Brisket was a smashing success. Several people said it was hands down the best meat they've ever had. I did a basic salt & pepper rub, couldn't find any butcher paper locally so I just let it cook low and slow the whole time. Started probing it at 195* and pulled it at 204*. Let it rest for about an hour and then carved it. Wish it had a better smoke ring but the flavor was there.
Here you go. Also, not specifically for you, but for anyone else that does full packer briskets fairly often I've used this knife religiously for years now, and it's the best way I've found to slice briskets. And don't stress out too much about the smoke ring; it's entirely an aesthetic thing, it has absolutely no effect on the flavor of the meat.
I really need to find somewhere in the UK that sells butchers paper. Last lot I got just wasn't right and too small. Looks like I'm going to be firing up the BBQ this weekend again to do Brisket.
Noticed a price drop on the Dyna-Glo vertical smoker (down to $260) so decided to get myself a little birthday present. Easier, more cooking surface and more efficient than my old offset, which has been used and abused. I'll turn the offset into a straight charcoal griller so it'll still be used, just not as much. Not sure if Thanksgiving will be able to happen logistically this year with covid or not, but I've been volun-told to do smoked turkey, which I've never done. The vertical smoker will make it vastly easier.
Go light on the smoke. Easy to over smoke a turkey. Old co-worker did one on his Egg and it tasted like an ashtray.
Did a 7lb Turbo Butt on the Egg this weekend. 350-375* for ~ 6 hours is so much easier than ~15 hours at 225-250* and tastes 90% as good. There were a few small areas that didn't want to pull apart as easy but unless I'm really trying to impress someone, I doubt I'll do another "low and slow" butt again.
Put this 8.5 pounder on around 7 this morning. 13 hours later Im still a few degrees from my target, but should pull within the next hour or so I’m guessing. EDIT: Of course my batteries died on my prob at then end, but I think I’m around 190-195 and it’s pulling fine now. Spritzed at the end with apple cider vinegar and seasoning blend:
My Big Green Egg showed up a few days ago and I’ve been having some fun with it. Today is my first long smoke with it with an 8lbs pork shoulder... it’s going swimmingly, and I learned that I really suck at controlling the temp with this thing. Did a beer can chicken last night using a raddler and it was amazing. Brisket is ordered for next week and next up are some ribs. Loving this new aspect of cooking I’ve committed to exploring so far.
Glad you're enjoying it, but please, don't stick a can inside of a chicken. It doesn't actually do what everyone claims it does. The actual reason beer can chicken turns out better than most is because you're doing vertical roasting; not from the beer "moistening from the inside". As a matter of fact, you're actually INCREASING your chance of developing salmonella. Get yourself one of these, give the bird a nice overnight brine (dry or wet, although dry will get you a more crispy skin, if that's your thing), and baste occasionally with a little lemon-herb compound butter, and you'll never buy rotisserie chicken again.
YouTube is your friend in trimming brisket. Remember that smoke doesn’t penetrate fat and go wild mixing the rub yourself. I love making interesting rubs and they really shine on briskets. Even though it’s hard to beat standard Texas rub — coarse salt and cracked pepper — you can really have some fun with briskets. Also, smoked chicken legs are fun. Dirt cheap, I marinate them overnight in a baggie with a beer and a ton of fajita seasoning. Smoke them until around 250 until they’re about done, then crank up the heat for a crispy skin. Tastes like fajita on a stick.
Note to self and sausage fans. The big mahogany casing for summer sausage and salami are not water proof. Just wasted five pounds of meat finishing them off in my sous vide.
Yes. For what ever reason, laziness, I figured the big casings were water tight with the ends tied off.
Just had my Egg Genius delivered after a 92 day delay. Thanks COVID! Did a brisket overnight with it, and I've gotta say, overall, I'm really happy with it. It's a small fan with wifi/bluetooth enabled controller on it, with temp probes. You can access your session from a web site, if you like (option to make it private), and it does a pretty good job of providing you the ability to set/check pit and meat temps. It automatically refreshes values every 3-5 seconds or so. It's a re-branded/shared-service run by Flame Boss (https://myflameboss.com). This is the graph from my first session last night: It's offline because I killed the controller and it's no longer online, but it keeps all your historical sessions that you can label and take notes on. I'm still suffering from heating the Egg up too fast and having it overshoot the temp I want, and then it's damn near impossible to drop the temps back down... last night I tried burping the egg more than a few times (every red line drop on that graph was me opening the lid). The genius does NOT do a good job at the initial stage of lighting the charcoal to getting to the temp you want... it cranks up the air way too much and then shuts off while you just sit there and watch temps go 30+ degrees over desired. I think I've figured out how to do it better the next time (creep up on the setpoint slowly after getting close manually, without the genius). Mind you, last night I eventually had to use a ton of cold ice and water to draw out a bunch of the heat. Once I did that, the temps were quite well controlled from that point on all night, almost like magic. Pulled it out this morning about 10:30 and put it in the cooler, and as of about an hour ago it's almost fucking perfect... super moist, amazing smoke ring and bark... I'll take a pic of it just before we have dinner... I only cut a chunk off to deliver to my sister and BIL. All in all, even though it's kind of expensive, I'm really glad I have it.
Learned the same lesson on my BGE. Once that ceramic is hot, it takes forever to cool down. Once in an effort to cool it down, I shut the dampers too much and snuffed out the fire. Good times.
It's not on Amazon, but if anybody is looking for a deal on a thermometer, ThermoWorks is having a 25% off sale today and tomorrow on both their Thermapen Mk4 and their Smoke thermometers.
In case you're wondering why it's not on Amazon, they have a big problem with fraud, etc, so have big warnings on their web site: https://blog.thermoworks.com/thermometer/new-warning-thermoworks-website-2/
Yep, I've seen them on Amazon before in the past and saw the price was way off compared to the retail site, so any time I want any of their stuff I know just to go directly to the manufacturers site. I'm guessing this will be their equivalent to a 'black Friday/cyber Monday' sale this year since they don't do this level of discounts often.