My first smoke (WSM 22.5) Brisket and Fatties (lots of pron)

[Bob in St. Louis]

Hey all.

I finally got the "first smoke" under my belt.
Using a 22.5 WSM, I did a 6.2 pound brisket and two fatties. In order to know what I did, how I did it, and what I should do next time (mainly in case something went wrong), I also kept a "smoker's journal". I also shot a LOT of pictures along the way. So here's the way I spend my yesterday.

Instead of just showing the journal in list form, I tried to put the pictures in there as they took place.

ALso.... no appologies for typos and poor photography. Not what I'm worried about this weekend.

===========================

"IT" = Internal temp of meat
"AT" = Air temp in center of dome

===========================

6.2# brisket - Kosher salt - Black pepper - Brown sugar - 12 hours in fridge.

I neglected to get pics of the raw meat (but I'm sure you can use your imagination. I also didn't get pics of the "nekkid fattie" when it was finished and sliced).


7:00 -- Fire on - Minion Method 25 briquettes to start. About 10 small Mesquite chunks. About 12# Kingsford Briquettes.
8:00 -- Meat on (one vent closed. two vents @ 1/8" open) Ambient air temp = 62`
8:30 -- IT = 50` -- AT = 235 (all vents 1/8" open) Unit sitting in full sun
9:00 -- IT = 75` -- AT = 255
9:30 -- IT = 96` -- AT = 260
10:00 -IT = 114 - AT = 275 - Fattie #1 goes on. 68` ambient temp
10:30 -IT = 128 - AT = 275
11:00 -IT = 143 - AT = 280 - 77 ambient temp
11:30 -IT = 155 - AT = 280 - 77 ambient
12:00 -IT = 163 - AT = 280 - 77 ambient
12:30 -IT = 169 - AT = 270 - 80 ambient
1:00 ---------------------------- - (removed fattie) Unit now in full shade (didn't get temp readings)

Saute Portabello 'schrooms and onions in unsalted butter for Fattie #2;

Make a weave of bacon to wrap fattie #2 in;

One pound roll of pork sausage, then layed out across bacon weave;

Half pound of swiss cheese laid over sausage with Kosher salt and fresh ground black pepper;

Put schrooms and onions on;

Green onions;

Sliced pepperoncinis and garlic;

Roll entire mass into this;

Then coat with Olive Oil and Parmesan cheese;

The bacon that hung off the ends was trimmed off.
Seemed like too much to throw away, so I loosely rolling it in aluminum foil with some spices.
This is HIGHLY recommended. I've grilled spiced and herbed bacon before, but this is the best by far, to date.

1:30 -- IT = 176 - AT = 255
2:00 -- IT = 180 - AT = 255
2:30 -- IT = 184 - AT = 250 - 83 ambient
3:00 -- IT = 186 - AT = 250 -
3:30------------------------------ - (didn't get temp readings)
4:00 -- IT = 193 - AT = 250 - 85 ambient - Fattie #2, Japalinos go on.

Ready for the smoker:

I found some frozen Salmon in the freezer, so I threw that on too. Also a couple Japalinos;

A bit later (note the japalinos);

Peppers and Salmon off the smoker;

I cooked the fish and peppers without knowing what I was going to do with them. I'll figure that out when they're done.
So I decided to chop them up and mix them in equal parts of mayonasse and sour cream and put them on crackers. Unfortunatley the pic was taken after the mix was almost completely eaten.....THEN I remembered the camera
THIS IS HIGHLY RECOMMENDED:

4:30 -- IT = 194 - AT = 245 - Opened up one vent to 3/4 - 85 ambient
5:00 -- IT = 195 - AT = 245 - Removed brisket (has "butter" like consistency when probed). ** Fattie #2 is on until its internal temp (presently 137) is high enough, or smoker temp gets too low)
5:00.........................................Brisket is foiled and put into cooler.
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Further internal temp readings are of Fattie #2
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5:30 -- IT = 144 - AT = 250 - Opened all vents to 100%. Not much fuel remains. Getting as much "mileage" as I can. 85 ambient temp.
6:00 -- IT = 161 - AT = 245

** Note: Not enough hot coals to continue any further. Opening vents would have done nothing but raise temps a bit for a short period of time and burnt them out. For future reference, a larger piece of meat would have needed more briquettes.

Here's the brisket after having sat in a cooler wrapped in foil for 90 minutes;

Remember the fattie we wrapped a while back?
Finished fattie #2 and the extra bacon in the oven with the beans wifey made;

The money shot;

This morning for breakfast, I threw some large biskets in the oven.
ALso, put four eggs in a pan, gave them a quick wisk and let them simmer until solid.
Then I flipped the pan upside down on the cutting board. Using a drinking glass, I "cookie cutted" the eggs into bisket sized circles.
In the oven with the biskets, I put sliced sections of the fattie to warm up.

One each "single fattie" with swiss for the girls (Mom and little Sis)

One each "double fattie" with swiss for the boy and I.

 

[ccarter]

That looks great Bob! My mouth is watering.

 

[Bob in St. Louis]

Thanks carter, I was hoping you'd find your way here!

 

[Wornslick]

For your "First Smoke" it looks great. I still haven't tried the bacon weave on a fattie yet, I got to try that. Thanks for the pics.

 

[Twelvegaugepump]

Wow, that may have been your virgin smoke but you have obviously been around the kitchen before. Nice work. That fattie looks like my idea of a death row meal.

 

[K-Barbecue]

Nice job. Thanks for all the Pron

 

[Bob in St. Louis]

Wow, that may have been your virgin smoke but you have obviously been around the kitchen before. Nice work. That fattie looks like my idea of a death row meal.

HA HA HA !
Yea, I'm in my 40's and have been active in the kitchen (weekends mostly) for about half that. I've smoked ribs for a few years in a rusted out gas grill I converted to charcoal. But this is my first "real" smoke. It's the first brisket and first fattie.

My favorite things is what I can do with bacon though.
It's amazing what spiced up grilled bacn can do to even an average burger.
One of these days I'll make more threads about all that stuff I've done. haha

THANKS FOR ALL THE COMPLEMENTS!!!! :grin:
Bob

 

[BobM]

Nice cook! :hungry:

 

[JazzyBadger]

Man that ALL looks good. I'm gonna start hosting my pictures on my own image site so I can be all fancy with how I post the pictures with my story. It feels almost Food Networky in that fashion, and makes it much more enjoyable to experience step by step, instead of "Here's a wall of text, HERE'S A WALL OF PICTURES!"

Thanks for posting man.

 

[Bob in St. Louis]

Thanks Bob!

Thanks Jazzy!
Yea, many many years ago, when I was a internet/forum newb, I had uplaoded all my pictures to a site. Much like this one, kind of a "hobby/forum" type site. After a couple years I expanded my forum horizons and started using that same guys site to "host" my photos. As a result, I had several dozen photos uploaded that I shared on multiple forums.

Well...one day, the owner of the forum decided to do some house cleaning and deleted every single photo in every single members gallery (long story why). I didn't have back-ups (I do now) so all those photos are now gone forever.

From that day forward, I would never rely on somebody else to store my photos that isn't in the biz to store photos. I've been with Photobucket for about ten years (almost?) and have about 1400 pictures stored there. A couple months ago, I just started paying them. More because they give such good service and I felt guilty for "borrowing" from them for so long.

Bob

 

[FatDaddy]

Bob!! Glad to see ya made your way over to the Brethren!! Great lookin grub for a first cook!

 

[Ron_L]

Nice job! I'm glad that it all turned out well!

 

[ccarter]

Bob I was pressed for time earlier, so I had to be a it short.

Your smoke looks great! I'm not a huge fan of sausage (please don't grab the pitchforks), but I'd be willing to give that creation a try! I'd love to be able to incorporate all those different things into a single meal. I'm mostly a single-meat kinda cook so far. I can't see the pics while I'm typing this, but I think there were mushrooms and onions in the roll along with the bacon. Plus the brisket, and some salmon. I don't care how fat I get, I'd eat the chit out of that meal!

I'm sure you probably know this, but that WSM will get better and better as the inside gets coated and sealed up. If I had gotten the 22" I probably wouldn't have been so eager to get my hands on a backwoods. You've shown how much you can easily get on one grate.

Thanks for sharing it with us!

 

[cowgirl]

Everything looks fantastic Bob!! :grin:

 

[Boshizzle]

 

[Bob in St. Louis]

Ron, Jeanie, and Mr. Shizzle...Thank you very much!

Jason. Big thanks to you buddy for turning me on to the good people here. And another thank you for showing me that quality meat can be made on a "regular" smoker in stead of the pricey beast I had in mind to purchase.

Carter, I'll be waiting for the day you do your first fattie..... <hehe>
And thank you too!

Bob