Choice Brisket and Pork Shoulder PRON

So I am finally able to rest after a very long day. So last week a friend of mine had asked me to BBQ for him and I said sure just buy what you want so he went to whole foods and got a Choice Brisket (13lbs) and a Pork Shoulder (8lbs). So I got everything in line (Steph hooked me up huge with some good seasoned oak, a secret brisky rub and some injection mix) and I injected and rubbed them down (secret Simply Marvelous Brisket Rub on the brisket with LOTS of fresh ground black pepper and some Simply Marvelous Sweet and Spicy along with SM Cherry rubs on the shoulder along with a mustard slathering) at about 8pm last night and put them back in the fridge till about 10:30 when I was ready to put them on.



I got the coals lit despite not having my chimney starter (doh!) and mixed in about 10 pieces of oak and hickory into the coals and let her rip. I got it stable at about 225 exactly and went to bed. I had 3 thermometers set up for this smoke, one Thermowerks Oven Probe through a potato on the bottom grate, an Thermowerks Oven Dial Thermometer on the top grate and the stock WSM thermo. They all were pretty darn close to being in line with eachother and I was very pleased with this set up so I could really see what was going on without peeking.

I woke up at about 8am this morning and went outside to check on it and take my first look at them. Temps had risen about 10 degrees maybe and was hovering around 235 so I was pleased. I had the Brisket folder over itself (flat below point and fat cap down to protect it from too much heat) and the shoulder on the top rack.

First look:





I'd say this is about 12 hours in:





I took the shoulder off after about 13 hours, just looking at it made it want to fall apart! It was sooooooooooooo juicy and so tender it was unbelievable, when I pulled it off it had an IT of 201. When I took the shoulder off I put the brisket on the top rack to spread it out and get some better bark on the part that was folded over. It wasn't butter soft until about 14-15 hours and I let each one rest for 2+ hours.



So while those rested I started to prepare my "famous" mac n cheese. This is the one thing no matter what we are cooking people ask me to make haha. I didn't have any white extra sharp tilamook chedder which I normally like to use but it still turned out delicious.



I don't even know why I used the bear claws to tear this up, I definitely didn't need them but here it is after adding some Blues Hog.



Now this was the first time I had ever injected a brisket and to be honest I don't think I'll do it again....While the brisket was really really good, super tender and really moist it was too salty and I noticed the injection I used had MSG and a lot of salt so I may stay away from that next time.



It looks dry here for some reason but it definitely wasn't, I have some more pics a friend took that I'll post when he sends them to me.

Thanks guys, I pretty much gave out all the leftovers, most people around here have never even heard of brisket let alone had some real bbqed brisket so they go crazy for it.

Brought my famiily some of the leftovers and it was a huge hit, my whole family is from Texas and is used to eating like this but out here in CA you just can't get it unless you do it yourself.

kcchiefdav said:

inv3ativ3, would you mind sharing your Mac and Cheese recipe? Or is it like a big secret?

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It's definitely no secret but I do everything freestyle haha, I've never used a recipe ever. But basically for 1 bag of pasta melt half a stick of butter (4tbs) in a saucepan, add equal parts of flour (4tbs) and mix together on low heat until it starts clumping up and add about 1 cup of milk to it and keep mixing while adding graded cheese (I prefer tilamook extra sharp white chedder and tilamook sharp chedder). Then add it all to the pasta in a separate bowl and mix together, if you wanna get crazy throw it in the oven on broil with some extra ungraded cheese and panko bread crumblings.

Dustin D said:

Looks fantastic!

I wish you could have posted a pic of the Charcoal and wood pre-lit.

How much did you use? Can you give some details if possible.

Thanks

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I used around 2/3 of a 20lb bag of kingsford blue mixed with about 5 fist sized chunks of seasoned oak and 4-5 fist sized chunks of hickory. I dunno how I feel about charcoal as I always prefer to cook over just wood so I try and mix in as much wood as possible. I wanna try a high and fast brisket on my WSM one day with just mostly wood.

Here is some more pron: