Memorial Day Weekend - Brisket on a Kettle
Thought I would try and squeeze this one in just before the deadline!:becky:
I wanted to try my hand at smoking in a Weber Kettle. I had never done this before, so I figured I better start with a brisket.
I set up my 22.5 inch Weber OTS for smoking with a full size aluminum pan to catch the drippings, with an area off to one side for the fuel.
A quick note about this kettle. It is not a newer model by any means. I found it a couple years back for free on the curb, and the previous owner had not taken the greatest care of it...either that or it was really old.
It had wooden handles...sort of. They were rotted off mostly. A newer plastic handle had been put on the lid so that the lid could be used, but the side handles were mostly gone from rot. The blades in the One Touch system were bent upwards from all of the caked on gunk on the bottom. The previous owner never scraped that out and just let it build up, using the blades to "scrape" them out, which over time just bent them upwards and made the volume of the lower part of the kettle even less.
I continued operating it as-is for a year and a half, curious how far I could continue using it. Finally the blades in the One Touch system bent so far upwards that they couldn't really clean the system out any more because the buildup was so thick it just clogged up the holes entirely, leaving the ash with nowhere to go. Up until that point, I was able to cook on it just fine though. These kettles just plain work, even when not taken well care of.
I replaced the handles on the sides, and replaced the One Touch blades with a new set after giving the whole thing a good and thorough scraping and cleaning. After I was done, it looked pretty much like a whole new 22.5" OTS at that point, and I only invested about $30 into it and maybe 30 minutes of cleaning labor.
Since this restoration, I take a little extra time every couple uses or so to scrape out the bottom of the kettle while using the OTS to clean out any buildup. I simply use a cheapy plastic putty scraper. It bends to the shape of the bowl and easily pushes aside any buildup that the blades can't handle. Then it gets pushed down the hole along with the ash by using the One Touch system. Easy peasy, and it operates like new every time now because of this quick and simple maintenance.
So in a sense, I am using what amounts to a new Weber 22.5" OTS, though technically it is actually anything but. It might be important to stress this in case anyone esle tries doing something similar with a kettle in poor condition.
OK, enough of that...let's get back to the whole Throwdown Brisket thing...
I pulled a 13 pound USDA Choice angus packer from Sam's out of the fridge.
I trimmed off the excess fat, leaving some fat cap on though in case I had temp control issues with the kettle.
I seasoned it with layers of salt, a slightly modified Foil Hat Rub (made with smoked Spanish Paprika that Gore kindly sent to me), some Black Pepper and some Canadian Steak Seasoning.
I let the brisket come up to room temp for 2 hours while the rub settled in. About an hour before I wanted to put the brisket on I fired up a dozen briqs of charcoal in my chimney.
I arranged a mix of charcoal and Pecan chunks for fuel, stacking it up as high as it could fit under the grate.
I spread the lit coals over the top of the unlit fuel to get the cooker started.
The cooker seemed to settle in around 250 degrees so I put the brisket on. The total time from fridge to cooker was an hour and 45 minutes.
For the first few hours, the temp spiked up to around 350, even as high as 360 for a bit. I got that settled down by closing the intake down as far as it could go without actually being closed, and by adding water to the drip pan.
It slowly started backing down in temp over the next few hours until the temp dropped rather quickly to 250 because it needed fuel. I took a pic of the brisket just before refueling.
When I refueled, I shoveled all of the lit coals to one side, and filled in the other side with unlit fuel. This made the cooker settle on temps between 225 and 250 for the remainder of the cook.
Here's a shot of the brisket a little later on after the sun came up.
And here it is when it was finally probe tender.
I separated the point from the flat, and sliced both the flat and the point. I think I'll go with the sliced point pieces for the money shot (the last one).
Despite the temp control issues early on, this brisket turned out excellent with no charring at all. Even with the heat issues early on, the unit ran very steady. I just needed to figure out the proper way to start it.
Like a WSM, when using Kingsford briquettes, if the temp gets high, it is not easy to bring back down. You need to start it at the right temp, and then it will run solid.
The things I learned was to start with fewer lit briquettes, like maybe just 6 instead of a dozen. Also, those lit briquettes should be placed all on one side of the unlit fuel instead of spread over the top. It is also important to put water in the pan to act as a heat sink.
I think I may start using the kettle for smoking in the future as well. It was fun to do something different, and it definitely appears to be able to work as a dependable smoker. With a little experience, it might even be...dare I say...set and forget?:noidea:
