Some Birthday Pig Shots and my first true low and slow briskets

It's a busy weekend, and it is still going. A dear friend of the family celebrated her 50th birthday tonight. I asked if I could bring anything and they said I didn't have to, but they would love it if I did.

Made up some Pig Shots and everybody loved them. I got several requests for how to make them and a couple of "I'll invite you to my party if you bring those". I thought they got a little over cooked, so they weren't as "pretty" as I like, but they tasted great.









I was also asked to make a brisket for the Super Bowl party tomorrow. When I went to get it, I ended up getting two Prime 15+ pound briskets for $2.86 a pound. Trimmed them up today, well, maybe hacked them up, I need to get better at trimming.

When it came time to decide when to cook them I was torn. Torn like an old sweater. Since I was going to the birthday party tonight, I could either start them afterwards and cook them hot like I would normally do, or start earlier and go low and slow. Stepped out of my comfort zone and set my IQ-120 to run at 225* I normally like to smoke at 275*). Put the two briskets on about 8 pm and they have been going low and slow since. I got home at 3 am and the one I had a probe in was at 151* IT. Stall in effect and I plan to let them run nekkid until done.

Here's the pictures so far:

Belly of both:





Fat cap side. Yeah, horrible trim job. I will say that the second one had a couple of bare spots thanks to the butcher. It also had some "dark fat" that I had never seen before. It didn't smell bad, so I feel like it was ok.





Rubbed with W Sauce and SPOG with a little Chipotle powder.





WSM set up with KBB, cherry chunks buried, and some mesquite slivers on top to just add a little Texas flavor:



This is when I got home after 9 hours. You can barely see it, but I have cans separating the top grate and the lower grate above it. Lots of juice in there.



Both my Maverick and my IQ-120 are showing + or - 5 degrees of each other, and I have the meat probe set to let me know when it hits 185* so I can start checking for probe tender. I will say that it is a cold night for SoTex, supposed to get down to 34*, so I have the blanket on the WSM. She'd have a hard time holding 225* without it.



More pictures later this morning. Time for some sleep. Did I mention that the IQ-120 is great for overnight cooks?

Damn, had a long post going on my iPhone and lost it. I'll repost it later, but here are the photos...









Tender, juicy, flavorful. If anything, slightly over cooked.

Ok, semi coherent, so now time for the story.

I started the smoker up around 7 pm Saturday night filled with KBB, Cherry chunks, and a little Mesquite chips sprinkled across the top. Had the Pitmaster IQ-120 hooked up and the insulated blanket around the pit. Since I was starting so early, I went with low and slow 225*. An hour later (8 pm), I put the briskets on. Kept checking it through the night and the temp was holding stable when I went to bed around 4 am.

The Maverick woke me up at 10:30 letting me know my temp had dropped. Went to look and I was out of coal and I was in the middle of the stall at 154*. Not bad, 15.5 hours and I didn't over fill it. Tired and a little hungover, I said heck with loading it back up, threw each brisket on a cookie sheet, covered it with foil and into the oven at 300*. Checked back at 12 and it wasn't probe tender. Checked at 1 and the probe slid in like butter. Let them rest uncovered for about 20 mins and then wrapped them up and into the cooler. Sliced around 3:30.

Had a little crust at the bottom of one flat and the top of the other point from being near the heating elements, but other than that, it was perfect. Very tender, yet a slice had a little pull before the piece would break.

I had planned on one brisket for the bar and one for me, but one wasn't quite enough, so I gave up half a flat from mine. Vacuum sealed the other half of flat and the whole point and I'll be enjoying that today and then freezing some.

Everyone at the bar loved it. Had tortillas, homemade Pico de Gallo, BBQ sauce and cheddar cheese to make tacos. Just a bunch of crumbles in the pot left and a friend took them to make breakfast tacos with.

Ninja, these were both Primes, so I couldn't really compare them this cook. Trying to think back to previous briskets I have made, this was definitely better. And at only $.50 more per pound, well worth it.

Smoke Dawg:

Two blocks of cream cheese, a bag of cheddar cheese, some sour cream (enough to thin it out a little), your favorite rub to taste (I used Slap Ya Mama Cajun seasoning). After that, what else you want to add is up to you. I have added some finely chopped pulled pork before. These I put a salad shrimp in the cup, and another on top of the filling.

I mix the filling up in a bowl, put it into a Ziploc bag, squeeze the air out, cut a bottom corner off, and "pipe" it into the cups.

This one? Speaking of the countdown, if anyone has a better picture of the large LSG insulated cabinet I can borrow for it, I would appreciate it...