Brisket - Franklin barbaque style - reverse engineering

Frachlitz

Hi all,

I want to try to make a brisket "a la Franklin", so im trying to cook-up a how-to. And yes a lot of trial and error attemps :-) (The beautiful thing about BBQ attemps, is that you can eat them :-)

I am trying to figure out the best way in a BGE.

What i have found out via articles, videos etc. with Mr. Franklin is:

1. Use full packer brisket, trimed to about 1/3 inch of fat.

2. Rub: Salt/pepper

3. Smoke: White oak

4. Wrap in butcher paper "at the right time". (Unbleached paper, without wax or sillicone)

5. It takes Franklin 18 hours to do a brisket.

But - there is still a bit of a way to go until we have a guide :-)

My questions are:

1. What would you quess as cooking temp? I have heard everything from 375f down to 200f.

2. When to wrap in paper (aka. at what internal temp do we wrap?)

3. What temp is the brisket done? 185 - 204f?

Without any thing to back this op, i think my first attemt will be:

Cook at 300f at brisket level.

Pull and wrap at 150 internal, lower the BGE temp til around 200 and let it finish.

Any ideas?

bdub60

I don't have any ideas for you but good luck and keep us posted.  I for one will be following along!  Never had the opportunity to try it myself but I've heard Franklin's is just about the best brisket you could eat.

dweebs0r

Gonna watch this thread as well.  I need a step by step to making a good brisket.

nolaegghead

In lieu of any definitive information on when to wrap - I'd suspect wrapping it when it goes into the stall would help mitigate the tendency for the stall to loose water weight.

Little Steven

Wonder how a brisket would be sous vide. Sorry for the turn.

The Cen-Tex Smoker

Aaron cooks around 320F if that helps. Also, it does not matter what color paper you use. Aaron does the red/brown but others here use the white. Just use what you can find.

Don't know when he wraps but I read that they do toward the very end of the cook when they start to stack them up for service. They say it helps keep the crust on. Some people do it like the TX Crutch and wrap it when it hits the stall.

Good luck. Let us know how it turns out

nolaegghead

Little Steven said:

Wonder how a brisket would be sous vide. Sorry for the turn.

One way to find out......  Might try a small flat - they're not any good smoked.

Little Steven

I see there is a pistol smoker available from Poly Science. Might grab that as well. Blasphème!

nolaegghead

I have the ultimate beer cooler from polyscience.  5 ton water chiller.

Lit

My last brisket I never wrapped at all and it came out great. 250 dome for about 15 hours. Start poking for doneness around 192. Don't wrap at 150 you won't have a bark yet. When I do wrap I watch the bark to determine when to wrap but usually 175-180 you have a pretty good bark.

Little Steven

Now that is cool! I have six months a year I can leave the beer in the garage. The other six it freezes

Lit

This was my cook last weekend never wrapped and done at 250 dome. Pulled just under 200.

Frachlitz

Hmm - i think that one of Franklins secrets is that he "smoke" sous vide it - aka. after the initial smoking and forming of bark, he wraps it, and let it sit long at a low temperatur (low enough that it will not rise the central temp above the target).

The reason for this thought is this video - here you can see when i filips one out on the table, that is all "gobbly" - this in my mind looks like that all connective tissue is gone.

Look from around 11:00 when i have them on the table:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=oyBqiaPMtMw#t=437s

miscjames

My questions are:

1. What would you quess as cooking temp? I have heard everything from 375f down to 200f. 

He cooks his at ~ 220

http://youtu.be/TD247K8KltY ~ 2 mins 

OR 260 /270 

http://youtu.be/a8f2lOJkSdw ~ 1:40

2. When to wrap in paper (aka. at what internal temp do we wrap?)

Mid way through when it gets dark and crusty. He states the biggest mistake with a brisket is to much smoke. 

http://youtu.be/HAfNTdAPRNY ~4:35

3. What temp is the brisket done? 185 - 204f? 

~203

http://youtu.be/HAfNTdAPRNY ~5:00

Frachlitz

Thank you!

I think trial no. 1 is:

Pit at 260F (127c) at middle meat level

Pull and wrap in paper at 165F (73c)

Lower temp in pit to 203F (95c)

Done at 203F (95c) internal

The reason i lower the temp after wrapping, is what i can see and hear Franklin do. You can se on video that the wrapped brisket at stored in the smoker on top of each, in the farthest side of the smoker (away from the firebox side).

danv23

I found this.....  http://sourcherryfarm.com/2012/05/27/recipe-aaron-franklins-butcher-paper-brisket/

nolaegghead

danv23 said:

I found this.....  http://sourcherryfarm.com/2012/05/27/recipe-aaron-franklins-butcher-paper-brisket/

Says wrap in paper after 6 hours - that's about 165F or so.  I dunno about lowering the dome to 203 - might take forever to get the meat to the dome temp.

danv23

And check this one out.. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HAfNTdAPRNY

danv23

Sorry if this is an overload, but I'm itchin like hell to try it... http://www.thesmokerking.com/butcherpaperbrisket.html

SmokeyPitt

Does anyone think the future "BBQ with Franklin" videos will include some of these details?

The Cen-Tex Smoker

SmokeyPitt said:

Does anyone think the future "BBQ with Franklin" videos will include some of these details?

He says he is putting it all out there. Time, temp, when to wrap, the whole deal.

Little Steven

I used to do a decent brisket on my gasser using a smoker pan (brisket inside) Any that I've done on the egg just straight up have been way better.

billyray

Do you think that wrapping pork shoulder in paper would have a similar effect as the wrapped brisket?

Little Steven

Pork shoulder doesn't dry out like brisket. You could try but I think it would be greasy

cazzy

miscjames said:

My questions are:

1. What would you quess as cooking temp? I have heard everything from 375f down to 200f. 

He cooks his at ~ 220

http://youtu.be/TD247K8KltY ~ 2 mins 

He actually says "like 320"  

Botch

danv23 said:

I found this.....  http://sourcherryfarm.com/2012/05/27/recipe-aaron-franklins-butcher-paper-brisket/

He spritzes with a 50/50 mixture of water and Worcestershire, never heard of that before.

C'mon, Weekend!