My best brisket ever thanks to YouTube

[Big George's BBQ]

Nicely Done

 

[gtsum]

Excellent vid, documentation, and end result. Very well done! I have found similar with my 1975 over the last year or so..Jirby, Chud, and Mad Scientist have all helped me as well and I cook mine about how you described and have had some very good results. I think your video is one of the best I have seen describing the affects of a "lazy fire" vs a roaring fire (air movement, convection, temps, moving of the hot spot, etc). Outstanding!

 

[SkaterSmoker]

Excellent vid, documentation, and end result. Very well done! I have found similar with my 1975 over the last year or so..Jirby, Chud, and Mad Scientist have all helped me as well and I cook mine about how you described and have had some very good results. I think your video is one of the best I have seen describing the affects of a "lazy fire" vs a roaring fire (air movement, convection, temps, moving of the hot spot, etc). Outstanding!

Thank you! That's great to hear that a similar technique on your 1975 is working for you - helps me feel more confident I'm doing it right. Like I mentioned in the OP, I've cooked over a dozen briskets in the last 10 weeks, and this last cook was the first time I cooked two at the same time. But the last 4 cooks I switched to using the damper, and I was shocked by how much the flavor has improved - night and day difference. I thought to myself, "Damn, why didn't I listen to Jirby sooner" haha. Up until then I would always run my pit with the stack wide open.

I'm going to try a similar approach with some Duroc St. Louis ribs on Thursday and see if I can tell the difference in a shorter cook. I'm thinking the first two hours I'll cook with the low & slow 2/3 closed damper, and then high convection/stack wide open the rest of the way. Thanks again!

 

[gtsum]

Thank you! That's great to hear that a similar technique on your 1975 is working for you - helps me feel more confident I'm doing it right. Like I mentioned in the OP, I've cooked over a dozen briskets in the last 10 weeks, and this last cook was the first time I cooked two at the same time. But the last 4 cooks I switched to using the damper, and I was shocked by how much the flavor has improved - night and day difference. I thought to myself, "Damn, why didn't I listen to Jirby sooner" haha. Up until then I would always run my pit with the stack wide open.

I'm going to try a similar approach with some Duroc St. Louis ribs on Thursday and see if I can tell the difference in a shorter cook. I'm thinking the first two hours I'll cook with the low & slow 2/3 closed damper, and then high convection/stack wide open the rest of the way. Thanks again!

I used to run wide open all the time too…right now I’m liking making the adjustments similar to you. I’ve been doing my spare rib cooks the same also..the last ones had a deep, full smoke flavor that was more pronounced than when I ran stacks wide open.


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[sandro]

This is a great video! I really appreciated the production quality and the effort put into it.

The trimming is as perfect as it can be, as well as the seasoning. The end result is among the best I've seen, and I bet it tasted as great as it looked. The experiment itself was very interesting and educative, you've absolutely hit the nail with your analysis on how airflow and air velocity impact temps across the cooking grate, and move the hot spot back and forth.

Liked, and subbed!

 

[Connor_Macleod]

:thumb:

I also liked how you discussed how damper position can affect the location if the hot spot on the grates. I think firebox door position can have the same effect, depending on how open/closed you run the door. It seems like the commercial pit builders don't want to talk about this as they want to say temps run even on the temp gages on both sides.

 

[cow]

That's one fine piece of meat... well done!

 

[SkaterSmoker]

:thumb:

I also liked how you discussed how damper position can affect the location if the hot spot on the grates. I think firebox door position can have the same effect, depending on how open/closed you run the door. It seems like the commercial pit builders don't want to talk about this as they want to say temps run even on the temp gages on both sides.

I think builders are scared of acknowledging a hot spot because the uneducated consumers expectations are unrealistic, partly due to builders marketing. I was guilty of this too when first looking purchase and got so hung up on “even temps”. The fire and coal bed is over 1,500 degrees, so of course wherever the airflow meets the cooking surface (it has to surface at some point) there's going to be a hot spot. There's so many benefits of a traditional flow offset, that sacrificing a 5 inch hot spot on my 48 inch cooking surface is a no brainer.

You’re right about the door intake effecting the hot spot and temp too. If I use the bow tie on my door vs. cracking the fb door, the results are completely different in each of those three damper settings in the video. The bowtie allows a lot more air in, so have to close the damper down even further.

 

[Pife]

Really nice trimming and slicing for serving. I've got to work on both of those.