My First Brisket

Some Of My Own Bar-B-Que Experience


So along with trying Bar-B-Que around Texas, I’ve been practicing BBQing some of my own meats. The last 3 weeks I have smoked a couple of briskets, a couple of pork tender loins and a couple racks of 3 ½ down ribs.

The briskets I cooked up pretty much for a small family reunion. We had between 20-30 members coming, so I picked up two 6 pound briskets (trimmed). So a couple nights before I put a fairly decent amount of seasoning on them both, and let them sit in the fridge to “marinate”
The day of the BBQ I got up at 7am, got cleaned up and headed over to my uncles (where we were throwing the get together). I had brought my smoker over there earlier in the week. So I get there, and we set up the smoker and start the chimney. Using mesquite lump coal, which Ive never used before, we were in for a show. Once it started to catch, sparks were flying several feet high, a lot like those cone firework things you get for the 4th of July… were a little worried there for a bit that it might light a tree on fire. Once it settled down, we added it to the smoker, got the temp to level out then relaxed for most of the day. Listened to Eric Clapton’s new CD, worked on a doggy door for my cousin and played a couple games of washers (kicking my uncles butt of course) until the family started to show up. The doggy door is actually a funny story… my cousins new dog has been breaking into his house during the day and climbing all over his tables and furniture, even though he has blocked the door with a chair and heavy books and what not. But that’s a story best told by him. So while hanging out with the family and watching the Cowboys v Vikings game I would check the heat and smoke levels and adjust properly, only opened the actual smoker twice to look at the briskets and calculate time (since my aunt wanted them done around 5pm).

So I pull them off the pit, they look wonderful and smelled AWESOME! BUT as any chef knows, you never just cut them or any meat right away. You gotta let them rest, so the juices flooow back and settle. Man that was hard to do, the entire house was just fulled of the smokey goodness aroma. Though the horrific playing of the Cowboys did help distract us for a bit, as rage and anger filled our eyes.

Once it has rested enough, its time to slice and dice. But, yes another BUT, I forget that my uncle doest keep exactly sharp knives. lol. Thank god the briskets were nice and tender, but the crust wasn’t exactly the easiest part to get through… but we managed. The smoke ring on the brisket was perfect, the crust was nice and flavorful, the smokiness flavor in the brisket was just right. The only problem was that on the second brisket, I slightly overcooked park of the lean section.
But besides that, they were pretty damn good, and for my first time smoking a brisket out side of work and by myself, I was very happy with the results. And seeing as how most of the 2 briskets disappeared, the family seemed to enjoy it too.

I plan on doing a couple more soon for some friends and family, I’m gonna change up the rub some and add more apple wood to the first stage of smoking… now that I can get it in bulk and not just stupid chips. (and Im sure that story will be much more entertaining, I just was bored so I decided to type this lame excuse for a blog post up).