Brisket Day: A BBQ Odyssey

In true blogging fashion, I am now bringing to you a chronicle of my day of the brisket. I will be updating this post throughout my experience, so don't forget to check in with MIA during your Memorial Day celebrations to see how I'm doing. Some background information that you need to know is this: I have never cooked brisket before from scratch. Yes, while I do consider myself a damn good griller and an excellent barbeque-ist, I have never cooked a brisket before. I'll admit that I was afraid. It's such a huge piece of meat, and an expensive one at that. To ruin a brisket would be to waste money and time, and it would a terrible shame.

So naturally, I've been a bit afraid. One other reason is that brisket is a big deal in Texas barbeque. If you're in Texas and you're eating barbeque, then you're eating brisket. Maybe the occaisional rib or chicken to cleanse the palette, but brisket is king where beef is king. Texas.

Brisket Day Log || minus 7 hours
At about 9 pm on the night before I am sceduled to put the brisket in the smoker, I must prep the meat. This particular brisket is a flat cut brisket, about 7.5 pounds. As you can see from the picture, it's a very big piece of meat. Now, 7.5 pounds may not sound very large to you, but trust me ... trying to lift that thing was no small task. Just handling that brisket really made me understand what butchers go through when carving a side of beef.

I took extra care to be very sanitary when doing this preparation. I laid out paper towels on the island so that clean up with be easy, and there wouldn't be any drips. This brisket came in a plastic vacuum-sealed pack. I laid the edge of the pack on the side of the sink, cut the end of the plastic and let the blood drain in the sink. When it was done, I moved the pack to the island, cut a slit down the long axis of the plastic container and pulled out the meat. Finally, I pat it dry with paper towels.

Brisket Day Log || minus 6 hours 45 min.
Now that the brisket was dry and blood free on the surface, it's time to schmear. I used 1 cup of my Sweet and Spicy Rub combined with 3 tablespoons of apple juice to make a paste. I then rubbed it in all over the meat, working it in to the crack, crevices, and folds.

Since I don't have a vessel large enough to hold this in the fridge, I cleaned the vac-pack out with hot soapy water and then dried it. The briset was then put back into the vac-pack and wrapped in two layers of foil. Into the fridge it goes until about 4:30 tomorrow morning. I'll be up at the butt-crack of dawn smoking a brisket tomorrow. How 'bout you?

Brisket Day Log || minus 1 hours
OK, it's 4:30 in the morning on Memorial day and I'm up getting the grill ready. I have swept out all the old ash and am prepping the side-box for smoking. I put a generous pyramid of charcoal on the grace and light it up. I takes about 45 minutes for the coals to completely go to gray-covered ash. At that time, the brisket goes on.

Brisket Day Log || 0 hours 0 min.
The brisket is on. I add some hickory chunks to start the smoking. It looks beautiful. The air out here is very still and very humid today. No breeze. This forces the smoke to pretty much stay in our yard. It looks like what a forest looks just after the fire. During the day today, I've been monitoring the temperature about every 30 minutes and adding more wood or charcoal as necessary. I've found that once the fire has reached a certain level of coals and ash, I don't need to add any more charcoal, just big hickory chunks.

Brisket Day Log || plus 5 hours 33 min.
It's 11:33 am. The brisket has been in the smoker since about 6:00 this morning. The in-laws arrived at 10:00 am and brought over a digital remote probe thermometer (which I love). We seem to be on track to removing the brisket at around 1 pm today. The temperature inside the thickest part of the meat should be about 190 degrees when I take it out. Now if you will excuse me, I have a date with a beer.

Brisket Day Log || plus 7 hours
It's 1 pm. The brisket has reached an internal temperature of 190 degrees Fahrenheit. I have taken the brisket off the grill and wrapped it in alumninum foil. I then put the wrapped brisket in an empty ice chest and packed it with newspaper. Supposedly, the temperature of the brisket will continue to cook the meat and release juices while rendering the fat and making it moist.

Brisket Day Log || plus 8 hours 30 minutes
OK ... time to cut. I am very satisfied with the end product ... VERY satisfied. I'll just let these pictures do the talking. It was truly delicious.

Thanks to everyone for leaving such nice comments. I got a mention from Brian over at The BBQ Guy, and plenty of nice emails. It was truly a fun experience, even if it did leave completely exhausted and near passing out around 4:00 pm. The whole thing went off without a hitch, and it turned out perfect.

I have made it to the top of my Everest, and I look forward to repeat excursions.