Summer Megapost: The Brisket

Since y’all put up with that Totino’s freezer pie post last week, it’s time you get what you deserve. The Brisket Mega-Post. I’m gonna give you a little pellet grill primer, do a little brisket trim and show you a new toy in the arsenal. I’ll say this might be the best brisket I’ve done – but it also makes me want to get back into making my “Meaty Bits – Texas Premium” rub, because that thing hit better than anything.

The recipe below is just like all my other brisket recipes – smoke at 225 until 165, wrap until 203.. but because I use the recipes as my cooking notes, my times are what’s important here. Click on below to fast forward, but let’s get talking about the pellet grill brisket.

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Recipe

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The Prep Table – Pellet Grills

Let’s get it out of the way.. pellet grills, pellet smokers, pellet poopers absolutely do not provide that genuine smoke that you get from a traditional stick smoker. Having done almost exclusively pellet cooks here at ForensicBBQ, I know i’ve made this admission on more than one occasion, but I’m not too proud to say it produces the best smoked product. It does what I need it to do and I’ll probably never NOT own one because of it’s quality. We good? Let’s continue.

You can see my stack of pellets – all in these waterproof caddies. I started off labelling, then it’s sharpie marker – then it’s cross that off and add a new flavor and it’s just a shit show at this point. My favorite pellets remain the Lumberjack Char-Hickory. Unfortunately, my Rural King no longer carries their product as they started making their own (Pretty good blends). I saw Costco has their own brand now, so everyone is going the cheap pellet route.

As far as my containers, I know I got some Pecan, Apple, Cherry, Char-Hickory, Hickory, and then a bunch of blends. I think I have a mesquite in there too – hell, I don’t know. My last many cooks have been trying out the Rural King blends – and my next will be the Costco bag – so we’re giving each it’s due.

Never have I ever dumped a bag into the hopper. My RecTeq Bull holds 40 pounds and the ease of just pouring a bag into the back is tempting. But there is so much dust at the bottom of these bags – save your auger from clogging and sift out the dust. I use this strainer every time I add pellets to the hopper. Every time.. scoop, sift and add. I feel like this is an often overlooked step, but I’m years into this RecTeq and auger hasn’t clogged yet.

I also rarely pack the hopper as full as this. The only time this changes is for overnight cooks. While I try to sleep, I never do very well while it’s running, but I also don’t want it to run dry. A good rule of thumb is a pound of pellets an hour – so planning for a 40 hour hopper for an overnight cook is obvious overkill, but also playing it safe.

We’re putting this brisket on at 10pm and seeing how long it will take.

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The Prep Table – Meat

Costco’s selection of briskets all looked like garbage on this particular weekend. My local Meijer had exactly zero briskets for sale – didn’t even see a spot for them. Sam’s Club had a pretty alright selection though – some biggun’s, but I didn’t need to go crazy. Remember, I cook for me because MrsForensicBBQ doesn’t eat meat. Even after she saw the result, she wouldn’t give it a try.

Already had a pretty decent trim, but I needed to knock back that fat cap a little bit, and clean it up. The flat (right side of the pictures) were still pretty thin and very inconsistent from the size of the point (left side). I don’t do competition or else I’d try to get everything evened out for the cook. I prefer to eat the fatty point, so if my flat gets overcooked or dried out a little bit, I don’t really mind. I need that point to be, well, on point.

I mentioned above, I need to make my “Meaty Bits – Texas Premium” rub again. My OG Meaty Bits has never done me wrong, but there was something about those red Kampot peppercorns that set it apart. We’re throwing a strong coat across the meat to really build up that crust. Just like any brisket rub, it’s primarily salt/pepper.

We’re throwing her on the grates at 225F until it gets to about 165F. We’re giving it as much smoke as it can handle, until the crust starts to build up. Then we’re going to wrap it and let it go until ready. Tonight, it’s going on at 10pm-ish.

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The Process

And after sleeping no more than an hour at a time, we’ve hit about 165F. Was a warm, beautiful night (morning?) so let’s get this thing pulled off and wrapped.

Crappy pictures in groggy 3-4am mode – but that’s what we have to deal with. Gave her a tight wrap with some butcher paper and threw it back on. We’re really trying to guess at the probe spot when it’s wrapped – but I always aim for where the flat meets the point. Kind of in the middle.

Really nothing else to show you from 4am until about 2pm. A good 14 hour cook for the 12lb brisket. While I love the RecTeq probes, they’re always exactly 10F too high. So I set my “notifications” for 213F and then verify with the Thermapen.

The point was exactly at 203F. The flat was around 205-207F from what I remember. Remember, it was a thin flat, so trying to guess where exactly the center is when it’s wrapped is a challenge in itself.

I’ve done the towel/cooler thing forever, it was time to up the game. I picked this up at the local Restaurant Equippers. Holds a full-pan which is just enough for me, regardless of the cook. Couldn’t wait to try this out – the quality was great and heavy duty. I checked it after an hour of resting and the thing was still crazy hot. My last few briskets I’ve let rest for anywhere from 3-6 hours. I didn’t want that today. I wanted it rested, but also I was hungry.

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The Result

Now, I just got back from Texas and this was the first thing I need to cook. I’ve tasted the gold standard, it was still fresh in my memory so I had to see where I was at. I have some ideas for what I’m going to do with the leftover, so I’m doing slices and chopped for this one.

Okay, no doubt we have the visuals working. The smoke ring assures it gets the Instagram likes.. but as much as I love y’all on social media.. I need the taste.

We passed the bend test – so I’m feeling pretty good at this point. Speaking of point:

I can’t type out anything that does it more justice than that photo. It was so juicy, you can see the reflection in the juice. Didn’t know that was a thing, but it is now. And NO. Absolutely not.. I didn’t not do the squeeze test. One of my biggest brisket pet peeves.

Brisket was always that crown jewel of low-and-slow. You pay a lot of money and hope it doesn’t dry out. When you nail it, you start peacocking and flood your friends/family with pictures of it. For me, I share it with y’all. It’s hard to keep something like this as a “pending post” – knowing I haven’t shared it with you yet – but I hope you enjoyed the wait. I know I enjoyed the cook.

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The Recipe