Losing my brisket virginity

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There are many ways to do a brisket. Of course my way is clearly the best way ,.. but there are those who would argue.

One thing that every brisket cooker will agree on though, is that you must have one of these ...

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Meat killer ... aka brisket killer by Bryan Raquin. Also handy in the event of the zombie apocalyps!
 
One of mine ... I call it a bionic brisket. My rub ... I smoke in the green egg until the stall (165-170F) then wrap (your choice of butcher paper or aluminum foil) then pull and finish in a 225F oven to desired tenderness (195-205F). You can leave in the smoker if you wish. Total cook time 12-16hrs.

EDD497D5-15DD-41F5-A4CB-255606F3710E.jpeg
 
IMHO there is no magic to the BGE. I got my start on the much less expensive Weber Smokey Mountain Cooker. Once you hit the stall and wrap BTU’s are BTU’s. Move the brisket to the oven if that’s more convenient. IMO the BGE has two big advantages over the Smokey Mountain Cooker. Once set it holds a constant temperature for a very long time. Secondly the BGE is VERY economical on fuel. A bag goes a long way.
 
I agree constant temperature is what you want. My pit is thick steel which takes at least an hour to heat up. The tubes are drill casing which is 3/8 inch thick. It radiates good heat once you warm it up. The cold smoke square box doesn't work right as I can use it or the round pit. The original idea was to be able to use both at the time but heat difference did not work out right. I may insulate or slap some more steel on the cold smoke box in the future. I can hang a turkey in there but I can't use the rest of the pit.

I can build a really big fire in the fire box and heat the pit up to over 600 degrees to make pizza. The only problem I see is it burns my heat resistant paint off really fast at that high of temperature.

PS
I live in a small BBQ town so everybody has smokers. Most are made out of old propane tanks which are thinner steel like 100 gal or bigger tanks.
 

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Michi said:
What, you mean as some sort of vegetarian counter-point? ;)
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It all has to be fit together, in your style! It should be possible to stuff brisket plus all the foods you listed into one casing: what's the Wurst that could happen?
 
Bert2368 said:
I went to a grocery store very hungry, which often leads to... interesting? choices. This time, it resulted in a huge chunk of cow meat following me home.

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16.5 pounds of brisket, needing some cooking love ASAP. What have I done?!

I THINK I want to do this as sous vide followed by a few hours in the charcoal fired water smoker. Because, dry beef BBQ is vile and I've not got the time to closely monitor a real BBQ pit overnight.

From the internets:

I find that I should probably leave that huge fat cap where God and the cows dietary choices put it.

I should separate the thinner end, and will have to bisect the thick end to get it into my bags.

Texans just put coarse ground black pepper and salt on these for a rub?!

-------------------

Questions, after my analysis of several recipes:

I'm targeting 36 hours in the water bath at 135° F, followed by 2 -3 hours in the cheap-O Walmart water smoker. Does that sound reasonable?

Really, couldn't we up the flavor of that traditional rub just a bit here? What do YOU all like???

And sauce. I've got some experience with pork and chicken BBQ sauces, but what has worked with beef for YOU? Texas seems to favor a mustard based BBQ sauce- I have not made this family of BBQ sauces before.

All recipe suggestions welcome-
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Texan here. Yeah, just salt, and pepper, and a 12+ hour smoke is all you need for amazing brisket. If you want to get a little fancier, I've had really great results (from what others have said about my brisket) when I put McCormick Montreal steak seasoning on instead. I dont like the idea of using premixed seasoning, but I cant argue with the results.
 
jwthaparc said:
Texan here. Yeah, just salt, and pepper, and a 12+ hour smoke is all you need for amazing brisket. If you want to get a little fancier, I've had really great results (from what others have said about my brisket) when I put McCormick Montreal steak seasoning on instead. I dont like the idea of using premixed seasoning, but I cant argue with the results.
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You know I recently bought a big bottle of that McCormick Montreal steak seasoning at Costco. I kind of like it. I have used it on small sirloins using carbon pans in house and then I make a mushroom, wine and beef broth topping sauce for the steak. I like the flavors. When it warms up, I may try it on the pit.

Have you tried Fiesta's Uncle Chris' Gourmet steak seasoning? I think it is great for grilling steak.

Jwthaparc if you come out our way 290 to Elgin TX we have 2 great BBQ places Meyers and South Side. Both are great. You can buy their sausage in HEB.

Meyers is a pork sausage and South Side is a beef sausage. I like both. Meyers garlic sausage is right at the top for me.
 
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coxhaus said:
You know I recently bought a big bottle of that McCormick Montreal steak seasoning at Costco. I kind of like it. I have used it on small sirloins using carbon pans in house and then I make a mushroom, wine and beef broth topping sauce for the steak. I like the flavors. When it warms up, I may try it on the pit.

Have you tried Fiesta's Uncle Chris' Gourmet steak seasoning? I think it is great for grilling steak.

Jwthaparc if you come out our way 290 to Elgin TX we have 2 great BBQ places Myers and South Side. Both are great. You can buy their sausage in HEB.
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Nice. And yeah I've tried uncle Chris' steak seasoning. It's not bad at all, I just specifically like the Montreal steak for brisket. Usually on my steaks I go with flaky salt, fresh cracked pepper, and either garlic powder, or if it's on the stove I'll butter baste it with rosemary, thyme, and fresh crushed garlic (or even better, black garlic).

Uncle chris' is definitely good for beef, pork, and chicken though. Roast beef, even fajitas with some Chile, paprika, and lime added.
 
Since this seems to have morphed into a general brisket thread.... what kind of knife do you guys use for trimming the fat? I've been using an ancient 8" skinny forged Henckels (or maybe Wusthof, I can't recall) that was part of a knife set.

Works great but I'm thinking I need a knife upgrade for style points on the next brisket. Probably something a bit shorter, maybe 150-160mm, narrow width, and thin grind.
 
I use a town cutler 7" stiff boning knife for trimming up. Like this one but with a plain handle 6" Straight Boning - Desert Dawn
Nice little knife, hold a good edge.

I've been slicing the final product with a Dalman 240 aebl laser. I absolutely love the knife, just not sure it is being used to its fullest as a slicing knife.

I'll probably start looking for something new soon. I'm on the list for a Rader, so as long as I hit the lottery before he calls me that will be my next adventure.
 
Michi said:
I use one of these. Gets razor sharp and works very well.
View attachment 113488
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I used to use a Mercer boning knife. But I switch to a gyuto one time, literally just because I liked the idea of using a "cow sword" on a big piece of cow. Anyway it works really well for doing nice flat even cuts, that look good.
 
Huh, I thought for sure somebody would post a pic of their rare and highly sought-after Shig honyaki BTK (brisket trimming knife), recommended only for wagyu a5 briskets as regular brisket dulls the blade too quickly. Or that Commando Rambo guy would chime in with his Chuck Norris Butterknife (no cutting necessary, the brisket falls apart in fear when it sees Chuck Norris approaching).

Looks like I should just stick with my plain-jane Wusthof (looks similar to Michi's except a bit wider).
 
Delat said:
Looks like I should just stick with my plain-jane Wusthof (looks similar to Michi's except a bit wider).
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The photo I posted is just a stock photo I grabbed. Here is the actual knife:
IMG_4085.jpg

It's labelled "4602/14 cm". That knife is over thirty years old and still going strong. It has a stiff blade. I believe at least some of the newer ones have a flexible blade instead, which I don't like all that much for that kind of job; I have a flexible fish filleting knife from Wüsthof if I want something that flexes.

At any rate, I think that style of knife is eminently suitable for the job. Works well for trimming off silver skin, fat, works great for deboning a chicken, plus a bunch of other tasks that call for a robust and thin knife.
 
coxhaus said:
Here are mine. One was my mom's back in her day. They are Henckels 4 star.
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They look just fine to me, perfect for the job. I don't think that you'd have a substantially better experience with a Japanese knife for this. And the steel on your knives is very forgiving. You won't do any lasting damage by cutting into a bone with some force by mistake.
 
Brian Weekley said:
One of mine ... I call it a bionic brisket. My rub ... I smoke in the green egg until the stall (165-170F) then wrap (your choice of butcher paper or aluminum foil) then pull and finish in a 225F oven to desired tenderness (195-205F). You can leave in the smoker if you wish. Total cook time 12-16hrs.

View attachment 113068
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IT'S ALIVE!!!

 
Brian Weekley said:
There are many ways to do a brisket. Of course my way is clearly the best way ,.. but there are those who would argue.

One thing that every brisket cooker will agree on though, is that you must have one of these ...

View attachment 113066

Meat killer ... aka brisket killer by Bryan Raquin. Also handy in the event of the zombie apocalyps!
Click to expand...

F*** YOU, WHALE! F*** YOU, DOLPHIN!!!
20210102_193801.jpg
 
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