TDaddy
Is lookin for wood to cook with.
- Joined
- Jun 1, 2011
- Location
- Chicago, IL
So, two things I've learned on this site - 1) How to build a UDS and 2) How to cook a brisket. My favorite thing to order at BBQ joints has always been the brisket, but have always felt intimidated when it came to cooking my own since I've heard that it can be such a tough piece of meat. Well, I've never backed down from a challenge so this weekend I decided to take on a brisket on my own on my month old UDS!
Basically, I followed bigabyte's awesome tutorial here:
http://www.bbq-brethren.com/forum/showthread.php?t=57882
I found out that my local Wally Mart sells packers at $2.19/lb and picked up this 16 pounder. I figure, go big or go home, right? Well, it ended up being waaaay too much for just me, my wife, and my mom.
To start, I rinsed and dried the huge honkin' piece of meat, then I trimmed off the piece of hard fat, cut down the fat cap to about 1/4" thickness and then rubbed it down with salt, paprika, tastefully simple garlic garlic, chili powder, and cumin.
Since it was 16 pounds, I was expecting it to take WELL over 12 hours or more. So I fired up the UDS at 2A, expecting to finish in the late afternoon in time for dinner. I loaded the firebasket with oak lumps, briquettes, and mesquite lumps.
I kept a close watch on the temps for the first two hours, looking to maintain around 225 F. I lifted the lid at about an hour into it and saw that the fat was starting to liquify, landing on the hot coals and smoking up something thick.
I didn't worry about getting a clean burn, because by 4A I was tired as hell and went to bed. At 8A I woke up and saw that temps had dipped to 160 in the UDS, but at least the fire was still lit.
I lifted the lid and it looked like the brisket was developing a nice bark. But when I inserted the thermo probe into the point and flat, I could tell that the connective tissue between the muscle fibers hadn't yet broken down.
After the 8h mark, I began doing the probe-doneness test at the top of every hour. At around the 11 hour mark the probe slipped right on into various parts of the flat and point with absolutely no resistance.
I yanked the packer from the grill, wrapped it in foil, dropped it in a cooler then went to kohl's to return a crappy digital thermometer.
2 hours later, I removed the brisket from the cooler and began to separate the point from the flat. Holy cow, the point simply slid right off; it didn't even require a knife. I chopped up the point, placed it in an aluminum tray and placed it back on the UDS to make some burnt ends.
Meanwhile, I made some Jim Beam BBQ sauce.
I mixed in some of the BBQ sauce with the burnt ends and wow, were they awesome. The bark was even nice and crispy!
Next, I pulled the flat and chopped that mofo up.
And voila! Burnt ends on the left, flat on the right!
And then here it is. The BEST brisket sandwich I have EVER had.
I was hesitant to invite any of my friends over for fear of screwing it up. But at least I have lunch for the next two weeks! :thumb:
Thanks to all y'all for the info provided on this awesome site. If I were to tell you what the most important lesson I learned was, it would probably be to not rely on the rule that briskets should cook for about an hour/hour and a half per pound. As bigabyte said in his brisket tutorial, it's done when it's done. Therefore, you should use the thermo probe to poke the meat and it should give easily.
Basically, I followed bigabyte's awesome tutorial here:
http://www.bbq-brethren.com/forum/showthread.php?t=57882
I found out that my local Wally Mart sells packers at $2.19/lb and picked up this 16 pounder. I figure, go big or go home, right? Well, it ended up being waaaay too much for just me, my wife, and my mom.
To start, I rinsed and dried the huge honkin' piece of meat, then I trimmed off the piece of hard fat, cut down the fat cap to about 1/4" thickness and then rubbed it down with salt, paprika, tastefully simple garlic garlic, chili powder, and cumin.
Since it was 16 pounds, I was expecting it to take WELL over 12 hours or more. So I fired up the UDS at 2A, expecting to finish in the late afternoon in time for dinner. I loaded the firebasket with oak lumps, briquettes, and mesquite lumps.
I kept a close watch on the temps for the first two hours, looking to maintain around 225 F. I lifted the lid at about an hour into it and saw that the fat was starting to liquify, landing on the hot coals and smoking up something thick.
I didn't worry about getting a clean burn, because by 4A I was tired as hell and went to bed. At 8A I woke up and saw that temps had dipped to 160 in the UDS, but at least the fire was still lit.
I lifted the lid and it looked like the brisket was developing a nice bark. But when I inserted the thermo probe into the point and flat, I could tell that the connective tissue between the muscle fibers hadn't yet broken down.
After the 8h mark, I began doing the probe-doneness test at the top of every hour. At around the 11 hour mark the probe slipped right on into various parts of the flat and point with absolutely no resistance.
I yanked the packer from the grill, wrapped it in foil, dropped it in a cooler then went to kohl's to return a crappy digital thermometer.
2 hours later, I removed the brisket from the cooler and began to separate the point from the flat. Holy cow, the point simply slid right off; it didn't even require a knife. I chopped up the point, placed it in an aluminum tray and placed it back on the UDS to make some burnt ends.
Meanwhile, I made some Jim Beam BBQ sauce.
I mixed in some of the BBQ sauce with the burnt ends and wow, were they awesome. The bark was even nice and crispy!
Next, I pulled the flat and chopped that mofo up.
And voila! Burnt ends on the left, flat on the right!
And then here it is. The BEST brisket sandwich I have EVER had.
I was hesitant to invite any of my friends over for fear of screwing it up. But at least I have lunch for the next two weeks! :thumb:
Thanks to all y'all for the info provided on this awesome site. If I were to tell you what the most important lesson I learned was, it would probably be to not rely on the rule that briskets should cook for about an hour/hour and a half per pound. As bigabyte said in his brisket tutorial, it's done when it's done. Therefore, you should use the thermo probe to poke the meat and it should give easily.
