biffer
MemberGot rid of the matchlight.
- Joined
- Sep 19, 2014
- Location
- Ft.Laude...
Hi everyone....I am still a newbie on BBQ Brethren so I humbly appeal to your experiences and suggestions. I do want to share my brisket cook I did yesterday that resulted in a 7 hour total time cook for a 15 pound brisket on a stick burner! Started out by purchasing a Certified Angus Prime cut at my old fashioned local butcher store. It doesn't have the typical hard and dense fat you would see with a Select or Choice cut hence I trimmed very little. I have Aaron Franklin's book and adopted his method. A fifty/fifty mix of Kosher salt and cracked granular pepper, no injection and let stand one hour to reach room temperature. I cooked on a Meadow Creek TS70 barrel stick burner and used oak logs only. He does his briskets at a temp of 275 F and I preheated mine to that as well and did my best to maintain it throughout the entire cook. Once ready placed brisket fat side up and have a large water pan as well. This smoker uses the reverse flow system so even heat from the firebox. After hour three the meat temp is rising rapidly (in my opinion) now approaching 160 F. Planned to wrap before hitting the stall and began spritzing when a good bark was formed. I used apple juice concentrate (frozen kind with no added water), apple cider vinegar and of all things some dill pickle juice...tipped off by someone who says Franklin does this. After hour four the temp was now at 170 F so I removed and wrapped in butcher paper and returned to smoker for the duration at the same held temperature of 275 degrees. I never noticed a stall!! With big concern it was now hour 6 and the meat temp probes (two of them and one is the Thermapen) agreed it was going through 185 degrees. I also know the pit temp never fluctuated that much either. It was now coming up to noon my time (seven hours after throwing the brisket on) and I hit the "magic" temperature of 203 degrees in all spots. Hmmmm. All I could do now is believe what I am seeing and pulled the thing off to inspect and perform my touchy feely test. Had some toothpicks and probes and they almost slid in under their own weight...good sign or not? Lifted the paper off a bit, good bark. Lifted the beast and it had a nice bend. Poked it a bit and where the flat meet the point had developed the classic giggle. How can this be? For fear of placing it back on the smoker would have been a mistake, so I kept it tightly in the butcher paper, placed in a large tin foil pan with some beef broth on the bottom and placed a towel snugly over it. Two hours later the suspense was killing me...did I just drop a bundle and burned a beautiful piece of meat into mush? SLOWLY removed the towel, took it out of the pan and started to unwrap. Still a nice bark and the brisket was still piping hot. Decided to use an electric knife as I have little carving brisket experience and also had Franklin's book with illustration next to me as he does it with surgical accuracy. Started with the flat end and continued nice pencil thick slices up until it meet the point. Sliced very evenly, and even tried the "pull test" which seemed to be bang on the money. Now the point, started with the burnt end cutting against the grain and sliced off maybe six pieces..now the truth: First bite into that crispy dark fatty end was like no other experience I can remember in a long time....it was killer taste...really. A bit fatty for many but moisture was bursting all over the place and screamed BEEF. My knees almost buckled I thought it was that good....but only seven hours? My thoughts: It was a top notch cut of Prime, therefore the extra marbling and just the right amount of soft fat. The stall? It had to be present but not where one really notices, it never entirely stopped rising in temperature. Using 275 as opposed to the low and slow of 205-250 range...makes the difference? I think it does for lesser grade meat and Prime does not require all that long as maybe the fibers in the brisket muscle are naturally more tender. If it was just dumb luck then I hope I can continually repeat it...please...let me know all your thoughts and experiences and suggestions. Thank you.
