Tomorrow's brisket

njl · January 2019

Image: https://zxy5lw.bl.files.1drv.com/y4mvTX_8Z_iV5ll30ewQGgkCu4luQwb7BGiT3NdwTaZ1bGrXcWT-AXC4Em7aZLdMEk2jf7wJvyTj_X7xHn7lStF85_RHO5ACfgocwLJlWGKW6jGZ8UVmgRD7eIA7WgBeeVYEDKmX8u9K8hoptv1CON2QcuxLoynnMb_Uho39gUYyjesKqMIvDWq4OwAbO2A5eL1ZiZPenjviZ4nMCYCXnrMXA?&cropmode=none

This one "required" the most extensive trimming I've done yet on a brisket. 2lb, 1oz mostly of hard fat. That "vein" of it on the bottom in the picture went so deep, I started to worry I was going to end up separating the point from the flat if I wanted to remove all the hard stuff.

It's a 12.7lb prime packer...now only 10.6lbs.

Jstroke · January 2019

Can’t wait to see the goods

nolaegghead · January 2019

You can leave that fat there, helps it cook and you can more easily cut if off when you're carving.

njl · January 2019

I thought as much hard fat as possible was supposed to be trimmed before cooking :(
Does that only apply to the top/bottom faces and edges?

nolaegghead · January 2019

Generally you trim the fat on the outside to under 1/4 inch so the sliced meat has some delicious fatty areas. You're not getting any more bark by digging out that vein of fat, and mostly it takes a lot of work.

njl · January 2019

Here it is after a night in the fridge soaking up some dalmatian rub.

It barely fit this large roasting pan. I'm a little concerned as to how it's going to fit the oval grid in the AR, or if I'm going to have to do something to "bend" it in the egg.

njl · January 2019

You northerners will laugh...but I woke up at about 7, saw that it was low 40s out, and really didn't want to get out of bed, much less go fire up the egg and start working on this brisket...but I need to get it cooked today, so the egg is warming up now.

Hawg Fan · January 2019

I’ve layed a large brisket over a v shaped roasting rack or a foil covered brick in my large Egg to avoid burning the edges.

njl · January 2019

It occurred to me as I was placing it, I could use the back of the AR to prop up the point end:

njl · January 2019

Incidentally, I've had some issues/frustration with the Lavatools Carbon thermometer - iPhone app basically crashes after a couple of iterations of wandering too far from the egg and losing the bluetooth connection / reconnecting. I was annoyed to find that their app appears to only be available for phones (doesn't show up in searches of the App store from an iPad).

We have 1 Android phone in the house that works, but nobody currently uses, so I downloaded their app from the Play store, and figured that phone can just be parked in the kitchen today so it doesn't get out of BT range. Another issue I've had with the IOS app is, the Carbon stopwatch seems to lose time. The Droid app hasn't exhibited that issue...at least not yet.

I'm just over 3:30 into this cook.

8:52am start time, 46F IT, 260F dome...first time using CGS AR

(oval stone foiled on level 1, oval grid on level 2)

0:10 270F dome, 245F probe, 47F IT

0:20 275F dome, 253F probe, 50F IT - closed bottom vent a bit more, closed petals partially

0:40 280F dome, 252F probe, 62F IT - closed petals a bit more

0:50 265F dome, 246F probe, 68F IT

2:05 260F dome, 238F probe, 119F IT

2:50 265F dome, 244F probe, 133F IT

3:20 270F dome, 255F probe, 141F IT

I'll be foiling somewhere around 160-170F to power through the stall. I'm considering adding apple juice to the foil. I've never done that with a packer. I've used juice with ribs...and I see lots of sites recommend it for brisket as well. Anyone here do this?

SaltySam · January 2019

I’ve never used juice with a Packer, but I’m far from the expert to dole out brisket advice. Let us know how it goes!

However @nolaegghead what do you mean when you say the hard fat helps it cook? I would assume that more mass would equate to longer cook time. Does it cook more evenly?

njl · January 2019

Just when I thought I'd found the bugless version of the Carbon app (Android), I noticed this. On the graph view page, where the current temp is displayed, it appears to also be displaying Time of day...but it's not local, and not even off by some whole number of hours suggesting it's time of day, but wrong TZ. What the heck is it doing? Like a clock, every second, the "time" under the temperature is updating, counting up.

nolaegghead · January 2019

SaltySam said:

I’ve never used juice with a Packer, but I’m far from the expert to dole out brisket advice. Let us know how it goes!

However @nolaegghead what do you mean when you say the hard fat helps it cook? I would assume that more mass would equate to longer cook time. Does it cook more evenly?

First of all, I never said "hard fat helps it cook". I think you should remove all the hard fat on the outside of the brisket. I don't think it's worth excavating all the fat in that vein that goes between the deckle and point. Sure, there's some hard fat in there, but you can trim out fat on the inside - it doesn't have bark so you're not losing flavor by cutting that out after (when it's easy) vs dissecting the subprimal almost into separate muscles.

You want a monolithic chuck of meat so you don't have meat burning, not a few separate muscles scrunched together. You don't want pockets.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VmTzdMHu5KU

SaltySam · January 2019

Ah, makes sense! Didn’t mean to misquote you. I just misunderstood what you were saying

JacksDad · January 2019

Also, as to all that trimmed fat... What do people do with it?

I've been putting mine into a cast iron pan, putting it in the oven at like 325 or 350, and letting the fat render down... Then pour off the liquid fat into a bowl and save in the fridge for cooking...

Any other uses for the trimmed fat that people do?

nolaegghead · January 2019

JacksDad said:

Also, as to all that trimmed fat... What do people do with it?

I've been putting mine into a cast iron pan, putting it in the oven at like 325 or 350, and letting the fat render down... Then pour off the liquid fat into a bowl and save in the fridge for cooking...

Any other uses for the trimmed fat that people do?

I feed the opossums

njl · January 2019

I dunno why, but I've never considered keeping beef fat for cooking. Bacon on the other hand...I cook bacon in the oven, and always save the bacon fat for cooking.

njl · January 2019

Here it is, 5h into the cook:

Look at the shrinkage

When I put it on this morning, the point was curved up against the back of the AR, and the front corner of the flat was nearly touching the inside edge of the egg.

njl · January 2019

I didn't think to take another pic of the finished product until I was sitting about to eat.

I did end up adding about 6oz of apple juice to the foil. I'm not sure it made a noticeable difference.

I sliced most of it thin like above, but also made some thick slices that I then cubed, and will be using that for chili.

minniemoh · January 2019

Great job! That's a nice looking plate.

njl · January 2019

The potatoes were a first for me. We've been boiling them, but I decided since the egg was "on" and I have this new AR that'll easily accommodate a small baking sheet, why not get some smoke flavor on the spuds? These are baby dutch potatoes halved, tossed with EEVO, and then sprinkled with my "dirty salt mix" (kosher salt, black pepper, paprika). They baked in the egg for about 35min while the brisket was FTC resting.

Tonight, I made a big dutch oven of chili with about 2lb of cooked diced brisket.

Jstroke · January 2019

Well, it looks to me like you slammed dunked it. I can see the moisture from my house. As far as beef fat, I feed the woodpeckers

lousubcap · January 2019

I would eat a plate of that all day long. Great cook and outcome. Congrats.

TexasisBestest · February 2019

njl said:

Incidentally, I've had some issues/frustration with the Lavatools Carbon thermometer - iPhone app basically crashes after a couple of iterations of wandering too far from the egg and losing the bluetooth connection / reconnecting. I was annoyed to find that their app appears to only be available for phones (doesn't show up in searches of the App store from an iPad).

We have 1 Android phone in the house that works, but nobody currently uses, so I downloaded their app from the Play store, and figured that phone can just be parked in the kitchen today so it doesn't get out of BT range. Another issue I've had with the IOS app is, the Carbon stopwatch seems to lose time. The Droid app hasn't exhibited that issue...at least not yet.

I'm just over 3:30 into this cook.

8:52am start time, 46F IT, 260F dome...first time using CGS AR
(oval stone foiled on level 1, oval grid on level 2)

0:10 270F dome, 245F probe, 47F IT
0:20 275F dome, 253F probe, 50F IT - closed bottom vent a bit more, closed petals partially
0:40 280F dome, 252F probe, 62F IT - closed petals a bit more
0:50 265F dome, 246F probe, 68F IT
2:05 260F dome, 238F probe, 119F IT
2:50 265F dome, 244F probe, 133F IT
3:20 270F dome, 255F probe, 141F IT

I'll be foiling somewhere around 160-170F to power through the stall. I'm considering adding apple juice to the foil. I've never done that with a packer. I've used juice with ribs...and I see lots of sites recommend it for brisket as well. Anyone here do this?

Eggs retain moisture REALLY well. It depends on preference but any spritz or added liquid especially at the end isnt going to penetrate the meat. It will just dilute your rub and prevent bark formation late in the cook. I've moved to smoking straight through and haven't seen a difference in moisture content of the meat whatsoever.

SteveinTN · February 2019

Looks great - What temp did you pull it

TEXASBGE2018 · February 2019

njl said:

The potatoes were a first for me. We've been boiling them, but I decided since the egg was "on" and I have this new AR that'll easily accommodate a small baking sheet, why not get some smoke flavor on the spuds? These are baby dutch potatoes halved, tossed with EEVO, and then sprinkled with my "dirty salt mix" (kosher salt, black pepper, paprika). They baked in the egg for about 35min while the brisket was FTC resting.

Next time try cooking them in a small cast iron skillet and add some butter and a couple cloves of fresh garlic as well as your seasoning above. Then once the potatoes are done cooking, leave them in the skillet and take them inside to rest and smash them up a bit with a fork. Thank me later.

The Cen-Tex Smoker · February 2019

njl said:

Incidentally, I've had some issues/frustration with the Lavatools Carbon thermometer - iPhone app basically crashes after a couple of iterations of wandering too far from the egg and losing the bluetooth connection / reconnecting. I was annoyed to find that their app appears to only be available for phones (doesn't show up in searches of the App store from an iPad).

We have 1 Android phone in the house that works, but nobody currently uses, so I downloaded their app from the Play store, and figured that phone can just be parked in the kitchen today so it doesn't get out of BT range. Another issue I've had with the IOS app is, the Carbon stopwatch seems to lose time. The Droid app hasn't exhibited that issue...at least not yet.

I'm just over 3:30 into this cook.

8:52am start time, 46F IT, 260F dome...first time using CGS AR
(oval stone foiled on level 1, oval grid on level 2)

0:10 270F dome, 245F probe, 47F IT
0:20 275F dome, 253F probe, 50F IT - closed bottom vent a bit more, closed petals partially
0:40 280F dome, 252F probe, 62F IT - closed petals a bit more
0:50 265F dome, 246F probe, 68F IT
2:05 260F dome, 238F probe, 119F IT
2:50 265F dome, 244F probe, 133F IT
3:20 270F dome, 255F probe, 141F IT

I'll be foiling somewhere around 160-170F to power through the stall. I'm considering adding apple juice to the foil. I've never done that with a packer. I've used juice with ribs...and I see lots of sites recommend it for brisket as well. Anyone here do this?

I love my Javelin prod duo but that Carbon Lite thing is a POS. One use and done for me.

acolle · March 2021

JacksDad said:

Also, as to all that trimmed fat... What do people do with it?

I've been putting mine into a cast iron pan, putting it in the oven at like 325 or 350, and letting the fat render down... Then pour off the liquid fat into a bowl and save in the fridge for cooking...

Any other uses for the trimmed fat that people do?

Thanks for this. Never thought of it. Made it happen yesterday!

Tomorrow's brisket

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