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east_beast said:
I think I'm gonna try the Goldee's method on my next brisket. They smoke unwrapped to 190 then an 8 hour hold with tallow wrapped in foil.
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I'm a big fan of the rest. I put one on the smoker on a Thursday night, pulled it Friday noonish, foiled it, wrapped it in a towel, and put it in a cooler not much bigger than the brisket itself. Took it to my brother's place 2 hours away, and then we got into the beer. About 9pm I said "Oh shit, I've got that brisket in the truck, let's eat." It was still uncomfortably hot to handle, and was the most tender brisket I've ever made.

That straight from the smoker to the cutting board, that ain't it.
 
Gatorgrizz27 said:
It’s because you aren’t getting it hot enough the render the fat out between the muscle fibers, which is usually in the ~ 200 degree range. It’s basically pastrami, not Texas style brisket.
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I've had the same experience trying the different sous vide + smoke methods. Consensus is the secret temperature is 203 which I've seen to be true in my own cooks.
 
I hit 203 and pull to rest in a faux-cambro (cooler)... let the brisket hit the stall at 150-ish, wrap it in butcher paper (I prefer this over foil, it seems to soak up some oils/etc and doesn't steam-cook the brisket as much as foil), take it to 203, take it off, wrap it in a towel and stick it in a cooler for at least an hour or until it's time to serve.

Holding it in a faux-cambro at 203 is supposed to let some carry-over cooking occur to help break up connective-tissue further (all this per: Authentic Texas Style Smoked Brisket Recipe which I have always found to be an excellent guideline).

Another tip is to only slice it to serve instead of slicing it all up at once, this keeps it from drying out.
 
JR4X said:
Hit 203 and pull to rest or let hold at 203 for a while?
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Pull. Go above that point and you're overcooking. The more briskets I cook the more convinced I am that 203 is overcooking. The big name smokehouses usually hold around 150 on warmers. I think the Goldee method of pulling at 190ight he the ticket. Fat and collagen both render well under 200 degrees. Sous vide works because of the length of time. The fat and collagen are still rendering, just more slowly. Smoking is the same concept but the time is decreased but the temp increased. They're both seeking the same goal - creating fork tender meat by rendering fat and collagen.
 
Out of the sous vide and back on the smoker.

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east_beast said:
Pull. Go above that point and you're overcooking. The more briskets I cook the more convinced I am that 203 is overcooking. The big name smokehouses usually hold around 150 on warmers. I think the Goldee method of pulling at 190ight he the ticket. Fat and collagen both render well under 200 degrees. Sous vide works because of the length of time. The fat and collagen are still rendering, just more slowly. Smoking is the same concept but the time is decreased but the temp increased. They're both seeking the same goal - creating fork tender meat by rendering fat and collagen.
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This steered me toward reading up, thanks for pointing that out. Gotta be a sweet spot for time and temperature but it will be different for every single hunk of beef. I’m excited to see how your current sous vide brisket turns out.
 
holdmypocket said:
This steered me toward reading up, thanks for pointing that out. Gotta be a sweet spot for time and temperature but it will be different for every single hunk of beef. I’m excited to see how your current sous vide brisket turns out.
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Yeah, every one is a little different. That's why I'm backing off the 203 mantra. Sometimes it produces a perfect brisket. But just as often it produces a good brisket that leaves me thinking this thing would've been a little better off pulled a little quicker.
 
I couldn't resist the urge. Cut off the very end of the flat (the driest shotties bite on the brisket) to see what I'm working with.

Nice smoke ring, good flavor, very tender, a little dry but the end of the flat is always going to be a little dry especially on this smaller brisket where the flat tapered down to less than an inch thick at the end. If I was doing a proper smoke I would've cut off 2-3" of this flat and ground it for burger. It would've burnt up in a 12+ hour smoke.

Overall I think it's gonna turn out nice. I'm gonna pull it around 3pm and chunk it in the cooler.

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I miss my smoker, had an Oklahoma Joe Longhorn offset smoker that I scored for $300 on Black Friday one year... my ex sold it out from under me during the divorce.

I recently began casually looking at the market and found the Longhorn has been update to reverse flow and the price updated to $750. :eek: I don't need one that big anymore anyway, so what's a good one in the >$500 class made from heavy rolled steel that won't rust through like a POS consumer smoker?
 
east_beast said:
Going to see Cody Jinks on Thursday night with the family along with a buddy and his family. He called me up yesterday pitching the idea to smoke a brisket and tailgate beforehand. Unfortunately, I have shit to do tomorrow and can't hang around and tend a smoker all day. So I'm gonna try something different. Picked up a little 12 pound prime brisket from Sam's last night and got it trimmed and seasoned up. Smoked it for about three and a half hours tonight at 225-250 to build up some bark and give it some flavor. Sealed it back up and put it in the fridge.

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I'll put it in the sous vide tomorrow morning at 155 degrees and let it go until I get home from taking a half day on Thursday. Should be around 30 hours or so. When I get home I'll throw it back on the offset and give it another smoke. I'll probably run that one a little hotter to try to set the bark. Probably 275-300. I should have enough time to give it about two hours before wrapping it up and chucking it in the cooler and heading that way.

We'll see how it goes. I'm sure it'll be good, but I'm not sure it'll be like a proper smoked brisket. I've done sous vide before with briskets and they're always good but never quite right. I've tried smoking before the sous vide and just finishing on a hot grill and I've tried smoking after the sous vide and prefer the after better. This will be the first time that I try both.
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I do the full cook, put in fridge to separate the fat from the "juice" overnight , remove the majority of the fat, vac seal and freeze. To reheat, leave in vac bag and put in boiling water, turn off stove and let is "soak" for about 45min. It's dam near the same as it would be as it would from the cook.
I do the same for BBQ ribs
 
Bacchus said:
I'm a big fan of the rest. I put one on the smoker on a Thursday night, pulled it Friday noonish, foiled it, wrapped it in a towel, and put it in a cooler not much bigger than the brisket itself. Took it to my brother's place 2 hours away, and then we got into the beer. About 9pm I said "Oh shit, I've got that brisket in the truck, let's eat." It was still uncomfortably hot to handle, and was the most tender brisket I've ever made.

That straight from the smoker to the cutting board, that ain't it.
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Thats how we've always done Tri tip, comes out great

I scored a brand new Webber Kettle, bag of mesquite and a charcoal chimney for 60.00 because the lady said you can't smoke on one. She used it once and it looked like it.
I've had it for a month and use it 5 days a week. First time I've ever had a chimney starter, had no idea what I was missing.
 
Dumb Thursday question. Can a smoker be too large? I have a 100 gallon water pressure tank that I am thinking of making into an offset. Is this too large a volume if you would be doing 2-3 racks of ribs and a butt at one time?

Normally I use a home made Santa Maria style grill.
 
ORTitan said:
Dumb Thursday question. Can a smoker be too large? I have a 100 gallon water pressure tank that I am thinking of making into an offset. Is this too large a volume if you would be doing 2-3 racks of ribs and a butt at one time?

Normally I use a home made Santa Maria style grill.
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Check into tuning plates, or even reverse offset. Helps tremendously in maintaining a uniform temperature across the length of the tank. Otherwise you're going to be significantly hotter on the firebox side.
 
Bacchus said:
Check into tuning plates, or even reverse offset. Helps tremendously in maintaining a uniform temperature across the length of the tank. Otherwise you're going to be significantly hotter on the firebox side.
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Thank you. How about a verticle orientation?
 
Mikenike said:
I thought you were supposed to do them on a barely warm grill with the cheese going on while raw?
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I thought lizard people was a wild conspiracy theory before seeing that clear evidence. :laughing:
 
gunracer1 said:
i swear the magic is supposed to happen at 206.
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206 is definitely overcooked. 206 in CO is waaaaay overcooked. Fat starts rendering around 130. Collagen starts rendering around 155-160. I think the old 203 staple came from trying to balance rendering as much fat and collagen as possible at typical smoker temps while avoiding overcooking. If you do a long hold IMO you don't need to go up to 200+. That brisket is going to stay above collagen and fat rendering temps and continue to render well after it's pulled off the smoker. That's the magic of the hold IMO. You don't have to dance with the overcooking devil.
 
I did 4 butts on my vertical smoker on Dad Day. I ran it a little hotter at 300* and smoked til the butts were up to 160* or so. (About 5 hours) I then wrapped in butcher paper and finished in the over at 300 until the internal temp was 200-203*. I used Royal Oak lump charcoal and some peach wood that I got from Dad when he cut down an old peach tree in his yard.

Pulled them about 9pm and wrapped up in towels and let them rest until morning. Wife said they were still too hot to touch at 5am when I left for work.

Probably some of the best pork I have done. The smoke was nice and mellow from the peach and the higher temps on the smoker cooked faster. :smokin:
 
I always smoke butts up around 300. They're moist enough and tender enough that you don't really benefit from going low and slow IMO.
 
Yep. Run pork butts high and get that shit moving. You are just going to rip it apart anyways. Once ripped apart, a dusting of your seasoning over all the meat works wonders.
 
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