No Look Brisket - Lessons and Pron

[SmokinJohn]

So I decided to do two things with the UDS that I hadn't done before:

Run it overnight unattended and
Run no probes in the meat. I would go by feel.


I know...I am just tempting Fate......especially when one of the meats is a brisket.


So I rub both butts and the brisket after trimming it:






And I pop it them into the UDS at 10:50PM.



Trader Joe's briquettes, cherry / mesquite wood chunk mix.



The brisket has a pan underneath it, and the fat cap is up (it was a coin flip. Bigmista says there's virtually no difference, and I have a pan to catch the drippings to minimize flare ups).

I sleep amazingly well, considering that I could be waking up to nearly 30 pounds of charcoal ABOVE my fire basket.

I get up, and lo and behold, the UDS had held temperature!




I take my first peek at the 10 hour mark:





The butts feel good and the bone wiggles (IT is 203), so off they go to the cooler, so they can wait for their beefy brother to finish.

The brisket is probe tender in the point, but not the flat, so I leave it on for another two hours.

(In retrospect, I should have wrapped/foiled it).



I pull the brisket and the flat is nearly falling apart:




It's tasty, but a bit dry.



I chop up some of the point because Mrs. SJ loves some chopped brisket, and try to make burnt ends with the rest.





No pictures of the butts, because they came out perfect!


Lessons learned:


I'm going fat cap down next time.

I will wrap/foil it.

I will use my Thermapen (The Uberfast British Racing Green model that I got the day after this cook) to check temps in the flat at the 10 hour mark.

[Bludawg]

I always go fat to the heat and point to the fire. The only place that needs to be probe tender on a Brisket is the thickest part of the Flat. If it is PT the rest will be amazing.

BBQ RULES FOR SUCCESS


YOU CAN NOT COOK GREAT BBQ ON A CONSISTENT BASIS BY COOKING TO AN INTERNAL TEMPERATURE OR BY TIME ( XXX MIN PER LB) YOU MUST COOK BY FEEL! For Brisket it must pass the poke test(probe like soft butter in the thickest part of the Flat) Ribs pass the Bend Test, Pork Butts when the bone wiggles loose. These are the only reliable methods to ensure that your cook will be a success. There is one exception to these rules and that is Poultry which must achieve and internal temp of 170 deg in the thickest part of the thigh and 165 in the breast.

[landarc]

You over-cooked the flat a bit, but, I see nothing there that doesn't seem like you had it going right. Just took too long to come back to the brisket.

[Arlin_MacRae]

Bold moves, sir. Bold moves.

[1911Ron]

Well done and to think there was no whiz bang goodies to help!

[Bludawg]

Originally Posted by 1911Ron

Well done and to think there was no whiz bang goodies to help!

Thief

[wango]

Originally Posted by Arlin_MacRae

Bold moves, sir. Bold moves.

Ditto

[code3rrt]

Good work, a good sleep is an amazing thing isn't it? Glad it all worked out!

KC

[Daggs]

What is the purpose of the foil pan below the meat in the UDS?
The flat may be overdone but I'd still take 2!

[SmokinJohn]

Originally Posted by Daggs

What is the purpose of the foil pan below the meat in the UDS?
The flat may be overdone but I'd still take 2!

to prevent flareups while I slept (and to capture the beefy juices for a sauce).