So I picked up a couple hundred pounds of brisket and Boston butts yesterday...

[electron_si]

You are killing it. I would love to stop by and see your Shirley sometime

 

[pjtexas1]

You know it's not a good cook unless it gets weird. And... We're there.

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[sudsandswine]

Doooooone finally. Took more time to pull and package the pork than it did for slicing and packing the brisket. I pulled them all by heat resistant gloved hand so I could fish out all the undesirable bits.

I'm beat, kudos to those of you that do this regularly, tons of work and I had the benefit of being in my own driveway for it.

 

[sudsandswine]

You are killing it. I would love to stop by and see your Shirley sometime

I'll let you know the next time I fire it up. Probably gonna be a few weeks at minimum, I fulfilled my quota of que for a bit lol.

 

[Twelvegaugepump]

Great looking cook! What temp are you going to sous vide the reheat at and for how long? Thanks for sharing!

 

[electron_si]

I'll let you know the next time I fire it up. Probably gonna be a few weeks at minimum, I fulfilled my quota of que for a bit lol.

No joke, that was a beast of a cook

 

[Kanco Connection]

I’m not worthy. nice job there.

 

[Hoss]

OUTSTANDING!!! :thumb:

 

[sudsandswine]

Alright, finally got some rest and some clean hands to upload some of the pics from the prep and cook.

With the trimming, my goal was to trim away whatever was required to get the brisket to lay flat, any hangy bits, and any darkened/bruised/unrenderable meat. I feel like they cook more uniformly for me when they're all one approximate thickness.

Regarding the "Excel vs Black Canyon" briskets, turns out that I did end up liking the Black Canyon briskets better, though they both sliced and tasted great.

What I liked about the Black Canyon ones is the direction of the grain in the flat in relation to the point - made it very easy to slice. I could definitely recognize which ones were the Black Canyon briskets after cooking them.

I was very happy with the results of the USDA choice "angus" beef that Sam's has.

 

[sudsandswine]

The cook went well, the Shirley was running a little cooler than I normally have it the first several hours of the cook, but halfway through I was running 275* as a median right where I like it. There was 5* difference or less between the top and middle shelves. very even heat distribution. They all finished within a couple hours of each other, the 2 main outliers being the larger briskets that I ended up not wrapping. Otherwise, the 8 were more within an hour window of one another.

The brisket sliced up really nicely and was the perfect level of tenderness I like, just enough to still pass the pull test. It was really juicy, even the last 2 bigger briskets that I did not wrap still had basically the same interior texture.

 

[pjtexas1]

I agree on them cooking evenly when you get the thickness just right. :thumb:

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[stangman327]

Excellent job!
Time to open your own restaurant!

 

[sudsandswine]

The pork turned out pretty well too, though there were a couple I only used part of due to not being rendered enough. We had a cold front coming through (supposed to snow this morning) and my energy level was dropping and I think I rushed the last couple. We still wound up with a ton of pulled pork though, I'm going to go weigh it in a bit. My brother did a good job with the injection and it had good flavor throughout. We added a dusting of rub and a splash of apple juice prior to putting it into the vacuum bags and ice bath.

The chicken turned out pretty tasty too - the lower rack is a great place to cook chicken, where it gets some radiant heat off the reverse flow tunnel. I cooked them for 1.75 hours skin side up, then flipped them over for the last 30-45 minutes and got some great skin.

I'm glad I did it, and I'm glad it's over. Anything that made its way into a vacuum bag is something that meets my standards and I'd feel fine serving to anyone. I honestly think the brisket was not only the best I'd ever personally cooked, but the best I'd eaten anywhere. :shock:

 

[sudsandswine]

Wound up with about 52lbs of cooked pork, not including the 2 that I didn't use much from. Probably would've had about 60lbs if those were usable. As is my yield was about 50% including the loss of 1.5 butts, so I would say that's right about where I expected. :thumb:

 

[TravelingJ]

Pretty impressive! Thanks for the whole post, it was fun to follow along.

 

[pjtexas1]

I hope you are taking a well deserved nap. You definitely earned it!

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[sudsandswine]

Gotta go over to the in laws to eat this afternoon, but after that I'm going to drink a few high octane IPA's and park my butt on the couch for several hours, where it shall remain until I go to bed :thumb:

 

[smokin'hoogie]

"The Pit Master was nestled..... All snug in his bed.....While visions of smoked meats danced in his Head" :roll:

Awesome Job Suds!!! Loved the Play by Play