So, my inaugural smoke on my LSG was a bit disappointing. Not a fault of the cooker, but most certainly the operator. Trimmed the 11lb brisket a day ahead of time. The brisket itself was a bit funky, as the flat was really curvy, wide, and had a good scalp on the fat cap. I trimmed it down to try and mitigate that. Anyway, basic 2 parts Pepper, 1 part salt, and half part Lawry's.
The plan was 250F for 4 hours, then check, pour out any juice pulling, and let it sit for another 4 hours and check to wrap (foil boat), then let it ride to 195ish and put in turkey roaster overnight at 150 until time to server.
I put the meat on at 10am, thinking around 10ish PM it would be ready to throw in the roaster. The meat was placed dead center bottom rack with my fireboard ambient air probe right next to it, point side facing the fire, Fat cap UP, showing ~250F like the tel-tru.
After 4 hours I check things...bark looks good, juice pooling up exactly where I thought it would be, dump that, close the chamber and try to boost temps to 275F here on out. Everything looked and felt like a normal brisket cook.
Then things got bad....
3 hours later I check the brisket again, hoping it'd be close to 175F ish (at least in the point) so I can wrap. So I probe the point and flat in a few different spots, and the damn thing was reading between 207-209 in both point and flat! So being 7 or so hours in my proposed 12 ish hour cook, it's "done", like done done, no wrap....made it through the stall all by itself.
So, I decided to throw the last log I had warmed up, wrap in foil boat, and let it ride til the cooker hit about 150 or so...After that I threw it in the roaster til service time. When I pulled it the fat cap was to be expected, nice and pillowy with some bark on it....the side were crisped up good...like too good...and the bottom was absolutely scorched.
Next, my idea was to throw some tallow at the bottom of the foil boat in hopes to soften the bottom while it's in the warmer. I think it helped a little, but that thing was beyond fixing 100%
How did it go? Well, my lovely wife decided to invite over a bunch of people for this grandiose event, so no pressure right? Wouldn't you believe it, they at the whole damn thing, event the REALLY "burnt ends".
I'll agree, taste was there for sure. Texture, mouth feel, and the bottom were NOT.
Sorry, no pics of final product, I was pretty much ticked off I had to slice the damn thing in front of a bunch of people.
So, where did I go wrong? A few thoughts
Next steps:
1. BISCUIT TEST! This is a must to get a better idea of how things cook, and I should have done this before. :doh: I guess I like to learn things the hard way.
2. Better coal bed. I feel I started off with too small a coal bed. Full lit chimney and then I added like 1 or 2 small/medium splits of wood. After a while I noticed my coal bed (to me) wasn't large enough and I was adding wood faster than I should've.
Anyway, was hoping to get some input from the brethren and share my experiences hoping it helps me and others out in the future. Thanks for looking!
The plan was 250F for 4 hours, then check, pour out any juice pulling, and let it sit for another 4 hours and check to wrap (foil boat), then let it ride to 195ish and put in turkey roaster overnight at 150 until time to server.
I put the meat on at 10am, thinking around 10ish PM it would be ready to throw in the roaster. The meat was placed dead center bottom rack with my fireboard ambient air probe right next to it, point side facing the fire, Fat cap UP, showing ~250F like the tel-tru.
After 4 hours I check things...bark looks good, juice pooling up exactly where I thought it would be, dump that, close the chamber and try to boost temps to 275F here on out. Everything looked and felt like a normal brisket cook.
Then things got bad....
3 hours later I check the brisket again, hoping it'd be close to 175F ish (at least in the point) so I can wrap. So I probe the point and flat in a few different spots, and the damn thing was reading between 207-209 in both point and flat! So being 7 or so hours in my proposed 12 ish hour cook, it's "done", like done done, no wrap....made it through the stall all by itself.
So, I decided to throw the last log I had warmed up, wrap in foil boat, and let it ride til the cooker hit about 150 or so...After that I threw it in the roaster til service time. When I pulled it the fat cap was to be expected, nice and pillowy with some bark on it....the side were crisped up good...like too good...and the bottom was absolutely scorched.
Next, my idea was to throw some tallow at the bottom of the foil boat in hopes to soften the bottom while it's in the warmer. I think it helped a little, but that thing was beyond fixing 100%
How did it go? Well, my lovely wife decided to invite over a bunch of people for this grandiose event, so no pressure right? Wouldn't you believe it, they at the whole damn thing, event the REALLY "burnt ends".
I'll agree, taste was there for sure. Texture, mouth feel, and the bottom were NOT.
Sorry, no pics of final product, I was pretty much ticked off I had to slice the damn thing in front of a bunch of people.
So, where did I go wrong? A few thoughts
- Brisket placement. Perhaps way to much radiant heat from the tuning plates? or the tuning plates not in the right spots? (I left them as is from previous owner, stating it cooked even, and I had no reason to not belive him). They COULD have moved when it was transported, but honestly they look like they didn't budge at all. Perhaps I should have put the meat on the 2nd rack.
- Fat side up? I tried to do this like one would in a horizontal offset. Perhaps the heat was coming from the bottom so much so it was just hammering the meat side more than the fat cap?
- It was a mistake bumping up the temp from 250 to 275. I'm finding out she like to be at 250, and with the coal bed I had and splits, it was challenging to keep her constant at 275+. This is a learning thing for me, but I think my splits were too small based on my research (length and width).
- I don't think the tel-tru and my fireboard were both off so much, so I don't believe I was running high temps or was using inaccurate thermometers.
- Tuning plates? I should've done more tests on the cooker before the brisket, but life gets in the way and...well...yeah. From what I can tell, the plates are not adjusted to manufacturer spec. Like I said earlier, previous owner set them like that and said it's cooking even. No fault of his at all, but that's the info I was going on.
Next steps:
1. BISCUIT TEST! This is a must to get a better idea of how things cook, and I should have done this before. :doh: I guess I like to learn things the hard way.
2. Better coal bed. I feel I started off with too small a coal bed. Full lit chimney and then I added like 1 or 2 small/medium splits of wood. After a while I noticed my coal bed (to me) wasn't large enough and I was adding wood faster than I should've.
Anyway, was hoping to get some input from the brethren and share my experiences hoping it helps me and others out in the future. Thanks for looking!
