"Franklin Style" Brisket - killed it.

nolaegghead

It was unusually moist and tender (and I swear I didn't cheat with sous vide).  In fact you don't need teeth to eat it.

SmokeyPitt

You don't need teef to eat this beef. 

Dragonwmatches

Looks great, but I need to address this "pics or didn't happen" thing - I don't think it's sufficient here.  I gotta chew it, or it didn't happen.  Sure, more stringent, but I'm more sure that way too.... /:)

 

No, really, that looks unbelievable!

^:)^

nolaegghead

Oh, you still gotta chew it...but gums will do the trick.  No toofs required!

Raymont

It looks fantastic! Ok, so is the general consensus it was your cut of brisket (was it prime or certified angus?) that determined this sucess? --Am I wrong in saying I don't see anything in prep or cooking that is really different from some of the not so moist briskets we all seem to have  done? Brisket is so much more difficult to repeat consistently!  

nolaegghead

It was choice CAB, about 14 pounds.  I think that's most of the battle - getting a good chunk of  meat.  And I'm not going to fastidiously trim like I used to.  Just the hard fat.   I think I pulled it off just at the right time and I'm wondering if the faux cambro actually helped (6.5 hours - temp dropped from 195 to 165).  I'll be superstitious if that helps me be consistent - wear the same T-shirt, etc.. 

Eggcelsior

nolaegghead said:

It was choice CAB, about 14 pounds.  I think that's most of the battle - getting a good chunk of  meat.  And I'm not going to fastidiously trim like I used to.  Just the hard fat.   I think I pulled it off just at the right time and I'm wondering if the faux cambro actually helped (6.5 hours - temp dropped from 195 to 165).  I'll be superstitious if that helps me be consistent - wear the same T-shirt, etc.. 

Don't shower either. This is key.

ericp

Wow!!!! That's all I got to say about that

caliking

Nola- you made that brisket fulfill its destiny. Looks deelish!

nolaegghead

Leftovers for dinner tonight were spectacular! 

Foghorn

I never doubted you for a second.

nolaegghead

Thank you, oh horn of fog, that means the world coming from you, sir!

Spring Chicken

It took a few failures before I had a successful brisket, and even then it wasn't as much my cooking skills or technique as it was a good brisket to begin with.  I'm convinced of it now and even if I see a packer or market trimmed brisket that has all the markings of being a good one, I know there is always the possibility that I'm wrong.  That's why we have a crock pot.  Chop it up and toss it in with some sauce and let it cook for a few hours.  It's like a miracle happened inside that crock pot, the meat magically transformed from dry, tough and tasteless to  moist, tender and very tasty. 

I think some briskets are just meant to be crock-potted after smoking.

Congratulations.  I know you now try to duplicate it.  Just don't be disappointed in your cooking skills if the next one is a bit off.  It's really the cow's fault...

Spring "Tense Cows Stay Tense Long After Bang" Chicken

Spring Texas USA

Botch

Raymont said:

Ok, so is the general consensus it was your cut of brisket (was it prime or certified angus?) that determined this sucess? --Am I wrong in saying I don't see anything in prep or cooking that is really different from some of the not so moist briskets we all seem to have  done? Brisket is so much more difficult to repeat consistently!  

I used to do a lot of two-brisket cooks for my office in a previous job.  I always bought the briskets at the same place, at the same time, and yet every once in awhile, one would come out excellent and the other, not so much.  Its a variable you can't really do anything about, that I can see.  

hartofatiger

Damn, that looked juicy! Great job. I'll have to try a S/P only rub on brisket.

Aviator

Dude, certainly a masterpiece. You ought to have an excellent pic taken and frame it to hang on your kitchen/mancave wall.  =D>

If this don't make one salivate....

brycos

I went to an all-natural health food/grocery store and ask the guy behind the meat counter about their meat and why it supposedly taste better.  He gives me this long story about the life that their cows have lead in beautiful meadows vs the life of a cow in a feed lot and the trauma and fear that those cows go through. 

So I laughingly say to the guy "You're saying happy cows taste better?", thinking he can't be serious.

Hesitantly he says "Yes"

So if this guys right, maybe Nola got a happy cow.  Hell, I might open a butcher shop and call it "Happy Cows R Us".

Foghorn

nolaegghead said:

Thank you, oh horn of fog, that means the world coming from you, sir!

As it should (yeah right).

It is nice to see you post a straightforward cook without resorting to gadgets, gizmos, or wizard-like conjuring where you boil the meat first or inject it with vampire blood.  Note, I'm not saying your sous vide meat and beet sausage in Salado weren't good, but up til now I always thought you were doing that stuff to overcome some basic barbecue inadequacy (you know like when some guys buy a corvette to try to compensate for coming up a little short in other areas).

 

LBC Dawg

I had the same kinda experience a couple weeks ago. tried my 1st brisket in a while. it was choice from Sam's, but it sat in my fridge about 25 days before I smoked it. it came out absolutely unbelievable, looked much like yours. did another 1 last weekend and it was good but not nearly as good as the aged brisket. gonna make some chili w/ the leftovers. and while I think aging the other had a little bit to do w/ how it tunred out, the biggest factor, to me at least, is just grabbing the right piece of meat at the market.

Eggbertsdad

@nola,

I was watching some of Franklin's vids on youtube and I was curious as to how it tasted with just salt and pepper? Seems simple. 

NICE WORK!!!!!

nolaegghead

Foghorn said:

nolaegghead said:

Thank you, oh horn of fog, that means the world coming from you, sir!

As it should (yeah right).

It is nice to see you post a straightforward cook without resorting to gadgets, gizmos, or wizard-like conjuring where you boil the meat first or inject it with vampire blood.  Note, I'm not saying your sous vide meat and beet sausage in Salado weren't good, but up til now I always thought you were doing that stuff to overcome some basic barbecue inadequacy (you know like when some guys buy a corvette to try to compensate for coming up a little short in other areas).

 

I admit, my infatuation with BBQ is psychologically a therapeutic reaction to the equivalent of a mid-life crisis.  That said, the whole BBQ/BGE branch is to a certain degree just another tool in the arsenal in the big picture - which is more foodie based.  However, it combines perfectly as an excuse to pursue the geek side of my personality disorder - gadgetry and technology.  I'm a firm believer in results-based success - how you get there is just a back story.  In this case, not using sous vide, microscopes, strange appliances and the like, and kickin' it old school, was immensely satisfying.

Foghorn

"In this case, not using sous vide, microscopes, strange appliances and the like, and kickin' it old school, was immensely satisfying."

No doubt.  My son says I owe him an overnight brisket cook so we hope to get to that sometime in the next couple of weeks.  If I have the energy to tinker with a stickburner all night we may even do two briskets - one on the egg and one on the Klose - just so we can have a direct comparison (prospective randomized trial?).  However, what I'm reading here about the luck of finding the right meat from the right cow suggests that any conclusions we draw would not be valid unless we do about 20 briskets on each cooker.  The Klose could probably handle that but I don't think I could get anywhere near that many on the egg.

And you know I was joking about the "inadequacies" thing - right?

nolaegghead

When I saw that brisket through the meat counter window, I was struck.  Barry White started playing in my brain's internal iPod.  Handling the meat, bending it, inspecting the fat and the marbling...it just felt right.  I think through sheer mental optimism I effected a symbiotic relationship between the meat and the cook, and it worked.  Now doing something once is more likely just a result of chance, but it sounds sexy to think there's more to it than that.

@Foghorn - if nothing else, you gain experience. Ultimately, increase your odds through failure. It's hard to describe the characteristics of a good chunk of brisket, it being wrapped in plastic over fat.  So the second criteria would be pedigree.  Que the music and imagine scantily clad nymphs sponge bathing proud cows with soapy beer in a quiescent valley....

Foghorn

"Que the music and imagine scantily clad nymphs sponge bathing proud cows with soapy beer in a quiescent valley...."

So you were that guy on the other side of the valley in my dream?

nolaegghead

Foghorn said:

"Que the music and imagine scantily clad nymphs sponge bathing proud cows with soapy beer in a quiescent valley...."

So you were that guy on the other side of the valley in my dream?

I thought I saw you over there

The Cen-Tex Smoker

Foghorn said:

"In this case, not using sous vide, microscopes, strange appliances and the like, and kickin' it old school, was immensely satisfying."

No doubt.  My son says I owe him an overnight brisket cook so we hope to get to that sometime in the next couple of weeks.  If I have the energy to tinker with a stickburner all night we may even do two briskets - one on the egg and one on the Klose - just so we can have a direct comparison (prospective randomized trial?).  However, what I'm reading here about the luck of finding the right meat from the right cow suggests that any conclusions we draw would not be valid unless we do about 20 briskets on each cooker.  The Klose could probably handle that but I don't think I could get anywhere near that many on the egg.

And you know I was joking about the "inadequacies" thing - right?

cut one brisket in half long ways so you have flat and point on both and cook one half in the stick burner and one half in the egg. That will be a accurate test.

Foghorn

"cut one brisket in half long ways so you have flat and point on both and cook one half in the stick burner and one half in the egg. That will be a accurate test."

I thought about that.  I wasn't sure how having a large cut surface might affect how it cooks, moisture retention, etc.  And since briskets aren't symmetric I was wondering about how I could get two truly equal hunks of meat...

Eggcelsior

Foghorn said:

"cut one brisket in half long ways so you have flat and point on both and cook one half in the stick burner and one half in the egg. That will be a accurate test."

I thought about that.  I wasn't sure how having a large cut surface might affect how it cooks, moisture retention, etc.  And since briskets aren't symmetric I was wondering about how I could get two truly equal hunks of meat...

Go to a butcher and get the L and R brisket from the same cow?

Foghorn

Sone argue that you want the left side every time because it is less used...