New Pit Day! 24 x48 Big Phil's Blue Smoke Smoker
- Thread starter Kevin James
- Start date
JAKs Q & brew
is one Smokin' Farker
What temp do you bring your brisket down to before vacuum sealing? What type of vacuum sealer are you using?
Kevin James
Full Fledged Farker
Most of the time I just stick it in my oven (which is off) for two hours to rest it down. I've done it enough times to know its generally in the ball park I'm looking for at that point, and I just have an aversion to puncturing my meat if I don't need to. By that point it's still hot, but not burn your fingers hot. If I were to temp it, I'd be looking for it to come down to between 140 and 145.
I'm using a VacMaster Pro 360 sealer. It works great and I like it because it's very heavy duty, and it has a 16" seal bar.
Kevin James
Full Fledged Farker
So I had the brisket for dinner tonight, after a 23 hour hold. It came off at 7:15 last night, rested down for two hours to stop the caryover, then got vac sealed and went in to a sous vide bath at 141 at 9:30 PM. I pulled it out at about 6:30PM for dinner.
It came out really good. But of course I'm a perfectionist and I love to nit pick, and on this one my only complaint was that a small part of the bottom of the flat got a little crispy and caused just a small amount of shredding on the board. Could have been worse though, and it wasn't really a big deal.
Over all the doneness was spot on and passed all my tests, including the hang test, the pull test, the bend test etc. I feel like I pulled this one just in time because while it was not over, it walked right up to that line and if it had gone any farther it would have been over done. The flat was nice and juicy as well so I was really happy with it.
I took several pictures but I'm having some technical difficulties and all but one is stuck in my outbox, so I will post them as soon as they hit my inbox. Long story short I usually take pictures on my phone, then email them to myself, open the email on my laptop and save them so I can post, but sometimes it likes to hold them in outbox jail which is annoying.
As far as the first cook in general, I was very happy with how everything turned out, and at the end of the day that is really all that matters. But, that said there are definitely some things I will do differently next time. For starters, I'm going to run a little hotter straight out of the gate. I was tring to keep it at 275, but based on my fireboard my average temp for the whole cook was 250, and often times it was between 230 and 250. My goal next time will be to keep it between 275 and 300. I'm hoping to get better control over the temps by using thinner splits and adding more often.
Second, I feel like I should have boated it sooner, and I think not doing so was the cause of the crispyness on part of the bottom of the flat. Lately I have not been temping briskets, just going by 100% by look and feel. I didn't do that this time, because I knew this pit would run differently than I'm used to so I wanted to temp as a guide. I was waiting for it to hit 180 to boat it, and that just took forever, and my gut kept telling me based on the color and bark formation that it was time to boat it much sooner, but I didn't listen to my gut when I should have.
All in all, for my very first time cooking on this pit I was very happy with the results, and it should only get better from here!
And now for the one pathetic picture I have at this exact moment. The rest will follow when they get out of outbox jail.
It came out really good. But of course I'm a perfectionist and I love to nit pick, and on this one my only complaint was that a small part of the bottom of the flat got a little crispy and caused just a small amount of shredding on the board. Could have been worse though, and it wasn't really a big deal.
Over all the doneness was spot on and passed all my tests, including the hang test, the pull test, the bend test etc. I feel like I pulled this one just in time because while it was not over, it walked right up to that line and if it had gone any farther it would have been over done. The flat was nice and juicy as well so I was really happy with it.
I took several pictures but I'm having some technical difficulties and all but one is stuck in my outbox, so I will post them as soon as they hit my inbox. Long story short I usually take pictures on my phone, then email them to myself, open the email on my laptop and save them so I can post, but sometimes it likes to hold them in outbox jail which is annoying.
As far as the first cook in general, I was very happy with how everything turned out, and at the end of the day that is really all that matters. But, that said there are definitely some things I will do differently next time. For starters, I'm going to run a little hotter straight out of the gate. I was tring to keep it at 275, but based on my fireboard my average temp for the whole cook was 250, and often times it was between 230 and 250. My goal next time will be to keep it between 275 and 300. I'm hoping to get better control over the temps by using thinner splits and adding more often.
Second, I feel like I should have boated it sooner, and I think not doing so was the cause of the crispyness on part of the bottom of the flat. Lately I have not been temping briskets, just going by 100% by look and feel. I didn't do that this time, because I knew this pit would run differently than I'm used to so I wanted to temp as a guide. I was waiting for it to hit 180 to boat it, and that just took forever, and my gut kept telling me based on the color and bark formation that it was time to boat it much sooner, but I didn't listen to my gut when I should have.
All in all, for my very first time cooking on this pit I was very happy with the results, and it should only get better from here!
And now for the one pathetic picture I have at this exact moment. The rest will follow when they get out of outbox jail.
Kevin James
Full Fledged Farker
Pictures are finally out of outbox jail....
Connor_Macleod
Full Fledged Farker
The brisket looks delicious...looking at those photos is making my stomach growl and mouth water, and I just had brisket at breakfast a few hours ago and also have some packed for lunch today. Seriously!
Kevin James
Full Fledged Farker
It's definitely on the softer side, BUT it does NOT rub off. The key is you really need to set the bark, and I have found if your going to do a sous vide rest the foil boat wrap method is probably the best bet.
I would say the texture of the bark is very very similar to doing a paper wrap with tallow, as popularized by Mad Scientist BBQ.
Connor_Macleod
Full Fledged Farker
I just did a couple of briskets with a sous vide overnight rest, and I agree that a well set bark will stand up just fine to the sous vide treatment.
Chester
is one Smokin' Farker
That pit looks freakin awesome.
Yes, I realize this is an older thread but, the write-up is really good!
Thanks for the detailed write-up and pictures! I would be interested in long-term follow-ups and lessons learned along the way.
I have a pair of reverse flow offsets and think this one might be a good option for a small trailer direct flow smoker.
Thanks for the detailed write-up and pictures! I would be interested in long-term follow-ups and lessons learned along the way.
I have a pair of reverse flow offsets and think this one might be a good option for a small trailer direct flow smoker.
