8 briskets in a Vault question

[Fillmore Farmer]

Guys,

I've done several many briskets in my Vault....but usually one at a time and the most I've done is two. I'm planning an event and I've decided to cook EIGHT briskets.

I'll prep the same and figure to run the same routine....but will there be any differences since they'll be more meat? I'm guessing I should rotate shelves around and put the bigger pieces on top to start. I'm also guessing it'll suck a bit more fuel since there's more meat to absorb the heat.

I'd rather ask and learn now then learn (another) lesson the hard way...so any suggestions or anything I should be aware of? Thanks!

 

[Old Man 79]

It seems to me you will have a bigger temp drop than usual from all that cold meat being put in it. After they start heating up though you should have a more steady heat requiring slightly less fuel. I could be wrong but I'm thinking it's like putting thawed meat in an empty freezer. At first it will have to work harder to cool it off but then it works more efficiently since it isn't trying to keep all that empty space at temperature.

 

[pjtexas1]

Trim the briskets in advance. They take a lot longer than you would think and can screw up your time line. Also, run the cooker hotter than normal at startup to keep the temp from dropping too far and too long when you add the meat.

 

[thunderalley3]

As stated trim and be ready early. If it was me I would also pull them from the cooler about an hour before putting them on to let the temp of the meat start to come up so it doesnt drop you cooker temp so drastically. I am a move around person also so I would probably shift the racks twice during the cook, if you can do it quickly.

 

[Lowki]

I did 2 briskets, a butt and a rack of whole spares last weekend in my Pint and this is what i learned.
-Def. trim ahead of time and let the meat out to come up closer to room temp. before adding to smoker.
-Plan for your temp drop and account the for the time it may take to recover, or just have a nice cushion built into timeline (I did not plan on such a drastic temp drop when adding the meat and it took much longer than planned to recover, this threw off my entire timeline, lesson learned.)
-rotate the big meats if you can
-Plan on using more fuel than you may normally use for smaller cooks, (that recovery again.)
-Do not vac seal the product at 0330 hrs. and wake the wife or you will hear about it for the rest of the week.

It was fun, hope you have a great cook.

 

[Kaptain Kadian]

I cooked 16 butts on my lsg vertical cabinet once. This is what I learned from the cook, let the cooker get well over your desired cooking temp to start. Putting that much cold meat in the cooker drains the heat out of it. They will take longer to cook than usually. I didn't rotate the butts, and the ones in the top rack got done faster than the others. It did use more fuel than I have ever had to use. You could help yourself out with letting the beef come to room temperature as others have stated. I didn't have that luxury with pork. And post pictures.

 

[landarc]

I learned brisket from a guy who cooked 20-30 a day. You're better off running the cooker up about 50 degrees hotter than your desired cook temp. Be prepared, load in should take no more than 3-4 minutes. You need to rotate after a couple of hours and again every 3-4 hours to be truly even. Just once about halfway if you're willing to deal with some variation. We rotated every 4 hours across a 8-10 hour cook. Again, work fast when rotating meats.

 

[Fillmore Farmer]

Guys,

Sorry for not re-visiting my thread for a few days, been busy. I'm surprised, nobody suggesting extra beer, a brothel gal or some other pleasures to help the process along, lol....

Jut to put it out there, I've always trimmed the fat before the brisket hits the smoker. I've never even heard of trimming after the cook...weird to hear that.

The protocol is to trim the fat, inject with a bit of beef broth, apply rub, wrap in saran wrap and refrigerate over night or at least hours before going into the smoker. I've got a buddy lined-up to help me with all of that.

I agree about pre-heating higher...anticipating the heat-suck that all that meat will bring. I'll go 50 degrees higher and have some more charcoal and wood at-ready to help it along. A good hot fire will produce some quality smoke and fresh meat is prime to absorb smoke.

Letting the meat hit room temp prior to going into the smoker...good idea but it's worth noting that a better smoke ring seems to happen when cold meat hits hot smoker.

Rotating shelves....good to know that was a good plan. I'll start with the bigger meats on top too. I'll pull all my shelves in one brisk maneuver (then close door) then put 2 briskets per shelf and have them all ready...then slide 'em all into the smoker in less then one minute.

Thanks for all the tips...mostly confirmed what I thought but still good to check!!