Smoked Beef Brisket 3/12/10

Smoked Beef Brisket

3/12/10

For my first attempt at smoking a brisket I selected an 18 lb USDA select packer.

I read about everything I could find on smoking a brisket and settled in on two really good articles. Smokin Okies’ Brisket 101 and Mainely Dave’s Beef Brisket in the Cookshack Smokette both are from http://forum.cookshack.com/groupee

Chef-Boy-Arnie

I took the brisket out of the cry-o-vac bag and washed it with warm running water

Just to keep things simple I’ll be using 4 pieces of hickory for the smoke

At an hour to an hour and a half per pound the smoke should take somewhere between 18 and 27 hours. Seems long, but I haven’t been steered wrong yet.

My plan is to put the brisket in the AmeriQue before I head to work in the morning somewhere around 6:20. I have a full day tomorrow and will not return home before 9:30 PM. I’m a little anxious about it, but I really want to try this.

Then I sprinkled Cook Shack Rib Rub on it very liberally, put it in a bag and put it back in the fridge for the night

5:30 AM it is 40⁰ and rain is predicted.

I got the brisket out of the fridge and let it rest on the counter for about a half hour while I got the AmeriQue ready.

6:25 AM into the AmeriQue it goes.

I set the cook temp to 200⁰ and the probe temp to 190⁰ and as Ron Popeil says “set it and forget it”

3:30 PM OK I can’t stand it; I called home and had the wife check on the brisket. It is 145⁰ so I have her turn the cook temp up to 225⁰.

She said it smells good.

10:30 PM The brisket is 165⁰ and its time for bed. The aroma is mouthwatering; I want to peek so bad I can’t stand it.

5:00 AM Saturday morning; OK I’m up and very anxious to check on my brisket, but our grand puppy spent the night so I have to take care of her first.

5:30 AM Per the AmeriQue it had kicked into hold 50 minutes ago and the brisket has cooled to 145⁰.

Time to come out! The temp probes feel like they’re in butter.

I thought the hard part was going to be not peeking. Not taking a sample before I double wrapped the brisket in foil and towels before putting it in a cooler was downright cruel and inhumane.

Ready to eat

I let the brisket sit in the cooler for 3 hours before I separated the point from the flat and began cutting it up. Still nice and juicy with just a hint of pink

The dinner plate has all I was able to slice. The rest of it fell apart. The point was particurally tender.

The tub in the back is the discard pile.

Hindsight;

22 hours smoke time. I thought the smoke flavor was a little light. The Misses liked it just the way it was, which was a huge improvement from her first comment “Eeewe! It looks like a big piece of charcoal!”

The brisket had a good flavor, but I think I will inject the next one. I just don’t know what I’ll use…. yet.