First Briskets (yep plural) with an extra challenge. Lots of cooking detail minimal pron :(

[tburda]

So I just did my first packers (two) this past week while at deer camp.

Through following advice here, and from a good friend who always turns out a great brisket, and practicing temp control on my UDS doing fatties and other simple treats, I decided I was ready for this big tackle.

Here was my challenge:
10 hungry deer hunters, coming in from the cold, out in the woods, miles from a restaurant. Turn out a good meal that would feed everybody. BUT, this is being done 4 hours from home, and 30 minutes from the nearest store, I had to create a travel kit, that had EVERYTHING I needed in it.

The "road box":

Contents:
Carving board, mitts, grill pan, charcoal chimney, charcoal, torch, rubber gloves, the "tool box" and some mesquite was thrown in too.

The "tool box":

Knives for trimming and slicing, in knife protectors.

12" thermometer for UDS (protected in craft foam) The custom rub, knife sharpener, and digital probe thermometer.

I decided I would be separating my point and flats, and making burnt ends from the point, so I knew i'd need some serious meat. I chose to use select angus (for the cost/amount of meat I needed). At 1.98/lb it couldn't be beat. I chose a 14 pound and 10 pound.

Here Was my process.

(the 14 pounder)
Start time, 4:30 am, I woke up with all the guys going out hunting, fired up the drum, in the light dusting of snow we had gotten. Using royal oak lump, and a few hunks of real Texas mesquite. Let it stabilize for about an hour, and she leveled off at 300. I worked the intakes for a few minutes and got it down to 275. Optimum for me, as I needed to be done slightly earlier than it would have taken if I ran at 230, or 250. But I felt I was still safe to not toughen the meat. (The information of 275 comes from an article in the roadmap, regarding brisket, FYI)

Trimmed hard fat, rub with custom rub (mix of salt, pepper, and cayenne, ratio of 1:1:1/3, both sides, put it on the smoker at 6 am at 275*, fat cap down. (Fat cap down, came from my determination, after reading lots of articles regarding up or down. I have decided DOWN is my preference.)

I monitored the temp for the next 3 1/2 hours (NO PEEKING!). I subtracted 4 hours of cooking time, for the 10 pounder, due to the 4 pound difference.


You can kind of tell we're in the middle of nowhere. The dusting of snow had melted by this time and the ambient temp was up around 45.

At 9:30 am I repeated the prep process on the 10 pounder. I laid the 10 pounder on the rack, at 10 am on the dot. From this point I ran it until 5 pm at 275. Again, I never opened the lid, if you're lookin' you aint cookin'. I even clamped the lid on my uds so nobody else would peek when i wasn't around! At 5 pm I checked and both slabs needed a bit longer, so I let them run another 45 minutes, pulled them off with both internal temps within 2* of each other, and probe soft, foiled, rested in cooler for an hour. During the hour we prepared sides, baked beans, and some au gratin potatoes another guy brought.

When it came to separating the flat, and point, I was nervous as all get out. I was afraid this was going to be difficult and would not go well. However, I could have pulled them apart the fat had broken down so well. This went better than I could have wished for. I sliced up the two flats, and served, and cubed up the points for burnt ends. I put them in my grill pan, put another coating of rub on them, and put them back in the smoker at 275* for another 2 hours. I also threw a bob evans italian sausage fatty on there that I brought and needed to use up. I pulled those off two hours later and we snacked on those for a bit while we sat around and enjoyed cool beverages, and wrapped up the leftovers. The following day for lunch we put all those over the campfire and every scrap was hungrily devoured without a piece left over.

Everyone said they loved it, the meat was tender, flavorful, good smoke flavor.

By the time I got to snap a pic this was all that was left!


All in all, the brisket was a story shared through the week, to guys that showed up after the day it was done, and I was really quite flattered at the comments I got, especially for them being my first.

On a side note, I bought one of those cheap ass little smokers at the end of summer, and I did a 4lb just flat. I didn't know anything then that I know now, besides temp. That stupid tin piece of garbage couldn't hold a temp for anything, but I DID learn, that your brisket will be dry if not cooked long enough. I learned that is where the "it's done when it's done" comes from, you can't depend on a temperature reading.

I am now scheduled to build 3 more UDS' for people who were there and loved the food, and asked to "train" them on using it LOL.

[landarc]

Congrats on what sounds like a terrific experience. I like that travel kit, very similar to our family camping boxes.

[Rich Parker]

Congrats on the successful cook.

[tburda]

Thanks guys it was better than I could have hoped for. They've requested that I do an annual hunting season cook now too. AND I almost forgot! My wife made us some homemade bbq sauce to go with it that was a hit. One guy even put it on his sandwiches at lunch LOL

[bigabyte]

Nice kit! Those slices of briskie look good too!

[jetfxr27]

Hope mines is a hit! Congrats on the cook. I think after reading your post I'll foil mine and maybe that will loosen the bark up a little. That should help me slicing my point off.

Love the clamp idea, people love to look. Last year I did two butts at deer camp. Everybody loved it so much we even had sammiches for breakfast.