mins and probed again. Was at 200 and still firm. Another 20mins and it was at 208 and only slightly more tender. I wondered if it would ever get tender or if it would just suck like all the others i've cooked. Waited another 20mins and it stayed at 208 and then finally the probe went in smoothly. So total time was just a little over 6hrs.
Took off, wrapped in a towel and headed over to my friends place. Smoke ring was nice and the flavor was great at least for me. Tenderness was almost spot on. I would say slightly overtender, but really that was just on the outside pieces that cook a little more. The middle section where I would get turn in slices were as good as I can cook them (at least for now). I have come to learn that my brisket isn't always bad it is just that brisket isn't my favorite bbq meat/flavor, with the exception of burnt ends, though I didn't make them this time :crazy:.
Final verdict is I will keep cooking hot/fast brisket when I do it at home and will practice a few more times before I would use it in competition. For only taking 6hrs this may be the way to go :razz:. When I'm just doing pulled pork at home I do h/f as well. Here are the pics.
Starting the fire.
Pretrimmed. There was a decent amount of fat, but no more than what I normally get.
Yummy fat.
Rubbed
This is at 170 when I foiled it.
Just the flat ready for slicing
My camera phone doesn't do it justice. You can see the "fall apartness" of the outer slices. That right side of the flat was a good bit thinner too. Middle was great.
