My 2nd Brisket Ever!

So past Sunday I turned 37 and decided to tackle my dreaded nemesis - The Brisket! First one I ever cooked turned out like jerky on the bottom. So with a little more experience under my belt and a better understanding of how my PoS pit works (drafty, blanket wearing, wood sucking, .... you get the idea)... I gave it a go.

Went down to Restaurant Depot and picked up a 12.6lb Angus Choice. Came home and trimmed it up leaving about 1/4" fat cap and then injected with a little bit of beef broth/mix.

Got a good pick of it trimmed, forgot to take one after injection. Anyways, injected and covered for 6 hours in the fridge. At around hour 8pm I took it out of the fridge and then I went and fired up the pit; um I want to say I got the fire started around 8:30pm.

Came inside, pulled the brisket from the pan and marinade, patted it down, and then applied my own dry rub.
 

Brisket tasted smoke at 9:30pm.

Took this shot after about 1 hour had to fix something so decided to snap a shot - right before a HUGE freaking storm hit that caused me to drape the cooking chamber with a wool blanket. I fought for temp for almost 3 hours. Had to keep the damper full open and could barely keep around 190-200. Was not fun! Learned from it but NOT FUN!

I wrapped the brisket at about with 2 layers of heavy foil and added some broth about 6 hours into the smoke.  Depending on temps and conditions this will very and might wrap sooner next time.  Again, its a matter of practice and experience.

Kept it on the smoker til the internal temp on the point end hit around 200-205. Brought it in, wrapped it to rest. This is after around 2 and 1/2 hours of rest.  NEXT TIME I will only keep it on the pit until the internal temp is around 170-175 then remove and wrap to rest.

Was really taken back when I cut into it. Was a really hard and pronounced smoke ring ... thicker than I liked. I smoked it fat cap up for 5 hours and 3 hours fat cap down before wrapping it to finish its cook. Only thing I can think of is the wind coming through the wide open damper and a lower cook temp than I liked.  Should hard winds and rain happen again I do believe I will wrap sooner.  Cooler temps really play hard on Brisket.  It wasn't dry and wasn't crispy tough bark.  It was in my book solid flavor and good moisture.  I need more practice though to get the technique down.

While I was happy, over joyed that it was moist and tender I was a little disappointed that it was a bit over cooked. I'd go to slice it and it would fall apart in some spots. So I decided to just do a chop.

Several people sampled it - a few heavy BBQ consumers and the consensus was that it was solid tasting, good flavor that was all the way through the meat. To me I liked it and I liked the flavor but found it lacking that wow factor to the taste. Guess I'll keep tweaking the rubs and stuff 'til I get it the way I think it needs to be. MORE PRACTICE!

Superbowl Ribs 2013

So I decided to see how my rib skills had come along as well as try out a new marinda, rub, and sauce that I'd been eyeballing (Wicked Good BBQ) and I like to say I did pretty good. The rub was a bit more sweet than I liked so next time I'll be adding a little more spice and cutting back on the Turbinado a little. Still want the sweet but with some heat.

Ribs I got form Restaurant Depot - were pretty decent cuts and the I did strip the silver skin off the back, which is getting easier every time I do it. PRACTICE! Got the Ribs trimmed and in marinade (marinaded for 3 hours).

Pulled them out of the fridge, patted them dry, applied the rub, pressed the rub to the meat, and let them sit while I got the Pit up to 250. 

Cooked the ribs with Royal Lump Coal and Peach Wood chunks. Would have used my Pecan, but for some reason it was a little wet. Cooked ribs for 3 hours (2 hours meat up, and 1 hour meat down) uncovered in the beautiful smoke at around 250-260. Then pulled them off for the first wrapping and additional flavor.

They went back on the pit for about 75 minutes (had to wait for the bones to start pulling away right). Then I pulled them off. 

I was happy with the color and the over all cook. The ends are a little dark do to known heat issues with my pit which is finally being replaced in a few short weeks.

 Wrapped em up in two layers of foil, then in a large beach towel then in the cooler they went for about an hour.

I meant to take some pics after they were cut up but the guys pounced on them like starving jackals. Over all the feedback was:
1. Spot on tenderness - bite mark was perfect
2. Color was good
3. Bark and smoke ring good
4. Sweet was great but everyone found it lacking some heat. Since I made a large batch of the rub I have already corrected this with the addition of 2 heaping Tablespoons of my buddy's personal mix called Trimix (has Habanero, Jalapeno, and a few other things in there - really freaking nom nom nommy in my book) which should solve this problem nicely.

Let me know what y'all think. 

Zest Fest 2013 Ft Worth Texas

Zest Fest 2013 Ft Worth Texas (01/26/2013)

Hit Zest Fest this weekend with a couple buddies .... was fun and yet a little disappointing. I did get a couple things to try out however probably won't attend next year. Was really ercked by the number of NON-Spice / Pepper vendors there. Seriously what the heck does house siding, solar wind vents, and all that have to do with Peppers and Spice!?! Was also a little down that I didn't find anything that seriously brought the heat.


Was overall a good experience.  Plus I had my brother and good friends with me:  Joe, Craig, Josh, and Sam.

Above is me (left) and my BBQ and Spice buddy in crime Craig (right).  Below is Sam who had some heat and had to get some milk - milk that cost $2 for a itty bitty carton.

Some of the goodies from Zest Fest: 3 BBQ rubs (heard some good things about Texas Rib Ranger so thought I'd try their stuff out - just had to add a little more spice), a Moruga Scorpion hot sauce, ghost pepper infused chocolates, and a new knife. Good stuff and good times with great friends.

Update: I used the Scorpion Hot Sauce a bit - love the flavor and the heat from it.  The Rubs so far are OK.  Better than most premade rubs I've tried so far but I still prefer the flavor and texture of my own rubs.

I ended up with several business cards while there so I highly doubt I'll be back for a year or two.