Tips for Drum Brisket?

[rovster]

Bought a prime packer for this weekend. Will be my first drum brisket. I tried to revive the thread below that I created a while back but couldn't comment. Here is the thread....

https://www.bbq-brethren.com/forum/showthread.php?t=284814

Anyway, so I will be injecting and rubbing. Leaning towards hanging until ready to wrap since flipping every few hours does not sound appealing to me. Also debating going low and slow overnight vs hot and fast first thing in the morning. Never done hot and fast but drum likes to run around 275. I can maintain 250 pretty consistently but lower than that I have not gone.

Its about 14 lb untrimmed so should trim out about 9-10lbs. FWIW cooking on drum with Vortex deflector.

Looking for last minute bits of advice and or encouragement :thumb:

 

[thirdeye]

I hook into the point end and for insurance I'll either double hook into the flat, or... use my trussing needle and make a stitch with heavy cooking string, and loop that onto the hook. If I trim a lot of fat from the kernal I might put a stitch there too. I keep the brisket off of dead center and rotate my rack 90° anytime I spritz.

I start with a cold brisket and pit temps of 225° and let the drum creep up to 275°ish over 2 or 3 hours.

 

[rovster]

I hook into the point end and for insurance I'll either double hook into the flat, or... use my trussing needle and make a stitch with heavy cooking string, and loop that onto the hook. If I trim a lot of fat from the kernal I might put a stitch there too. I keep the brisket off of dead center and rotate my rack 90° anytime I spritz.

I start with a cold brisket and pit temps of 225° and let the drum creep up to 275°ish over 2 or 3 hours.

I do like removing a lot of the fat between the flat and point. I normally take it out with surgical precision, LOL! Not a problem with laying on a rack but I can see with hanging that might be an issue I didn't think of. I don't know what a trussing needle is but I suppose I could use some kitchen twine to add some support.

If hanging I was planning on 2 double hooks for insurance.

 

[thirdeye]

I do like removing a lot of the fat between the flat and point. I normally take it out with surgical precision, LOL! Not a problem with laying on a rack but I can see with hanging that might be an issue I didn't think of. I don't know what a trussing needle is but I suppose I could use some kitchen twine to add some support.

If hanging I was planning on 2 double hooks for insurance.

A trussing needle is for poking the holes when lacing up a cavity on a hog, or lamb as well as making hanging loops for slabs of bacon or maybe a ham. It's a flat head needle with a large hole. You push the needle through meat, put string through the hole and pull the needle back out, and it brings the string with it. You could make a small cut with a fillet knife, then push string through the hole with a chopstick.

 

[rovster]

I like that idea I may run a loop through the flat with twine and secure to the hooks. Thanks!

 

[CrazyBear]

On my pit barrell, I double hook the flat and hang it point side down. Usually hang it right after I dump the chimney and just walk away for a while while the barrell sorts itself out. I have tried to wrap and re-hang. It's easier with foil than butcher but if you have a grate and the space then just grate it and save.the hassle.

 

[thirdeye]

On my pit barrell, I double hook the flat and hang it point side down. Usually hang it right after I dump the chimney and just walk away for a while while the barrell sorts itself out. I have tried to wrap and re-hang. It's easier with foil than butcher but if you have a grate and the space then just grate it and save.the hassle.

Well you are going to accumulate some liquid in the wrap, so hanging might not be the best if you want to take advantage of that.

 

[mcyork28]

I have cooked brisket on a drum without flipping if you don't want to hang it.

 

[sudsandswine]

I’m a big fan of hanging brisket in a drum - the first time I ever tried it I cranked out one of my best briskets...top 10 for sure. I have been double hooking through the flat and it has worked fine, however the last one I hung the flat had kind of an odd shape and it resulted in the flat being very close to if not touching the lid and the edge of the flat nearest the lid was overcooked.

I’ve decided that contrary to what one might expect, the area nearest the lid has more heat, especially if you are close to or are touching it, whereas hanging near the charcoal basket tends to not be too hot. I think next time I’ll do flat-down and hook through the point as thirdeye said.

This pic is from my first attempt at hanging.



Juicy flat, crispy bark, turned out amazing. I did wrap in BP and finish horizontal on the rack...or maybe it was the oven, don’t really remember ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

[mph33]

My best advice is to spin the great every 15 minutes for the first 2 hours. if you don't, there will be uneven temperatures throughout the meat.

You also want to put the wood chunks or chips beneath the charcoal not on the top. I can't stress that enough dot you want those pieces of wood to smolder not burn. Also, don't put your meat on the grill grate until you get a thin blue smoke. you don't want heavy white smoke pouring out of the lid right before placing the meat in the grill. When you start up your fire let it get a good burn in before placing the meat in the grill.

 

[El Ropo]

Just my opinion, but if you are rotating your grate every 15 minutes, you aren't cooking at all. That means you are opening your cooker every 15 minutes. I understand the desire to rotate or flip a brisket, but when I've done that it's only maybe every 2-3 hours. Opening a UDS every 15 minutes will extend your cook time by several hours. If I am confident that the temps are fairly even in my drum by using a deflector or vortex basket, etc. I'd prefer to not ever open up the cooker till the meat is done. All that peeking is not a good thing especially in a drum. I'm the type that is usually too lazy to wrap a brisket, I just power through nekkid and don't open the cooker for anything except maybe to rotate or flip twice during the cook. I do try to place the brisket on the rack so the flat end is sitting over what I think is the cooler part of the drum. As far as cooking temps goes, I usually will start off around 250F for first couple hours to lay some smoke on the meat, then let the cooker ramp up to 300-325F to power through rest of cook. There many ways to get a great result, so there will be many different suggestions here on how to get 'er done.

 

[rovster]

Thanks all cook will be tomorrow. Had it planned for today but the meat wasn’t as thawed as I would have liked last night. So I will definitely hang it and probably shoot for 275. Any idea how long it will take at 275 in the drum. I know when I make brisket in my kamado it seems to take forever! I’ll likely get up before the sun comes up to put it on. Can’t wait to git ‘er done! Thanks for all the suggestions! I will definitely document and let you guys know how it turned out...

 

[CrazyBear]

I did a 15.6lber and my pit runs around 270-290 and it took me about 6 hours to hit 200. Seems to run a lot closer to the hot n fast style cooks.