Brew n Que
Knows what a fatty is.
- Joined
- Oct 3, 2013
- Location
- Houston, TX
What better way is there to spend a birthday than staying up all night manning a fire so others can eat all your food? I say, doesn't get much better than that :biggrin1:
2 Briskets
2 Racks of Spares
2 Turkey Breasts
2 Homemade Andouille Links
2 Italian Sausage Links
1 Pork Butt
The briskets were CAB monsters about 17lbs each. They had some of the nicest thick flats with really good marbling. I was really excited to get these on the smoker. I also cooked a pork butt for a friend. All 3 of these got the S&P treatment and went on at 4:45PM.
I ran my smoker between 250-300 back at the front of the briskets. It began in the 250 range, however, in the middle of the night, I ran out of smaller logs, so I had to run big ones, which meant I had to keep the temp higher to keep the logs well lit. I also threw on a couple fresh italian sausage links for dinner. I've never had the combo of italian sausage spices and smoke. I have to say, it was a bit different, but I really liked the taste. Will definitely try that again.
Pork butt came off in record time (for me anyways) around midnight. My smoker has a pretty big temperature differential because I took out the tuning plates to improve airflow, and the butt was in a hotter section. I never took a grate temp of that area, so I don't know the exact temp it ran at, but I would guess 325ish. The butt came out good, but honestly, I like it better a bit lower and slower. The part of the butt towards the heat got a bit dried out. I have settled on the fact that I like butts better when wrapped in foil. this butt got about 5 hours of naked smoke, and 2 hours of foil.
Sometime during the night, I got the itch to make some sausage. I had a piece of butt in the freezer, and saved some of the brisket trimmings. I found a recipe for Andouille sausage, so I made a couple really long links. I didn't have any pork fat to mix in, so these came out a tad on the dry side, but not too bad. I wasn't a huge fan of the spice mix, so next time I'll try a different type of sausage.
I didn't get any pron, but I also made a couple of turkey breasts. I salted and peppered them a couple days before the cook. I put them on the smoker until they got a nice golden color, then wrapped in foil with a bit of butter. Plan was to take them to 155 internal temp, but, I fell asleep and overcooked to about 180 :doh: They weren't perfect, but much to my surprise, they weren't as bad as I thought they'd be.
Also with no pron, I did a couple racks of spares. This time, I tried a different method than my normal "naked till they're done" method. I seasoned with S&P and cooked naked for about 3 hours. Then, I brushed on some homemade sauce and cooked another 30 minutes or so. After that, I wrapped in foil till they were done. I gotta say, these were the best ribs I have done so far. The salt an pepper base worked perfectly with the slight flavor boost from the sauce.
And now, the main event, the briskets. The briskets were trimmed of hard fat, and the fat cap trimmed down to what I thought was 1/4". They went on fat side up for about 6-8 hours (I was too tired to remember exact timing) until the bark looked good. Then, they got a wrap in butcher paper and back on until they were done. The first brisket probed tender after 13.5 hours total. The second one, after about 15 hours. Then, they got a nice rest on the counter, then in a warm oven until slicing and serving time. Overall, I was pretty happy with the briskets, but I do have a few tweaks for next time. First, I apparently didn't get all of the fat cap to 1/4". I left a bit too much fat on, so guests tended to cut it, and subsequently some of the bark, off. The bark itself was just to my liking, had a good firm texture, but not dry or crunchy. I could tell that I started off with a high quality brisket, because even the flat was very very juicy and tender.
The biggest lesson I got from this cook was to keep the fat cap towards the heat for the whole cook. I did this during the naked portion of the cook, but after I wrapped, I flipped them to make it easier to probe. My smoker has a huge temperature variation between grate level and above the top of the meat, sometimes more than 75 degrees. This caused the flat to finish before a lot of the fat had time to melt away in the point. The point was still very tender, but it had a huge amount of fat left in it. Tasted absolutely amazing, but that much fat made for an unpleasant texture. You can see in this picture just how much fat was left. I think this is also why the cook went quicker than they normally do for me. If I had kept the fat up, the cook would have taken a few more hours to melt the fat and get the flat to probe tender, but it would have resulted in a better end product.
Thanks for looking!
2 Briskets
2 Racks of Spares
2 Turkey Breasts
2 Homemade Andouille Links
2 Italian Sausage Links
1 Pork Butt
The briskets were CAB monsters about 17lbs each. They had some of the nicest thick flats with really good marbling. I was really excited to get these on the smoker. I also cooked a pork butt for a friend. All 3 of these got the S&P treatment and went on at 4:45PM.
I ran my smoker between 250-300 back at the front of the briskets. It began in the 250 range, however, in the middle of the night, I ran out of smaller logs, so I had to run big ones, which meant I had to keep the temp higher to keep the logs well lit. I also threw on a couple fresh italian sausage links for dinner. I've never had the combo of italian sausage spices and smoke. I have to say, it was a bit different, but I really liked the taste. Will definitely try that again.
Pork butt came off in record time (for me anyways) around midnight. My smoker has a pretty big temperature differential because I took out the tuning plates to improve airflow, and the butt was in a hotter section. I never took a grate temp of that area, so I don't know the exact temp it ran at, but I would guess 325ish. The butt came out good, but honestly, I like it better a bit lower and slower. The part of the butt towards the heat got a bit dried out. I have settled on the fact that I like butts better when wrapped in foil. this butt got about 5 hours of naked smoke, and 2 hours of foil.
Sometime during the night, I got the itch to make some sausage. I had a piece of butt in the freezer, and saved some of the brisket trimmings. I found a recipe for Andouille sausage, so I made a couple really long links. I didn't have any pork fat to mix in, so these came out a tad on the dry side, but not too bad. I wasn't a huge fan of the spice mix, so next time I'll try a different type of sausage.
I didn't get any pron, but I also made a couple of turkey breasts. I salted and peppered them a couple days before the cook. I put them on the smoker until they got a nice golden color, then wrapped in foil with a bit of butter. Plan was to take them to 155 internal temp, but, I fell asleep and overcooked to about 180 :doh: They weren't perfect, but much to my surprise, they weren't as bad as I thought they'd be.
Also with no pron, I did a couple racks of spares. This time, I tried a different method than my normal "naked till they're done" method. I seasoned with S&P and cooked naked for about 3 hours. Then, I brushed on some homemade sauce and cooked another 30 minutes or so. After that, I wrapped in foil till they were done. I gotta say, these were the best ribs I have done so far. The salt an pepper base worked perfectly with the slight flavor boost from the sauce.
And now, the main event, the briskets. The briskets were trimmed of hard fat, and the fat cap trimmed down to what I thought was 1/4". They went on fat side up for about 6-8 hours (I was too tired to remember exact timing) until the bark looked good. Then, they got a wrap in butcher paper and back on until they were done. The first brisket probed tender after 13.5 hours total. The second one, after about 15 hours. Then, they got a nice rest on the counter, then in a warm oven until slicing and serving time. Overall, I was pretty happy with the briskets, but I do have a few tweaks for next time. First, I apparently didn't get all of the fat cap to 1/4". I left a bit too much fat on, so guests tended to cut it, and subsequently some of the bark, off. The bark itself was just to my liking, had a good firm texture, but not dry or crunchy. I could tell that I started off with a high quality brisket, because even the flat was very very juicy and tender.
The biggest lesson I got from this cook was to keep the fat cap towards the heat for the whole cook. I did this during the naked portion of the cook, but after I wrapped, I flipped them to make it easier to probe. My smoker has a huge temperature variation between grate level and above the top of the meat, sometimes more than 75 degrees. This caused the flat to finish before a lot of the fat had time to melt away in the point. The point was still very tender, but it had a huge amount of fat left in it. Tasted absolutely amazing, but that much fat made for an unpleasant texture. You can see in this picture just how much fat was left. I think this is also why the cook went quicker than they normally do for me. If I had kept the fat up, the cook would have taken a few more hours to melt the fat and get the flat to probe tender, but it would have resulted in a better end product.
Thanks for looking!
