First Brisket for me - need advise

Egg_Specter

Hi all,

First of all, I'd like to thank you for all the info I find on this forum. I have enjoyed the stories and the pics which have created a mouth waterfall on a regular basis :-)

I am new to the egging and just bought myself a MiniMax plus some general accessories like convEggtor, cast iron grill, Igrill2, but unfortunately not jet the mini woo ring as I live in Europe, Switzerland.

I wanna set the bar high and am going to do a slow & low on a brisket on the egg. I shall follow the general instructions I already found in several topics, but are there any minimax-specific must-knows and/or tips you have for me?

Much appreciated and I'll post some pics of the result next week!

Cheers!

jtcBoynton

You are brave!  Just be aware that you are starting your egging adventure with what is often considered one of the more difficult items to get right.  Only tip I would offer is that the brisket will be done when it wants to be done - any time/temp charts you may be using are just general guidelines. Some will cook much faster than anticipated and some will cook much longer than anticipated. 

RAC

Welcome aboard!

bgebrent

Welcome aboard and good luck with your brisket.  Can't offer any help, sorry.

lousubcap

Welcome aboard and enjoy the journey.  
The cook will depend on your cut of brisket and size to a great extent.  Running a long duration low&slow cook on a Mini-Max could be a bit of a stretch.  That said, I have no experience with a mini max but i know @NPHuskerFL has a lot of Mini Max run-time. Hopefully he can share some insights.

NPHuskerFL

Thanks @lousubcap
Biggest obstacle will be physical size on the brisket and choosing whether to go packer, flat or point. If I had to choose due to size I like flats but, I think you'd have better success rate with a point. 
Apologies but, I can't offer any first-hand experience with a brisket on the MM (haven't done one on the MM). I understand you don't have the MM WOO and stone combo (bummer). That said with your available set-up I'd go PS legs up and legs above the fire ring and then grid. Place a cork that's been cut in half and place the Tel-Tru thermometer thru it (will help ensure the probe doesn't stab the brisket). I'd run your lump of choice and oak chunks if available. Run a dome around 250-275 and enjoy the ride. Pull after it probes like buttuh. Good luck. 

Egg_Specter

Thanks a lot guys!! I'll give it a shot this weekend :-)

Egg_Specter

So... It has been a while. I guess I needed some time to process my first egg failure. I bought myself a nice piece of rump because the briskets did not have any fatt on it (welcome to Europe :-D).

Tried to keep the dome temp around 275 (sometimes peaked at 320 though). After 4.5 to 5 hours the internal temp reached 185 and I pulled it off the MM. I didn't wrap or foil this piece of meat, but I let it rest for +-30 min before cutting. As you can see on the 2nd pic, the meat was dry.. Do you think I overdid it with the higher temp-peaks, or did I pull it off too early? I recon that I looked only at the internal temperature, and did not really feel the tenderness of the meat. Any advise is welcome, eager to learn :-)!

On a side note; I paid a visit to NYC around Christmas and bought myself two presents: the MiniMax Woo (ceramicgrill) and Kick Ash Basket. AWESOME!!!!! Both parties had great customer service and delivered the materials to my hotel :-)

grillwell

Rump is a braising meat for me.  Not sure if you can L&S it to tender.  Others on this forum may have more input there.  It does look like you got a nice smoke ring though.  I don't think a few short spikes in temp should affect the cook dramatically.  Good luck on the next cook.