1st brisket report

Ranger,
I am a newbee only have one experence but here's my 2 cents.

It took me almost 24 hrs and that wasn't the point. When you open up find the tuff's part of flat stick probe let hit 193-5, check poke and probe. Why worry about point if flat isn't done??? Read...Read... have fun!!!

quote:

Originally posted by ranger620:...Any ideas please on what I may have done to suppress the flavor. It just kind of tasted like a piece of roast beef without really much smokiness. BTW, I used 3.4 oz. of hickory...

Up the wood amount. Brisket likes smoke. 4-5 oz for a large brisket may not be too much. Practice and take notes.

Brisket for me would be easier if I was real familiar with what great brisket was like. But I'm gaining on it. There are 2 fine smoke houses in town and I prefer my CS brisket. I probably do go to more expense and effort than they can.

Flavor:
IMO, really nice, thick smoky bark makes a good brisket and pulled pork. A good piece of meat and proper cooking is also key.

There are lots of good advice from the 'old timers' on this site on how to enhance bark. Pay attention to their advice and be prepared to practice. Find a rub that excels and don't hold back! Final top coat of turbinado works fine too. I've had the best bark results cooking fat cap down. For me the flavor is in the outer crust (I never injected - so can't comment there).

Also, When I'm slicing up the brisket, I put ever so slight dusting of CS brisket rub on slices. As meat cools down the rub melts in and is hardly detectable by sight. I do this with ribs and pork.

I have never cooked a brisket that wasn't better served with a SLIGHT amount of sauce. I put sauce in condiment bottle so I can put a fine line down each piece. I tried every sauce and sauce recipe I could get my hands on and prefer CS BBQ sauce the best. I keep the CS spicy dry mix on hand and make it by the pint - always fresh.

I'm no expert. But I've read nearly every brisket post by the EXPERTS on this site. It's a challenge to sift thru, but you will be rewarded with the best Q results. Worked for me

Dry flat: It's not uncommon (for me) to have a few slices on the flat end to be "dry" - just too lean/dense to be 'tender'. If it has a tasty bark on it it's great to sit aside and freeze for baked beans and such. I prefer Sams large 8-10 lb choice flats. They usually have some of the thin (dryer) end of the flat removed.

Well,until some of the "oldtimers" get up this morning,I'll give a couple of thoughts.

The cooks above gave you good advice,and sounds like you did a pretty good job.
The quality of the product may control most of your end result.

Thanks to the gov't,choice could be 70% of the cow.

Think of a 20 year old dairy bull,or an old longhorn running the mountains of Mexico.

Compare to a 15 month old,1000 lb black and white face cross steer,that has stood in its own pasture,and has 13% creep feed as a supplement each day.

Which would you rather eat a steak from?

As mentioned,all pieces may not be great,and can be chopped/shredded.

Cookshack Brisket Rub and Cookshack Mild sauce have won many,many championships-so you are already on a good track.

Cook more,take good notes.

Experience is the only way to get "the feel" for doneness.

Yep,the point runs sorta crossways to the flat.

Some folks just slice thru it all and serve it.

Let the diner remove any fat they don't want.

Some separate the two pieces.

Cook the point two-three more hrs.

That cooker should always be better than local bbq joints.

Hard to get much smoke penetration into large chunks of meat.

Also,when you have been around the smoker all day-you can be insensitive to the smoke.

You can always add a little wood towards the end of the cook.

Adding a little seasoning and a tiny amount of flavored liquid to your foil can help.

Try cooking the next one a few degrees higher,and check the probe resistance.

Take good notes.

Hope this helps a little.

Thanks for all the good advice. I appreciate it.

Yessir,and let us know how it goes.

Old-Timers!!! That's the pot calling the kettle black!