It's been a while since I did a proper smoke, and I didn't want to miss out on my traditional Memorial Day BBQ, so I was really looking forward to this. Plus, last year's Memorial Day smoke was marred by torrential rain, so off we went.
First: a quick salute to all who paid the ultimate price for our freedom, and the families that miss them.
Last week I picked up a 14.83# Choice brisket at HEB for $1.67/#. Nice start. Got 3 racks of Baby Backs at Sam's. Add a ring of Prasek's pork sausage, plus some links of some kind of fru-fru chicken/mozarella sausage (to offer variety to my guests), and we're set.
I'll run through a timeline and toss in a few pics.
4:30 AM: man it's early. Stumbled around and got a chimney started with 20 KBCs then got the base of my 22" WSM assembled. Did a packed-out ring with an empty can in the middle for the lit. Set several "spokes" of pecan chunks starting at the middle.
5:10: poured the lit into the can, pulled the can, assembled the WSM.
5:30: trimmed and rubbed the brisket with SPOG. Mainly just carved out the hard fat, didn't even touch the fat cap side.
5:35: caught the WSM on the way up at 200 deg. Adjusted the lower vents to 1/3 open (top vent WFO the whole way).
5:50: put the brisket on the top rack of the WSM, fat side down. Temps were 225 at the grate and 250 in the dome. Smoke was clean. Here's a shot of the brisket about to go into the WSM. Sorry for the blurry quality, but then again I was still feeling a little blurry.
6:25: temps were 295 at the grate, 280 in the dome. Closed lower vents to 1/8".
7:00 - 8:00: napped.
8:00: temps 305 at the grate, 280 in the dome. Closed one lower vent all the way, cut another one back to 1/16", left another at 1/8".
8:50: sprayed the brisket with 50/50 mix of water and Worcestershire. At this point I made a quick fattie of Jimmy Dean Hot, wrapped with bacon, sprinkled with SPOG. Put it on top rack.
9:45: temps were 280 at the grate, 240 up top. Notice the fluctuations at each level along the way? In reality I probably didn't need to fiddle with the vents just set it and let it run.
10:10: sprayed the brisket again.
Noon: I set the top rack of the WSM to the side (using my 22" kettle as a trusted companion) and put the ribs on the lower rack then put the brisket back on top and closed the lid. For the ribs, I had pulled the membrane and dusted with Fiesta Brand Fancy Rib Rub.
12:10: wrapped the brisket in butcher paper (the rose-colored kind, 24" width). Bark looking real good. Also, somewhere along here I pulled the fattie, brought it in the house, and chunked it up in big pieces. It didn't last long enough to get any pics! Definitely the hit of the day.
12:55: temps were 240 in the dome.
1:10: sprayed the ribs with 50/50 mix of water and apple juice. Did a quick temp check probe in the brisket: the readings were all between 170 and 175. Opened the lower vents WFO as the WSM temps were starting to wilt.
1:45: tapped the base legs of the WSM with a hammer to shake off ash, and also raked the hot coals. Temps shot up to 300 at the grate and 270 up top, so I closed all 3 lower vents to 1/2.
2:15: foiled the ribs, squirting some Parkay margarine on them with one last water/AJ spray.
3:30: now we get my only real mistake of the day: left the ribs in the foil too long! Should have taken them out of the foil at the 45 minute mark. The racks basically fell apart. I put them on the kettle (which I had prepped with a 2/3 full chimney of lit spread out evenly), sauced them with Stubb's and closed the lid. At this time I also pulled the brisket out of the WSM as it was passing the probe-for-tender test nicely but not completely. I had a 4:00 meal target and had to stick to it, though. I let the brisket sit on the kitchen counter, paper pulled off.
So let's get to a few money shots.
Here are the ribs right before pulling at 3:50. You can also see that some ends were too charred, so I should have been more careful with the time on the kettle. Apart from that, they really were delicious.
Ah, the brisket! The bark is just how I like it. This is just a few slices in with the flat. Though often the driest part of the brisket, a few sample bites were really moist: success! Things were moving pretty fast so I didn't have a chance to get a photo of a bend-test. You can see we ended up with a nice smoke ring.
And here's how I served it up: sliced flat to the right, chunks of moist in the middle (this part was elusive to carve out! These were basically from the "middle" part of the brisket that has a lot of fat with sections of meaty goodness thoughout), and chunks of point on the left. Take your pick!
So we had brisket, ribs, sausage, beans, 2 kinds of potato salad, cheap white bread, onion slices and pickle spears, and your choice of iced tea or lemonade. Oh, and my wife made a fantastic peach cobbler for dessert, which we topped with Blue Bell Homemade Vanilla ice cream.
Didn't have any complaints.
One post-script: for lunch today, made bbq sammies for me and the Mrs. Chopped up some point, some flat slices, a little sausage, bagged it in a zip loc and nuked it for about a minute. Pan-toasted some buns: add the meat, some onion, and some sauce (Head Country Original), and it hit the spot.
First: a quick salute to all who paid the ultimate price for our freedom, and the families that miss them.
Last week I picked up a 14.83# Choice brisket at HEB for $1.67/#. Nice start. Got 3 racks of Baby Backs at Sam's. Add a ring of Prasek's pork sausage, plus some links of some kind of fru-fru chicken/mozarella sausage (to offer variety to my guests), and we're set.
I'll run through a timeline and toss in a few pics.
4:30 AM: man it's early. Stumbled around and got a chimney started with 20 KBCs then got the base of my 22" WSM assembled. Did a packed-out ring with an empty can in the middle for the lit. Set several "spokes" of pecan chunks starting at the middle.
5:10: poured the lit into the can, pulled the can, assembled the WSM.
5:30: trimmed and rubbed the brisket with SPOG. Mainly just carved out the hard fat, didn't even touch the fat cap side.
5:35: caught the WSM on the way up at 200 deg. Adjusted the lower vents to 1/3 open (top vent WFO the whole way).
5:50: put the brisket on the top rack of the WSM, fat side down. Temps were 225 at the grate and 250 in the dome. Smoke was clean. Here's a shot of the brisket about to go into the WSM. Sorry for the blurry quality, but then again I was still feeling a little blurry.
6:25: temps were 295 at the grate, 280 in the dome. Closed lower vents to 1/8".
7:00 - 8:00: napped.
8:00: temps 305 at the grate, 280 in the dome. Closed one lower vent all the way, cut another one back to 1/16", left another at 1/8".
8:50: sprayed the brisket with 50/50 mix of water and Worcestershire. At this point I made a quick fattie of Jimmy Dean Hot, wrapped with bacon, sprinkled with SPOG. Put it on top rack.
9:45: temps were 280 at the grate, 240 up top. Notice the fluctuations at each level along the way? In reality I probably didn't need to fiddle with the vents just set it and let it run.
10:10: sprayed the brisket again.
Noon: I set the top rack of the WSM to the side (using my 22" kettle as a trusted companion) and put the ribs on the lower rack then put the brisket back on top and closed the lid. For the ribs, I had pulled the membrane and dusted with Fiesta Brand Fancy Rib Rub.
12:10: wrapped the brisket in butcher paper (the rose-colored kind, 24" width). Bark looking real good. Also, somewhere along here I pulled the fattie, brought it in the house, and chunked it up in big pieces. It didn't last long enough to get any pics! Definitely the hit of the day.
12:55: temps were 240 in the dome.
1:10: sprayed the ribs with 50/50 mix of water and apple juice. Did a quick temp check probe in the brisket: the readings were all between 170 and 175. Opened the lower vents WFO as the WSM temps were starting to wilt.
1:45: tapped the base legs of the WSM with a hammer to shake off ash, and also raked the hot coals. Temps shot up to 300 at the grate and 270 up top, so I closed all 3 lower vents to 1/2.
2:15: foiled the ribs, squirting some Parkay margarine on them with one last water/AJ spray.
3:30: now we get my only real mistake of the day: left the ribs in the foil too long! Should have taken them out of the foil at the 45 minute mark. The racks basically fell apart. I put them on the kettle (which I had prepped with a 2/3 full chimney of lit spread out evenly), sauced them with Stubb's and closed the lid. At this time I also pulled the brisket out of the WSM as it was passing the probe-for-tender test nicely but not completely. I had a 4:00 meal target and had to stick to it, though. I let the brisket sit on the kitchen counter, paper pulled off.
So let's get to a few money shots.
Here are the ribs right before pulling at 3:50. You can also see that some ends were too charred, so I should have been more careful with the time on the kettle. Apart from that, they really were delicious.
Ah, the brisket! The bark is just how I like it. This is just a few slices in with the flat. Though often the driest part of the brisket, a few sample bites were really moist: success! Things were moving pretty fast so I didn't have a chance to get a photo of a bend-test. You can see we ended up with a nice smoke ring.
And here's how I served it up: sliced flat to the right, chunks of moist in the middle (this part was elusive to carve out! These were basically from the "middle" part of the brisket that has a lot of fat with sections of meaty goodness thoughout), and chunks of point on the left. Take your pick!
So we had brisket, ribs, sausage, beans, 2 kinds of potato salad, cheap white bread, onion slices and pickle spears, and your choice of iced tea or lemonade. Oh, and my wife made a fantastic peach cobbler for dessert, which we topped with Blue Bell Homemade Vanilla ice cream.
Didn't have any complaints.
One post-script: for lunch today, made bbq sammies for me and the Mrs. Chopped up some point, some flat slices, a little sausage, bagged it in a zip loc and nuked it for about a minute. Pan-toasted some buns: add the meat, some onion, and some sauce (Head Country Original), and it hit the spot.
