Today- Brisket on a charcoal grill- need advice

[Nuco59]

Mornin'- need some help.

Son-in-law wants me to show him how to cook a brisket this morning. But- he does not have a smoker- he does not want to use one of my drums. He has a Kingsford(?) 24" rectangular charcoal grill. grate is about 24 x 15 -ish

Anyway- I don't know how best to go about this. There is no good way to make an indirect fire- it's just not wide enough. The coal tray is on an elevator- I think we can drop it some but have no way of putting a deflector between the heat and the meat. And the thermo in the lid is as good as any of them... "crap". I'm thinking 4 hours with charcoal as low as we can go temp-wize - wrap and into the oven at 290-300 until it probes.

He being a hard headed cuss, will want to wrap at 160 and put it back on the grill to finish.

it's coming up on time to do this- any advice you can give?

 

[Titch]

Can you lay an aluminum sheet down, a wire rack, then another sheet
Should act as a insulated from direct heat

 

[16Adams]

Cooper’s Cowboy Brisket

Manage the coals so you can Grill it as long as you can without burning. Strive for a few hours. Then wrap tightly in foil fat cap up, place wrapped brisket in a pan. To oven at 250* until it probes tender

I’ve never done this but was reading about it in Legends Of Texas Barbecue.
Going to do it someday

 

[charrederhead]

Wrap lit coals in heavy duty foil poked with air holes, place as far away as possible from meat? :noidea:


Then, find him a cheap Weber kettle on CL or FB MP. :thumb:

 

[jermoQ]

I would make a heat deflector by putting a prop like a brick on one end of the coal grate, and scoot the coals towards it. Put a sheet pan over the coals, propped up at an angle. Then do it like these other guys, flip as needed, and wrap when it is getting the right color.

 

[16Adams]

Turn him on to YouTube BBQ Pitboys. Buy him an Old Hickory Knife (hillbilly food processor) and a kettle

 

[smoke ninja]

use an aluminum pan filled with water and place a rack on top. it will keep the heat off the meat.

 

[bschoen]

If someone asks you to show them <how to whatever> and then tells you how to do it, why bother?

 

[Curt.P]

Doable on a Weber kettle, but that thing is small and shallow. I wouldn't want to waste a brisket on it. Be a hard-headed cuss right back.

 

[El Ropo]

I would bring over one of my drums, and tell him, it's the drum or nothing. If he doesn't agree, hop back in my vehicle and head back home.

 

[Nuco59]

Thanks for all the responses - we are running. I made a half a$$ed snake-3 wide x 2 high- lit 8-10 coals for the head. He has on of those pivoting, hinged "warming racks" still attached to the lid. It's big enough for his meat- so we are cooking on that. We have an (empty) aluminum pan on the actual cooking grate as sort of a deflector. The charcoal pan is all the way down- this is all I can do for it.

Temps are in the 300 to 325 range (it does spike higher when the chunks catch but what's a guy to do?)... we are going to get it pulled /wrapped in the oven about noon- and let it ride. All I can promise is it will be edible.

 

[okiej]

Snake works

Did one yesterday on a kettle using a 4 coal snake. 2 wide 2 high

 

[Nuco59]

I wish he did have a Kettle... he got this one from one of the big box stores for $50.00 several several years ago. He said "the Webers were twice as much"- told him there might have been a reason for that - and I let it go.

I did not touch his meat - or season it. He was trimming and asked for advice- told him "get a better knife- or sharpen that one and in the name of all that is holy, stop cutting towards your fingers"

He will be fine. Tasting will be at around 4:30- I'm looking forward to it.

 

[RickAllen]

People who are stubborn are often insecure. A son in law is going to be defensive around the father in law who his wife adores so much the husband can't be the man of the house when he's around.

He is the one with the problem. I'm sorry that you are the one that has to deal with it. Here are my recommendations.

1. Help to buy him a proper grill or smoker for Christmas

2. Let it go, stand back and watch him make the mistakes but instead of saying "I told you so" play the father role and say, "I'm sorry man, let's see what we can do to make this better for you next time."

3. Encourage him to come to this site for advice on BBQ and to other people for advice on other things. That way he won't feel insecure about not knowing anything around you and resentful about having his wife tell him to ask you, the expert for everything.

He basically just needs to grow up some. It takes time.

 

[RickAllen]

As far as the grill goes I just got rid of one of those because that was the first grill I bought too. It was just purchased for hurricane emergency cooking. It wasn't a serious purchase. It sat in the garage for two years unused. It was only later when I decided to actually bother learning to grill, once again because of another hurricane scare that I actually started using it.

Here is what I learned about those cheap grills

1. You can cook a lot more than you think. You just have to figure out how. You can cook low and slow and there are videos that show you how to smoke things with these cheap square / rectangle grills.

2. Often it requires you to buy smaller cuts of meat so that they fit properly in your small space on the tiny indirect cooking side.

3. You can use rocks to make your divider zones. Bricks are often too big because the grate of these cheap grills sits too close the coals

4. Often it/s best to use the corners and setup an indirect zone in the middle.

In the end it's about solving the problems creatively. But you would be amazed what people do with these cheap grills. Just look online and you will get tons of good ideas.

 

[Titch]

Thanks for all the responses - we are running. I made a half a$$ed snake-3 wide x 2 high- lit 8-10 coals for the head. He has on of those pivoting, hinged "warming racks" still attached to the lid. It's big enough for his meat- so we are cooking on that. We have an (empty) aluminum pan on the actual cooking grate as sort of a deflector. The charcoal pan is all the way down- this is all I can do for it.

Temps are in the 300 to 325 range (it does spike higher when the chunks catch but what's a guy to do?)... we are going to get it pulled /wrapped in the oven about noon- and let it ride. All I can promise is it will be edible.

So, my inquiring mind needs to know