Separating the point and flat

Personal preference. You should try both ways and see which you prefer. For comp cooks you can get more bark on burnt ends separating first. I cook whole then the point slides off with my hand. KISS method!

I prefer to cook them together, seems to keep the flat more moist.

Have tried it both ways over the years. I prefer to use well trimmed packers leaving point and flat attached until after cooking.

Years ago Fast Eddy told me he separates the brisket when cooking comps. I didn't ask why but assumed it had to do with BE's. I tried it once or twice and felt the flat was a bit dry. As many briskets as F.E. has cooked, no doubt he's perfected the flat.

Thanks for the input, I separated mine during this last cook. The burnt ends are still on the FEC as I type. Will let ya'll know how the flat turns out. I did use butchers injection so I think it will be fine.

So I have been experimenting with separating deckle from flat as my friends cannot get enough burnt ends and i always have left over slices. I have been buying Deckles only from a local butcher and cannot quite replicate how well the BEs turn out when I cook a whole packer then separate to make BEs. Today i bought the deckle half of a brisket with the fattier part of the flat still attached - basically had them remove the thinner flat part that they trim and sell to people who have no idea how to mae brisket ....Curious to see if this helps. Has anyone tried it this way before?

quote:

Originally posted by bigwheel:
Have tried it both ways over the years. I prefer to use well trimmed packers leaving point and flat attached until after cooking.

Me too!

I'm certainly no expert/guru about this brisket stuff,but have been the" grunt" for some pretty good cooks.

I watched and figured out that different cooks cooked in different places,and had access to different levels/quality of briskets.
Judges seemed to look for different presentations than the cooks now look for.

There is a feller ,tied closely to Cookshack ,that some of you old guys around OK/TX might have heard of.They have some OK restaurants that did fine and produced some sauce that many of the old guys,like Smokin'Okie,bigwheel,Fast Eddy,drbbq knew well.Guy named Paul something that won most of the big cook-offs-some of them a couple times.
He had not a real packer,but something trimmed across the top for these OK restaurants,and he sorted thru all the cases until he got just the right ones.Hanging around over the years with John and Trish Trigg,they had that same trim.Must be an OK/TX thing.
Now he split them up and damned if the "fool" didn't cook up around 275º.Still don't know why,since he filled a box with straight across slices.

Some of you folks go up to Ponca probably eat at the bbq joints.

Now when drbbq had me follow Fast Eddy around and see if I could get smart,damned if he didn't do the same thing,except he kept me cooking slo/lo.

Now FE was dominating the brisket cooks in those days and damned if I could figure it out.
drbbq just said "follow around behind Eddy and listen,because he don't even know all he knows".

Now the co-cook and I been doing that for about 15 years and all I have figured out is Eddy adjusts the contests and his meats to what is necessary.Eddy was hauling an FEC 500 and tried to explain that the rotisserie cooked great with packers splitup,but being a country boy,I just nod my head. Smokin'Okie cooks on one of them,so he can probably explain what is going on.All I can tell ya is FE is still hard to beat head to head on a brisket.

Not that ya'll care about us "grunts",but I never got smart enough to divide my packers.
Oh yeh,that Paul feller is named Schatte and he cooks for a place called Head country.

There was a pretty good discussion this week on the BBQ central show on brisket cooking.

Funny how 3 top cooks all had a different schedule/cook temps, but they did have a couple things in common. It seems they liked whole packers and a "feel" for doneness.

So is the 'whole packer' what I've seen at Walmart, about a 15# package for $2.99/lb. I've also seen a 5 or 6 lb. package for $7.50/lb. Which is prefered?

quote:

Originally posted by Bartinarkansas:
So is the 'whole packer' what I've seen at Walmart, about a 15# package for $2.99/lb. I've also seen a 5 or 6 lb. package for $7.50/lb. Which is prefered?

Yep!, the 15lber is what you want.



The top left side will be the flat and the bottom right will be the point. This was a choice 17lb whole packer from RD.

quote:

Originally posted by Bartinarkansas:
So is the 'whole packer' what I've seen at Walmart, about a 15# package for $2.99/lb. I've also seen a 5 or 6 lb. package for $7.50/lb. Which is prefered?

I'm sure that's a trimmed flat. And if it's really $7.50 a lb it better be Prime, not choice or select.

Skip that one.

You're paying $4.50 more a pound for the butcher to trim it down from a packer.

I got a 13.5 pounder and put it on last night at 10:00 @ 225. At noon today will be 14 hours. What's the best thing to do with it until the company gets here ready to eat, around 5 or 5:30?

It will rest nicely and stay fairly hot if you triple wrap it (tightly) in foil, wrap the foil package in an old terry towel and place that in an insulated cooler chest. The process just described is known as F.T.C.

Cal what are you paying for Creekstones these days? I ordered in 3 last week...not Master Chef but the next tier down (forget the name...but they were Choice-Angus) Price was $5.10 @ lb via one of my Boston purveyors (known for somewhat high pricing)

Sorry for the hijack.

quote:

Originally posted by Bartinarkansas:
I got a 13.5 pounder and put it on last night at 10:00 @ 225. At noon today will be 14 hours. What's the best thing to do with it until the company gets here ready to eat, around 5 or 5:30?

Bart,
What finish temp are you shooting for? At 225 it will likely take longer than 14 hours. (I cook @250 and pull @200+). Remember to probe the meat. If you get resistance, keep cooking. To speed things up, you could wrap in foil early with a little mop sauce. Foil results in soft bark, faster cook, & moister meat. If you foil, you can bump the heat up to 250-275 if needed to finish in time to allow at least 1 hour (4 hours is better) to rest. Wrapped in a cooler it will stay above 140 for hours. Leave the probe in & set on top of the cooler to monitor without opening. You'll get a 5-10 degree initial temp rise. If it's cold out, preheat the cooler with HOT water or smoke potatoes and put in the cooler with the meat.

I just checked it and put in the temp probe. It's at 199. Is it done? My wife and I are newby's at it and discussing what to do next! I'd rather not cut into it to check for doneness. She suggested taking it off, then putting it back on an hour or so before we eat. I didn't expect it to be done in 12.5 hours, if it is. I'm not sure if it's the temp that says it's done, or the length of time it cooks. Some say 1.5 hr. per lb. That'd take it about 18 hrs. to be done.

Thanks for any replys!!

As Smokin' says "It's done when it's done". If your probe goes in like its soft butter, you're done. People tend to undercook or freak out during the stall, bump the temp & burn it up. Hopefully you just wrapped & rested it. No need to put back on. You're close enough.

Sorry for the late response. Most people are busy on Sat/Sun (especially the comp cooks). I'm sure some others will jump in & Smokin may move to a new thread? Let us know how it turned out.

Dittos on what JoeM said. It has to pass the poke test to coin a phraee from an old comp chum.."When you stick it with the gauge and it accidentally goes through both sides and bumps the floor of the pit..its ready." I shoot for 250 pit temps on briskets and expect it to be right when it hits 200 as measured in the "flat"..not the point. Never had one that wss not quite tendered up to reach the desired consistency after it was stuck in the insulated box. Hear a lot of folks tout the efficacy of the procedure..just never has worked for me. Might help a slight amount but aint going to turn a chewy one into a melt in your mouth model.

quote:

Originally posted by MaxQ:
Cal what are you paying for Creekstones these days? I ordered in 3 last week...not Master Chef but the next tier down (forget the name...but they were Choice-Angus) Price was $5.10 @ lb via one of my Boston purveyors (known for somewhat high pricing)

Sorry for the hijack.

They've gotten high Max, I just bought a case a few weeks ago that was 4.19/lb for prime. I've been messing around with some Waygu's that I can pick up locally for 5.99/lb by the case that are a little more aggressively trimmed.

If brisket prices get any higher, I may have to cook only one per comp or stay home and watch football.