Brisket Wednesday

5/18/11

After my wife and Scott sampled my ribs the other night, my Mrs was nice enough to point out that brisket was on sale for half price ($1.49 a pound) and asked if she should pick one up for further experimentation.  Well after my success with ribs, of course!  She came home with a 10.6 pounder, smallish, but a nice size because it would not need cutting to fit in our little bullet smoker.

It took me a couple of days to finish off the ribs and I decided to do an overnight smoke starting late Tuesday night. I put the coals on about 11:15 and gave the brisket a good rub down with salt, pepper, a few spices, and my secret liquid.  I didn't trim a thing, just rubbed it down and slapped it on the top rack of the smoker.

The brisket went on about 11:45 pm, with lots of hickory and pecan wood which had been soaked in water for 24 hours.  I added additional wood every hour or so til about 2:30 am when I decided it was time to leave things alone and let the magic happen. 

I got up about 6:15 am to check on things and found the temperature gauge just on the low side of the ideal range.  Perfect timing.  Here's the yummy sight that greeted me.

Ah yes, that's a great sight to wake up to early in the morning and a sure sign of a great day ahead!  Here's what it looked like as I prepped for wrapping.

After another liberal salt, pepper and spice application, plus a bit of secret liquid in the foil, I closed everything up tight and slipped it in the 225 oven for another 7 hours.

About 1:30 I pulled the brisket from the oven and set it on the stove to rest while a ran some errands.  I didn't get back til about 3 pm, but it was still plenty hot and here is the delicious sight I unwrapped.

I started slicing at the tip and those delicious smokey bits went away almost as fast as they were sliced. I noticed early on it was a bit too long in the oven as it was difficult to slice except in thicker chunks.  I guess if I had to choose, I would rather it be a bit too tender than too chewy.  It was close to just right, but just a tad too tender.

As I got deeper in it became even more tender and the smoke flavor was definitely less pronounced.  However I remedied that by making sure to drizzle lots of pot liquor over the slices.  The fat was perfectly rendered and the meat was moist and juicy throughout. 

I think my wife's brisket usually has a bit more smoke flavor than this one had, but she spends more time tending the fire.  I know we will enjoy this meat over the next few days, even if I do need to add a bit of sauce now and then.  A larger brisket, cut in half to fit our little bullet smoker, would cook a bit faster and would provide even more smokey bits.  That's still my favorite part, by far!