My Brisket Story - I feel Like a Pro

danv23

First off, I’ve cooked Brisket twice before the one I made this weekend, of which neither was worth discussion.  I decided I wanted to master the beast, so I watched Franklin on You Tube go through his complete process.  I was inspired.

Went to Kroger and bought an 18lb packer Angus Select.  I trimmed it as Franklin instructed.  When it came to the rub of salt and pepper, I didn't want to spend an eternity with the grinder or the mortar and pestle, so I combined ¼ cup kosher salt and ¼ cup peppercorns and threw them in the coffee grinder.  I pretty much pulverized it to a powder.  But after I tasted it, I loved it.  On it went.  After the rub I let it sit out for an hour.  I hooked up the Guru to the XL, mixed in about 8 chunks of Oak into the lump, set ‘er at 250 and let ‘er go.  In the egg I added 2 drip pans to cover the platesetter and filled them with hot water, placed the grid on and then an elevated grid.  I have learned that having meat too close to full drip pans makes the meat taste like ****.

About the time the hour was up for letting the beast warm up on the counter, the fire was burning nice and clean.  I put it on at 4:45pm fully expecting it to cook for ~ 20 hours.  We were set to eat at 6:30pm.  Please note, if the fire wasn’t clean, i.e., thick white smoke, I would not have put the beast on.  I would have waited. 

Woke up at 8am to find internal was 195.  Yikes.  I grabbed some butcher paper and wrapped it up, reinserted the probe, and scaled the egg down to 210.  The beast felt pretty dam good, as far as done goes.  I noted that the flat felt about the same raw as when it’s done.  I checked with a toothpick, yep, done, but I was a long way away from eating time.  So I figured the wrap was the best idea. 

At 10:30am I heated up a can of beef broth and took the beast off and unwrapped it.  I got some foil ready, put the beast on it, poured the broth on it and continued to wrap with 4 more pieces of foil.  I then put it in a cooler that luckily was the dam near the same diameter as the beast, and packed about 5 bath towels on top of it.  I then put the cooler outside in the sun.

I left it in there until 4:30pm and then placed the beast (still in the foil), which was still hot to the touch, in a 170 degree oven.  I removed it at 5:30 to rest on the counter.  At 6pm I removed the foil on the top and took a peek inside.  I couldn’t believe how perfect it looked and smelled!!!!

At 6:30pm I sliced into it to find one of the best and most moist briskets I’ve ever had the pleasure to carve.  I served it and people went nuts over it.  A proud papa I was.

So why this story?  Well, I was freaked out the entire day when I essentially found it done at 8am.  There were some helpful folks here on the forum and I figured in order to pay it back/forward, I would write about how perfect it turned out. 

Moral of the story is don’t freak out, ask for help here, and enjoy the fruits of your labor!!!!!

TexanOfTheNorth

Also good to read a success story!

rtt121

Nishe!  Did you snap a pic?

CPARKTX

Awesome! Any pictures or did it get eaten too fast?

danv23

Sorry folks.  I don't have any pics.  However, if you watch Franklins You Tube, yep, that's what mine looked like.

GoldfishDude

Well done!

henapple

I'm assuming with no pics this is like one of my Penthouse Pet forum stories... )

I never believed these stores were true till today. I'm a pizza delivery man in a small rural Midwest town.. LOL.

Chubbs

Did you wear your Santa outfit when you cooked it?

danv23

I'm not the Santa, but those are my kids.  I suppose I should use a picture of me, but I love my kids more.

FearlessTheEggNoob

Nice write up Sir. Lots of good info there to be had.

danv23

Thanks!!!!

Randy1

Inspiring....brisket has not been a strong suit for me.

SmokeyPitt

Great brisket story!  Nice tip with the coffee grinder.  Did the salt and pepper get a little coffee flavor?  That wouldn't be a bad thing!  

caliking

Man I'm jealous! Thanks for posting the details. Sounds like one big hit.

danv23

I cleared out as much of the grounds as i could, but like you suggested, the grounds smelled pretty good! Now, i did clean out my S&P mix from it real good so my wife wouldn't have S&P flavored coffee!!