Jiggly brisket on no reservations

How big is his smoker and I wonder how many briskets he cooks per day?

I read a really good article on him and John Mueller in Texas Monthly a While back. Initially he was using a 500 gallon offset but built a few more similar cookers recently according to that article. Don't know when it was written, last I heard he's selling out brisket before everyone in the line that forms at 9:00 a.m. even gets the whole way through the door.

While I think his reputation is well deserved, I am getting a little tired of the Aaron Franklin worshiping going on around here these days. Lots of great pit masters, lots of great methods...

Anyway, when I was there I got a few second with Aaron, not enough to cover everything. And, since I hadn't cooked my own brisket yet, not everything made sense at the time.... But, Kosher Salt / Coarse pepper only. He starts prepping around 8:00 pm to 9:00 pm. Smoke around 265* to 275*. "If you hear the meat, you're too hot." Wrap when the bark is where you want it. Oak only. That was all I was able to get out of him while there before he had to move on to other guests. I thought I heard him say that he was wrapping around 4:00 am.

Here is a reply I got after I emailed him to tell him how amazing his brisket was and thank him. The "chow thing" is the video on Chow.com:

Franklin Barbecue <xxxxxxxxx@gmail.com> Tue, Mar 8, 2011 at 10:09 AM
To: "Ryan

Hey Ryan,
Thanks for the kind words.
There really are no tricks, that chow thing is pretty accurate.....
I would also add that you should wrap with foil or paper when it looks like you want it to....and don't cook it too
hot(if you can hear the meat,its too hot)......
Holler if you have any questions.
Good luck
Aaron

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It looked to me like he was keeping the briskets warm in a smoker running cooler. 200* might be a good guess. This was just before he moved to the new place. He was talking with another guest about wanting to build a big brick smoker after the move. I wish I could find a reason to go back.

With that, I'm going back to trying to duplicate his results rather than talking about them.

I don't think that any one is saying he is the only good pitmaster out there, and I wouldn't necessarily say he is being worshiped here. I think that it's a matter of the fact that he's been on T.V. a lot lately. That, and many of the people I know or have heard on here that have been to his place say that he does have either the best, or some of the best brisket they've ever had.

No one's saying that his method is the only one. But, people struggle with brisket, and to finally see a visual on T.V. as an example of what you're striving for the end result to be, it usually causes people to gravitate to that method. Kind of hard to duplicate a result if you don't keep the variables the same to get a base line to work from.

As far as inconsistancies, I don't remember seeing any thing mentioned about how he does it than what you have written there? I've heard him say in interviews where he says between 275* - 300* when asked what temp he cooks at. Maybe he's putting out different info to different people on purpose to keep us guess and to not give away the finer details? Like it's been said before, the only people that know for sure are him and his assistant pitmaster.

He starts with great hunks of beef. End of story.

If it moves like jellow raw, it'll do the same after it's cooked. The source of beef combined with his cooking method works great.

If there were other places in the hill country starting out with the same quality of brisket, they may get close.

Oh, I'm outright worshiping the guy and hope the Franklin threads continue.

He's turned the bbq world on it's head.

some of you here... ur questions... really take the damn cake

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xItB80UOQFU&feature=plcp"]Pitmaster T's Quickies - Things I Love and Adore - YouTube[/ame]

3:15

wtf ever

Pitmaster T said:

some of you here... ur questions... really take the damn cake

Pitmaster T's Quickies - Things I Love and Adore - YouTube

3:15

phosphates... wtf ever

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Damn , dude , that looks every bit as impressive as the oh so raved about "no reservations " shot.

At about what point do you put your briskets in tha pan , and do you cover them or is it just an open pan?

Wow that looks good

Damn Donnie....sometimes, hell most of the time...I wish I was from Texas. (Amish blooded, PA born, Florida raised, fledgling Pitmaster)

I figure some of you would like some more facts:

Cooking temp 260-270

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a8f2lOJkSdw"]CHOW Tour Austin: Brisket - YouTube[/ame]


Internal temp - 200-203 and wrap mid process

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HAfNTdAPRNY"]Franklin's BBQ - YouTube[/ame]

i panned once for a video... there was something left in the pan was going to make another video of... i did... but never released it...

i don't pan

Infernoooo! How the **** are 'ya?! How've you been? Long time no see. Welcome back.

Gotta love Bourdain.

Vision said:

Oh, I'm outright worshiping the guy and hope the Franklin threads continue.

He's turned the bbq world on it's head.

Click to expand...

I guess if you can't cook a brisket and are new to the world of bbq with a nice fresh KCBS card in your pocket you could think that.

By you I mean "one.'

I personally think this thread needs a little Pitmaster T. Donnie's threads took my my brisket from coming in almost last at KCBS comps to consistently being a major threat. If you haven't, check out his night train thread since its what you guys are trying to achieve. From there read his other stuff and you will pick up some serious knowledge without trying to decipher the different temps, methods, wrapping times and holding temps picked up in the multitude of Franklin articles and videos. The other key to cooking brisket is to cook a lot of them and you will begin to understand what the meat is doing. Aaron understands what the meat is doing.

Donnie, what are your thoughts on the butcher paper wrap when the brisket is done or when many people would foil?

Nice thread brothas, proofing really works but so does having a lot of briskets under your belt. Your going to cook a good 50 to 100 brisket before you figure out what your doing (you'll have a good amount of followers) All briskets are aged already some what, I get ones that are always 20 something day's old and never frozen. I've contacted Aaron to buy a raw un cooked brisket for a comp and he said he used CAB not prime which I was looking for. This is a oldie but a goodie that might possibly get someone closer to a jiggly brisket, my threads are like unicorns ...you always hear about but never see. I don't know why:screwy:

http://www.bbq-brethren.com/forum/showthread.php?t=129016

Video is in post #27 I think its worth 10 min of your time.

I see that you have 2 videos and I can't WAIT to finish the first (got halfway thru this morning) and hit the second. Please please please MORE VIDEOS!!

Do you take your "Eatin'" brisket aka that which you'd eat at home and made on the video farther than your "comp" brisket aka what KCBS judges are looking for?

Seems like many good eating briskets are basically close to falling apart. In a good corned beef sort of way not a dry way over cooked sort of way.