First brisket on the Mak 2* this weekend, how should I do it?

[sudsandswine]

Going to do my first brisket on the Mak 2* this weekend, planning to cook it tomorrow then eat it on Sunday. Don't have a whole lot of experience with pellet cookers, so I'm crowd sourcing the cook. I'm thinking about doing a couple hours or so on the "smoke" setting which is about 180*ish, then bump it up to 250* til it probes like buttah....not sure if I'd wrap yet, and maybe I'd set it more like 225* and run it til it's done, though that's lower than I've cooked on anything in quite a while. I don't necessarily care how long it takes to finish since I can be off doing other things while it's doing its thing.

Brisket is a Creekstone Farms "choice" grade. 11.2lbs starting weight, trimmed 2.7lbs off to get it where it's at, 8.5lbs raw cooking weight. Injected it with Minor's Beef Base+ Au Jus, basically the Myron Mixon injection. Will probably do a SPOG based rub but I'm not set on that.

 

[Joshw]

I don't think it is necessary to do the real low temps , on long cooks like brisket. I normally set it at 250 and let it roll. If you're going to wrap, then maybe, do the lower temps, in the beginning.

 

[rwalters]

Not that my way is the right way, but I do all of my low n slows with the Pellet Boss set to 210° for the entire cook. That gives the upper grate a cooking temp of 225-230 from my experience. One thing to note about the MAK’s... because they use a variable speed fan, if you keep the controller to 245° and under, the fan operates at 60% of max rpm vs when the controller is between 250-295° where it operates at a max of 80°. The lower rpms will produce a bit more smoke. Because of this, many MAK owners will use 245° instead of 250° if 250° is their normal low n slow temp.

 

[sudsandswine]

Yeah mine is an "old school" Mak 2* in the 4xx serial range, so from what I gather I have a different drain/diffuser/heat management system which I need to do a bit more learnin' on. Good info on the fan speeds and temp zones :thumb:

 

[RemoGaggi]

I did a 14lb brisket for Easter on my Mak 1. Here are my notes:

Trimmed excess fat following Aaron Franklin's video
Seasoned liberally with 50/50 S&P and Obiecue Smooth Moove
In at 10:45pm (Saturday night) @ 220 degrees
Wrapped in butcher paper @ 11am (Easter Sunday) - I don't go by internal temps, I just eyeball when it looks nice and dark
Pulled at 1:45pm - probed like butta
Put in Coleman party cooler for holding till dinner
Came out excellent.

 

[rwalters]

I did a 14lb brisket for Easter on my Mak 1. Here are my notes:

Trimmed excess fat following Aaron Franklin's video
Seasoned liberally with 50/50 S&P and Obiecue Smooth Moove
In at 10:45pm (Saturday night) @ 220 degrees
Wrapped in butcher paper @ 11am (Easter Sunday) - I don't go by internal temps, I just eyeball when it looks nice and dark
Pulled at 1:45pm - probed like butta
Put in Coleman party cooler for holding till dinner
Came out excellent.

No Pic?!?!

 

[RemoGaggi]

No Pic?!?!

Yeah... about the pic.. I forgot to take any pics! I hate it when I do that!

 

[sleebus.jones]

I'd do the smoke thing as you wrote, but I would do my cook at 275. You can wrap at 160, that's usually when the stall starts. Go longer if you want more color, or don't wrap at all (like I do).

 

[sudsandswine]

Got the brisket on about 12:30 today. Running it on the "smoke" setting now for 2 or 3 hours. I'm using a mix of Lumberjack 100% hickory and some competition blend that was left in hopper that I mixed in with it. I decided to go with some Oakridge BBQ rubs today...light base of Competition Beef and Pork then a healthy topping of Black Ops.

 

[sudsandswine]

Coming along pretty nicely, it is at 160*ish in the thick part of the flat, been running along at 225*. I will probably bump it up here in a bit so I can hopefully finish by midnight.

 

[16Adams]

Nice cook

 

[sudsandswine]

Well this thing is taking way longer than I expected. I had it on "smoke" til about 3:30PM, 3 hours into the cook. Seems to be "stalled" around 160*. I put a Thermoworks Chef Alarm into the meat and one to monitor cook temp. I clipped the cook temp probe on the grate towards the center a couple inches away from the edge of the brisket. With the temp set at 265* and the grill temp readout saying 265*, the Chef Alarm said it was 280. I backed it down to 250* since I wasnt sure how much radiant heat was coming off the diffuser plate. A 15* variance can probably be explained by the location of the Pellet Boss's probe vs the Chef Alarm.

 

[rwalters]

What’s your internal temp currently at?

 

[sudsandswine]

I pulled it off and put it in the oven wrapped @ 275* so I didnt have to keep walking outside to check (thanks failed Flameboss). The center of the flat is upper 160's and the extremeties were like 200* 0_o. It was 8.5lbs post trim and we are 11 hours in so. I'll roll with it till it probes tender but I am currently formulating plan B since this was for company tomorrow. Broke my rule...never do a new thing for guests.

 

[sudsandswine]

Temp climbing fast now after the wrap and 275* oven, which in ny experience isnt usually a good thing. We shall see :thumb:

 

[sudsandswine]

It turned out alright after all, despite it being a weird cook. It still didnt probe right in the thick part of the flat, but given the time/temp it was at I went ahead and pulled it from the oven to rest an hour or two. It sliced fine and passed all the usual tests, though I would say it was toeing the line of being overdone. Vacuum sealed it up and will reheat using the SV later today.

 

[rwalters]

It looks fantastic! Other than it being a stubborn hunk’o’beef, what are your thoughts re: the MAK? Curious.

 

[sudsandswine]

So far so good. Looking forward to using it more. It has better smoke profile than the previous pellet poopers I used, still different than the stick burner, unsurprisingly. It will probably take over most of the "smoking duties" that I used to leave to the Primo (aka smaller cooks that need to be hands off).

 

[sleebus.jones]

Looks like it turned out just fine. I used to do a bit of homebrewing, and the famous saying was "relax, don't worry, have a homebrew", which implied that no matter how bad things seem to be going, they will generally work themselves out and turn out fine. I'm inclined to modify that to "relax, don't worry, have some BBQ", as that seems to apply here also.

 

[rwalters]

So far so good. Looking forward to using it more. It has better smoke profile than the previous pellet poopers I used, still different than the stick burner, unsurprisingly. It will probably take over most of the "smoking duties" that I used to leave to the Primo (aka smaller cooks that need to be hands off).

I had 3 Kamado Joe’s when I bought my 1st MAK. I no longer own a kamado. To me, and those I cook for, the low n slow flavor profile imparted by the MAK vs ceramic kamado was/is superior. Much MUCH cleaner and pleasant. Kinda gross, but food smoked on a kamado now tastes like a dirty campfire to me. I think it’s just the lack of airflow that prevents clean smoke. Will be curious to see if the same happens to you... as I know that I am not the only one with this experience.