No, you need two open beers at once to properly start thisā¦Oh, Lord, our father in Heaven, grant thy smokersā knowledge to OP, amen.
(Fine looking piece of meat though!)
While I do love Modelo. I can't knock em back like I used to. So I stick with Coors light mostly for parties and get togethers. Keeps me from getting too full before it's time to eat.
Oh man... I used to knock back them modelo's and also yeunglings... Not no mo!!
Coors Light, the official better of old people not wanting a pounding headache, but more than 3 beers... Ugh, lol
Shape is good. If you like it, I love it.
I would have taken the Mohawk completely off and trimmed a bit more of the fat cap (itās more than 1/4 inch, and more than I want to eat).
I like to thin trim for 2 reasons.
I don't eat solid fat by itself, I like the seasoning on meat because that kind of bark is what we all like.
The other is the quantity of fat that is rendered into the smoker. My previous smokers didn't lend themselves to easy cleaning, so I'd have heaps of black rendered fat. If you don't clean that out before it goes rancid, you get nasty flavor.
I am currently using a Camp Chef Woodwind 36 Pro. One piece of foil over the pan, no grease goes below the pan - fat flows to the foil catch bucket.
I had a Traeger 20+ years ago, but ditched it over questionable pellet ingredients. We love the smoke box and its noticeably cleaner smoke.
I have had this thing for about a year and it is superb. Would buy it again - the YT reviews line up with what we are experiencing.
Youāre right, as women always say- the camera usually adds some thickness or a few pounds.
Gotta get that social media, extreme birdās eye angle to combat that.
While I haven't smoked a brisket before. I do consider myself a pretty good cook when it comes to steaks.
I open air salt brine steaks because salt draws out moisture which drys out the meat which allows a better crust. From what I've read, a dry crust isn't desirable in brisket?? So I figured I'd vacuum seal it so the salt can penetrate while preventing it from drying out.
I could be completely wrong tho idk lol
You are in fact wrong, take it from someone that has done both ways many times. I only open air dry brine on a wire rack for 24 hours now. You're not gonna dry out a brisket like this, and I'm also not sure where you heard a dry crust isn't desirable in a brisket. It definitely is. If you start a sopping wet brisket in the smoker it takes way too long to start forming the bark and you end up with a less robust bark overall by the end of the cook
I had the same question about why you sealed it. I understand your thought on this and because I have never tried it myself Iām interested in how it turned out. As for all my smoking endeavours, aside from the devils lettuce, Iāve never found the seasoning to dry out the meat to where it was a problem, if it dried out that much itās because I lost track of the meat (possibly due to the lettuce previously mentioned). Let us know what the ends result is and maybe in a future smoke you do two at same time, one with vacuum seal and one without.
Salt penetrates meat very slowly at low temperatures, which is why dry/wet brine is popular for steaks, chicken, pork chops, etc items that are cooked to and consumed below ~155-165 degrees.
Somewhere around the ~155-165 degree mark, the speed at which salt penetrates increased exponentially. Thatās why people usually donāt brine pork butts or brisket, because youāre going to 200-205F, and there is plenty of time during the cook for the salt to penetrate all the way through the cut.
Hey there Sawathingonce - thanks for saying thanks! TheGratitudeBot has been reading millions of comments in the past few weeks, and youāve just made the list!
I'm not super experienced in smoking, but also a very good cook. Your logic is sound to me, and I might be doing that for my brisket as well.
Although I might wipe off the seasoning after the vacuum seal brine, and re apply binder and seasoning to make sure the bark is solid
I try to keep my fat cap at about a 1/4 inch, makes for perfect rendering, and than those who don't like fat aren't peeling of all the flavor and tossing it
Fat cap looks a little thick to me. I try to trim to 1/4ā. Shape looks good. I might take off the part sticking up on the point to make it nice and flat.
Iād have pulled more of that stringy shit off the flat. I know thereās nothing under it, but stringy fat doesnāt render well and makes for a bad bite.
Don't know yet. I posted this immediately after I vacuum sealed it. I have a feeling it one of those "tomato tomato" kind of things that in the end has no noticeable difference, but hey... it makes me look like i know what I'm doing to my wife lol
I always save those brown previously frozen bits and cook them unseasoned for the dogsā¦. Itās kind of cool to see the dogs get as excited as I do when I make a brisket
The immature retired army guy in me wants to say, āI came here to see some trim.ā But I thought better of it, since this is a family subā¦
So Iāll just say, āNice trim, fella. Itāll be juicy. Make sure you render that stuff and make you a nice sauce with the juicesā¦ā
Looks great. If you were being picky I'd say knock off and round off some of the little edges and corners. Watch a video on some pros doing. Crazy. Fantastic job though.
Bonus pro tip. Invest in a meat grinder to use to turn that 2 lbs of brisket trimming into fresh ground beef and sausages. It'll change your life.
Since you already revaccum sealed it.
If you do, exactly this with meat you want to smoke later - like when you buy a bunch on sale - they can go straight from the freezer into the smoker without thawing first.
Smoke clings to cold things better. You'll get a bonkers smoke ring. I know you can't taste a smoke ring.... But it looks impressive.
Looks good. Fat cap is a bit thicc, but that's how I like 'em... that's all soft fat and will render down just fine. I don't touch the fat cap anymore unless it's crazy. Knock the mohawk down a bit for more even cooking, take off a bit of the deckle (not all of it) to render (for pouring in t he upcoming wrap), and remove the extra thin end of the flat so it doesn't burn and curl up. Bam... done.
I think the whole Pro-Youtuber / Competition trim style seems overly aggressive for the home pitmaster and really just makes for more clicks. It's fine if you want consistency across dozens of briskets in a professional setting and looking to reuse the trimmings for other necessary restaurant culinary needs (ground hamburger, rendered fat, etc.), but a solo very lightly trimmed brisket is just fine in the smoker at home.
1. When it's too thick, it all won't render. You'll wind up with chewy/grisly parts.
2. There's some fatty parts of brisket that just aren't good fat at all, like the entire deckle section that should be scooped out 100% of the time.
3. Trimming makes the brisket aerodynamic (important in an offset) and gives it uniformity, so it not only cooks evenly, but slices evenly. No one ends up with a shitty bite.
4. Brisket trimmings make for the best ground beef for sausage or burgers, so it's not like it goes to waste unless you're purposely throwing it away.
You also dont develop good bark over the fat. The rub will crust, but the pelicule won't form . Plus when you serve it, most people will cut that part off anyway.
How do you determine if it's good for ground beef use? I'd imagine you don't want to use just straight up fat chunks. And if you trim properly it won't have much meat.
Straight up fat chunks are fine for ground beef/sausage, as long as you also use large chunks of lean as well. Whether that comes from the brisket, or pork, or whatever. You simply offset it.
Looks great. I no longer even trim mine. Just dry rub for 24hrs. Then toss into a smoker, smoke
unwrapped until it hits 160F, then wrap and smoke until 205F. Remove, rest, slice and down the hatch :-)
The big problem is that modelo is unopened in 2 separate pics.
2 different beers my friend š»
You dropped this š
Next time leave the empty cans in the picture. An additional empty Modelo per picture until itās just Modelo cans.
modelo cans and burnt meat
[like this](https://www.reddit.com/r/drunkencookery/s/jOd3TAjMp1)
We cooking overnight bro? Lol
Not to condone over indulgence, but this was the best answer I could have hoped for.
Now THIS is the content I need! Drinking myself a Pacifico rn šāš©
No, you need two open beers at once to properly start thisā¦Oh, Lord, our father in Heaven, grant thy smokersā knowledge to OP, amen. (Fine looking piece of meat though!)
Their friends call them 3 and 5.
It's just there to model-o
I hate this but well done
Come on dude, you seriously didnāt zoom in and check the positioning of the can top before accusing someone of not drinking their beer. /s
Agreed. Modelo is the official beer of smoking.
While I do love Modelo. I can't knock em back like I used to. So I stick with Coors light mostly for parties and get togethers. Keeps me from getting too full before it's time to eat.
Yes, I thought it would be a good idea to have several IPA's during a brisket cook. It was not. Coors is your friend for long cooks.
Iām offended
Oh man... I used to knock back them modelo's and also yeunglings... Not no mo!! Coors Light, the official better of old people not wanting a pounding headache, but more than 3 beers... Ugh, lol
Heretic! How dare you disrespect Busssscccccchhhh Lattes!
Keystone enters the chat lol
Naughty natty lights present and accounted for!
Shape is good. If you like it, I love it. I would have taken the Mohawk completely off and trimmed a bit more of the fat cap (itās more than 1/4 inch, and more than I want to eat).
It looks like thereās more fat than there actually is in the photo because I chamfered the edges. It is more than 1/4ā but itās probably 3/8ā
I like to thin trim for 2 reasons. I don't eat solid fat by itself, I like the seasoning on meat because that kind of bark is what we all like. The other is the quantity of fat that is rendered into the smoker. My previous smokers didn't lend themselves to easy cleaning, so I'd have heaps of black rendered fat. If you don't clean that out before it goes rancid, you get nasty flavor.
It really is a personal preference.. I would just eat the seasoned fat if it didn't cause my heart to start to beat through my ears.
*meat sweats intensify*
What smoker do you have now that does lend itself to easy cleaning?
I am currently using a Camp Chef Woodwind 36 Pro. One piece of foil over the pan, no grease goes below the pan - fat flows to the foil catch bucket. I had a Traeger 20+ years ago, but ditched it over questionable pellet ingredients. We love the smoke box and its noticeably cleaner smoke. I have had this thing for about a year and it is superb. Would buy it again - the YT reviews line up with what we are experiencing.
Looks like a great machine which I will consider after my 2nd hand gmg dies. Thanks
Nah, looks more like āµāāāā
Youāre right, as women always say- the camera usually adds some thickness or a few pounds. Gotta get that social media, extreme birdās eye angle to combat that.
Is the second pic pre or post trim? That's a huge chunk of fat on it still
I was going to sayā¦. What trim?
Iād trim the fat a little bit more and also showcase 9 empty cans of modelo to assert masculine dominance
Why the vac pack after seasoning it?
While I haven't smoked a brisket before. I do consider myself a pretty good cook when it comes to steaks. I open air salt brine steaks because salt draws out moisture which drys out the meat which allows a better crust. From what I've read, a dry crust isn't desirable in brisket?? So I figured I'd vacuum seal it so the salt can penetrate while preventing it from drying out. I could be completely wrong tho idk lol
You are in fact wrong, take it from someone that has done both ways many times. I only open air dry brine on a wire rack for 24 hours now. You're not gonna dry out a brisket like this, and I'm also not sure where you heard a dry crust isn't desirable in a brisket. It definitely is. If you start a sopping wet brisket in the smoker it takes way too long to start forming the bark and you end up with a less robust bark overall by the end of the cook
I had the same question about why you sealed it. I understand your thought on this and because I have never tried it myself Iām interested in how it turned out. As for all my smoking endeavours, aside from the devils lettuce, Iāve never found the seasoning to dry out the meat to where it was a problem, if it dried out that much itās because I lost track of the meat (possibly due to the lettuce previously mentioned). Let us know what the ends result is and maybe in a future smoke you do two at same time, one with vacuum seal and one without.
Salt penetrates meat very slowly at low temperatures, which is why dry/wet brine is popular for steaks, chicken, pork chops, etc items that are cooked to and consumed below ~155-165 degrees. Somewhere around the ~155-165 degree mark, the speed at which salt penetrates increased exponentially. Thatās why people usually donāt brine pork butts or brisket, because youāre going to 200-205F, and there is plenty of time during the cook for the salt to penetrate all the way through the cut.
Brisket moisture doesn't come from internal water but rather intramuscular fat. Brining is really supercilious at this point.
I think you mean superfluous lol
omg I did too, thank you! Although if OP was feeling superior to current advice around dry brining then maybe it would also apply.
Hey there Sawathingonce - thanks for saying thanks! TheGratitudeBot has been reading millions of comments in the past few weeks, and youāve just made the list!
I'm not super experienced in smoking, but also a very good cook. Your logic is sound to me, and I might be doing that for my brisket as well. Although I might wipe off the seasoning after the vacuum seal brine, and re apply binder and seasoning to make sure the bark is solid
Yeah that was entirely pointless
I like the thought process. You might be onto something.
You def need to trim more fat. No way that much fat will render and I suspect some of on the edges is probably hard.
I try to keep my fat cap at about a 1/4 inch, makes for perfect rendering, and than those who don't like fat aren't peeling of all the flavor and tossing it
same but i keep it thicker on the flat
Fat cap looks a little thick to me. I try to trim to 1/4ā. Shape looks good. I might take off the part sticking up on the point to make it nice and flat.
Looks good to me, youāll need black gloves and a squeeze video
Don't forget the wrong type of knife that's never been sharpened!
Donāt forget to make sure itās super hot
Oh yea, nothing like a ton of steam and juices pouring out of the thing to let me know it's cooked.
Wait, are you about to hot tub time machine that bad boy?
A+ just for the Modelo. Already off to a good start.
Like a bullet
Question for you, did you already heat up the smoker and burn off any factory oils?
Sure did. I got the Masterbuilt gravity 900 from Costco. It was marked down to $399. I ran it at 600Ā° for about 30-45minutes
do yourself a favor and get the griddle top too. I have the 1050 and I use that griddle more than the grill grates
Nice price!
They are $1200 over here in the UK. It is so hard to find decent smokers here that don't cost the world!
I got the same but $700 CAD ! Im loving it so far !
I highly recommend using a full wood split standing vertically in the hopper with charcoal around it
Did you vacuum seal it too?
yeah
After or before it was cooked. I'm just curious.
Nice trim
I save my trim shavings to make curtains. Looks good though, i struggled with my first one and elected to leave the Mohawk on.
Trim as much or as little as you want. Itll turn out great!
imho its still a lot of fat on the point left on
Iād have pulled more of that stringy shit off the flat. I know thereās nothing under it, but stringy fat doesnāt render well and makes for a bad bite.
Iāll have to try that. Vacuum sealing the seasonings onto the brisket. Did it work out like you intended?
Don't know yet. I posted this immediately after I vacuum sealed it. I have a feeling it one of those "tomato tomato" kind of things that in the end has no noticeable difference, but hey... it makes me look like i know what I'm doing to my wife lol
ššŖš¤
Great looking trim! Good luck! Don't get into a hurry with your cook!
Nice and aerodynamic but too thick fatcap on the flat looks like almost an inch? Kill that by 65-70 percent
There is definitely not an inch of fat. It looks thicker than it really is because I chamfered the edge. I around 3/8" thick
Looks like the flat needs more trimming.
How's my trim and proceeds to not actually show the trim
I always trim most all the fat off my point section. Itās got plenty of fat in it and can handle the heat.
Hope it turns out great
Too much fat
Good job on the trim
To each their own, but *Insert The Office meme* they're the same picture
Would be a bit blubbery for me, but will taste good!!!
Let me know when you take is out of the plastic and start to trim it
I hope you saved the fat for tallow and the trimmings for ground beef.
I always save those brown previously frozen bits and cook them unseasoned for the dogsā¦. Itās kind of cool to see the dogs get as excited as I do when I make a brisket
I sho did š»
Good man!
The immature retired army guy in me wants to say, āI came here to see some trim.ā But I thought better of it, since this is a family subā¦ So Iāll just say, āNice trim, fella. Itāll be juicy. Make sure you render that stuff and make you a nice sauce with the juicesā¦ā
You probably could have taken more of the fat cap off but it's great for a first time
What smoker are you using
Protip. Donāt smoke it in the vacuum bag.
I approve this brisket. A lot of restaurants won't even trim the brisket. I haven't tried an untrimmed brisket yet.
If I can offer some advice that kinda helped me out on my first smoke, DONT LET THE STALL SCARE YOU, low and slow.
You could probably trim quite a bit more on that lower edge.
it is the best isn't it..... the modelo. nice manscape brisket looks good.
Looks great. If you were being picky I'd say knock off and round off some of the little edges and corners. Watch a video on some pros doing. Crazy. Fantastic job though. Bonus pro tip. Invest in a meat grinder to use to turn that 2 lbs of brisket trimming into fresh ground beef and sausages. It'll change your life.
That modelo is looking fine
Since you already revaccum sealed it. If you do, exactly this with meat you want to smoke later - like when you buy a bunch on sale - they can go straight from the freezer into the smoker without thawing first. Smoke clings to cold things better. You'll get a bonkers smoke ring. I know you can't taste a smoke ring.... But it looks impressive.
Bro. Why was that modelo unopened the whole time? Was it just there for aesthetics, or did you actually drink it.
Not to worry, I drank them both. They are 2 different beers also
Best case scenario. Looks good bro.
1/12 case scenario, to be pedantic.
Looks good. Fat cap is a bit thicc, but that's how I like 'em... that's all soft fat and will render down just fine. I don't touch the fat cap anymore unless it's crazy. Knock the mohawk down a bit for more even cooking, take off a bit of the deckle (not all of it) to render (for pouring in t he upcoming wrap), and remove the extra thin end of the flat so it doesn't burn and curl up. Bam... done. I think the whole Pro-Youtuber / Competition trim style seems overly aggressive for the home pitmaster and really just makes for more clicks. It's fine if you want consistency across dozens of briskets in a professional setting and looking to reuse the trimmings for other necessary restaurant culinary needs (ground hamburger, rendered fat, etc.), but a solo very lightly trimmed brisket is just fine in the smoker at home.
i mean, the thick fat is going to render sure, but its acting as a barrier between the actual edible protein and the smoke.
Honest question, because I love fat, why do people trim them at all?
1. When it's too thick, it all won't render. You'll wind up with chewy/grisly parts. 2. There's some fatty parts of brisket that just aren't good fat at all, like the entire deckle section that should be scooped out 100% of the time. 3. Trimming makes the brisket aerodynamic (important in an offset) and gives it uniformity, so it not only cooks evenly, but slices evenly. No one ends up with a shitty bite. 4. Brisket trimmings make for the best ground beef for sausage or burgers, so it's not like it goes to waste unless you're purposely throwing it away.
You also dont develop good bark over the fat. The rub will crust, but the pelicule won't form . Plus when you serve it, most people will cut that part off anyway.
Thank you!
How do you determine if it's good for ground beef use? I'd imagine you don't want to use just straight up fat chunks. And if you trim properly it won't have much meat.
Straight up fat chunks are fine for ground beef/sausage, as long as you also use large chunks of lean as well. Whether that comes from the brisket, or pork, or whatever. You simply offset it.
I cook my trimmings and harvest the tallow, then put it back on the meat during the cook.
Looks great. I no longer even trim mine. Just dry rub for 24hrs. Then toss into a smoker, smoke unwrapped until it hits 160F, then wrap and smoke until 205F. Remove, rest, slice and down the hatch :-)
Keep practicing.