ATK/Cook's Country - new video - Texas Brisket and ice coolers

HeavyG

ATK/Cook's Country has a new video on "How to Make the Ultimate Texas Barbecue Brisket in Your Own Backyard" and a comparison of coolers.
The brisket was done in a Weber kettle using the venerable snake method. They say they spent two years and used more than 500 pounds of brisket during their testing. They wrapped in foil. Let it rest in the cooler for a few hours. End result looked pretty good.
The cooler test included Yeti and Pelican on the higher end of pricing. No RTIC to represent the midrange of pricing and they mentioned a $1300 cooler but did not buy one  for the test (or even mention the brand - anyone know who makes a $1300 cooler in the size range tested?). Yeti wins overall but a Coleman was the value pick.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=azwKFQKAqxs

Botch

 
https://eggheadforum.com/discussion/1221201/of-packers-weber-kettles-and-charcoal-snakes#latest
 

HeavyG

SO the date of the video on YouTube (07/18/20) is a lie then?!?!?!
Sorry about that.

SGH

The only 1,300 dollar cooler that comes to mind immediately is the Yeti 350. The Engel 320 is close at 1,000 and change. 

lousubcap

Always good to know that a few of your suggestions have value.  Thanks for the post.  

The Cen-Tex Smoker

It actually looks really good. That's a great technique for someone cooking on a kettle. I doubt it would be as easy as they made it look until you had cooked several and figured out all the stuff they had to figure out but it's a great place to start if that's what you have to cook with. I've eaten brisket that looked way worse at restaurants down here so...I'd hit it.

SciAggie

They did a great job on that brisket. It’s interesting they took the brisket straight to the cooler. I would have been afraid of overcooking with carryover heat. 

Mark_B_Good

That brisket looks good. I normally wrap mine at 160F, and boy I'm nervous about taking it above 195F for fear of it going dry. Thoughts??

Botch

Mark_B_Good said:

That brisket looks good. I normally wrap mine at 160F, and boy I'm nervous about taking it above 195F for fear of it going dry. Thoughts??

I think most of us here cook a brisket until it "probes like buttah", time and temp be damned; I've had some that were ready at 195 and some not until 205.  You do bring up a good point, ATK is cooking with a given amount of BTUs (108 briquets, or whatever it was).  Hmmm.  

The Cen-Tex Smoker

Mark_B_Good said:

That brisket looks good. I normally wrap mine at 160F, and boy I'm nervous about taking it above 195F for fear of it going dry. Thoughts??

you are missing out. 200-205 is almost always the number (as long as it feels right). If someone made me pick a number instead of a feeling, it would be 205.

Mark_B_Good

The Cen-Tex Smoker said:

Mark_B_Good said:

That brisket looks good. I normally wrap mine at 160F, and boy I'm nervous about taking it above 195F for fear of it going dry. Thoughts??

you are missing out. 200-205 is almost always the number (as long as it feels right). If someone made me pick a number instead of a feeling, it would be 205.

OK, I'll "chance" it next time.  Do you guys wrap in foil to the finish line?

The Cen-Tex Smoker

Mark_B_Good said:

The Cen-Tex Smoker said:

Mark_B_Good said:

That brisket looks good. I normally wrap mine at 160F, and boy I'm nervous about taking it above 195F for fear of it going dry. Thoughts??

you are missing out. 200-205 is almost always the number (as long as it feels right). If someone made me pick a number instead of a feeling, it would be 205.

OK, I'll "chance" it next time.  Do you guys wrap in foil to the finish line?

I wrap in paper when and if the bark sets up the way I like. Sometimes the bark takes longer to develop so I don't wrap at all until the rest. I always wrap and cooler rest after pulling the brisket though. That is a critical step.

I would imagine cooking in a kettle like this video, the bark sets up pretty quickly so the wrap is probably necessary on every cook.

thetrim

@SGH probably has a dozen of the Yeti 350 along with his solid gold Merkur razor.

Damn, I wish I had even a fraction of his pocket change.

thetrim

Pretty weak plastic wrap game in the above video

Mark_B_Good

So the wrap is to protect the bark, and not to crunch through the stall?  I always thought of it as the way to get quickly through the stall.

thetrim

So this guy think 205 is the magic number??? Not 195?  Bill will not be happy!

thetrim

He also doesn't account for the friggin' cow drives the cook

The Cen-Tex Smoker

Mark_B_Good said:

So the wrap is to protect the bark, and not to crunch through the stall?  I always thought of it as the way to get quickly through the stall.

It actually does both. it will push through the stall if that's what you are looking to do. It will also stop the bark from forming any further. I am not normally looking to push through the stall (although there are times when I need to) so I mainly use it to keep my bark where I like it (not too dark or too dry and crusty).

That said, if you just wrap at a number like 160 as a matter of course just to push through the stall and your bark isn't set up right, you are going to have a soggy mess on your hands when you are done.

YukonRon

I did a 15 # trimmed down to 12# SRF Black grade Brisket using this method. No injections, however, I did wrap at 180F. I pulled at 195F and placed in cooler wrapped in towels.

I used my set up from CGS, added the pan of water started it 00:30 A.M.

I used pecan for smoking. I used just the salt and pepper, both were very coarse ground, allowed to sit sit in the fridge about 12 hours. (Observation: it seemed the bark was already kind of forming when I pulled it from the fridge from the rub)

Prior to putting on at 225F I added a light dusting of Gun Powder seasoning.

15 hour cook, 3 hours in the cooler.

It was the best brisket I have ever cooked. It was insanely juicy and so full of flavor. it was almost falling apart from its own weight on every slice. It was beyond fork tender. The point was incredible.

If I had to do it over, which I will, I would wrap at around 170F. Aluminum foil wrapped as tight as I could, no air spaces.

The foil created zero issues with the bark.

SonVolt

I think a lot of this method's success can be attributed to the initial dry-brine with salt. That's how I do all my large cuts and there's a noticeable lack of seasoning through-and-through when I don't.