WOW, why did I wait so long to smoke a brisket?
My wife , the fiddler and I first had brisket at a pot luck at a music jam in rural Kansas about 15 years ago. It was really good and while I have had it at restaurants since, it never seemed as good as Kansas . Since I got the Bradley in 2012, I have resisted the idea of doing a brisket as I figured a lot of work and I wasn't sure how it would turn out and they are not cheap at the regular price.
I was seduced the other week by the Loblaw special of $2.99lb and bought my 11.5lb whole cryovac'd "packer".
After I got it home and started looking at the size of it and the size of a Bradley rack, I thought there is no way that sucker fits on the rack! I also belong to the Bradley Smoker Forum, so I asked the question there, and was told simply tent it/bend it to fit and as it cooks and shrinks it will fit fine. Yeah, that does work.
Anyways, yesterday, just after supper, I got the brisket out of the fridge and opened it up, put it on my cutting board, patted it dry with paper towels and trimmed away about 1.5lbs of fat. This left about a 1/4inch on the top side of the flat and where the flat and point(the thick part) join, I cut away a lot of that fat as well. I gleaned this info from various web-sites.
Also, brisket can be a tough cut of meat and it is important you slice it across the grain to serve. One of the sites said it can be hard to determine grain direction after smoking and to make a couple of partial cuts before you dry rub, as this will show you which direction to carve after cooking. I did this and it worked fine.
After I trimmed it, I liberally applied my dry rub on both sides, wrapped it tightly in Saran and put it in the fridge overnight.
Got it out early this morning and let it warm up for an hour while the Bradley was warming up.
After I took off the Saran, I applied another light coating of dry rub. I "bent it" onto the rack, and that worked fine.
It went into the smoker at 8am and I put 4 hours of smoke on it (half Mesquite and half Hickory) at 200-225 degrees. At Noon, I turned the rack 180 degrees and left it in the smoker until 4pm at the temp of 200-225 degrees. The internal temp was about 165 degrees at that time and I double wrapped it tightly in heavy duty foil and than into the oven at 300 degrees.
It was in for 1 and 3/4 hours and when I took it out, the internal temp was 208 degrees. You need to get it up to this high of temp in order to breakdown the fibres in the meat. I let it sit in the foil for 45 minutes before unwrapping and cutting. That way any juices are reabsorbed back into the meat.
I cut it across the grain, which my prior cuts identified and it was fork tender, juicy and a wonderful flavor.
As good as or better than what I remember of Kansas.
Would I do another--you betcha! Lot of work, but based on this experience, well worth it.
Pics follow.
First one is the brisket still in the cryovac.
SDC
HOW I SMOKED THE BEEF BRISKET, TURNED OUT SUPER!
