4th of July what’s on your menu?

TotallyNotTheIG said:
Thank you! My mouth is already watering. It was an 8-pound piece, but the family is smaller now with one living in California and I recently offloaded a swab. So it’s only four of us eating it and I’m afraid of wasting leftovers even with a four pound piece. Was that a mistake? We also have some king salmon.
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That fat cap adds non-edible poundage. If you have the salmon and plenty of sides and dessert, you won’t starve. Caveat: anyone with teen in their age or cadet or midshipman-flavored can eat a significant percentage of their bodyweight in brisket.

We had some California friends staying with us - no strangers to grilling and smoking for a full table or tail-gaters, along with 4 sponsor mids (mix of men and women, varsity athletes, etc.). Total of 10. I did 3 full-size briskets from Sam’s Club. I do trim the fat down to a little finger’s width. They were astonished at the amount of meat I allowed per mid as opposed to per “normal adult,” said there would be a ton of leftover meat. They were doubly astonished after they saw the midshipmen eat. And triply astonished - the leftover brisket was a mere half of a half-size steam tray foil pan. Corn on the cob, crusty rolls, pesto rice, raw veg sticks and homemade bacon ranch, Turkey Hill ice cream. I still remember that one. A favorite menu with smoked brisket.
 
Thank you for the inputs. My son will be the grill master tomorrow - should be a good day.
 
Capt MJ said:
That fat cap adds non-edible poundage. If you have the salmon and plenty of sides and dessert, you won’t starve. Caveat: anyone with teen in their age or cadet or midshipman-flavored can eat a significant percentage of their bodyweight in brisket.

We had some California friends staying with us - no strangers to grilling and smoking for a full table or tail-gaters, along with 4 sponsor mids (mix of men and women, varsity athletes, etc.). Total of 10. I did 3 full-size briskets from Sam’s Club. I do trim the fat down to a little finger’s width. They were astonished at the amount of meat I allowed per mid as opposed to per “normal adult,” said there would be a ton of leftover meat. They were doubly astonished after they saw the midshipmen eat. And triply astonished - the leftover brisket was a mere half of a half-size steam tray foil pan. Corn on the cob, crusty rolls, pesto rice, raw veg sticks and homemade bacon ranch, Turkey Hill ice cream. I still remember that one. A favorite menu with smoked brisket.
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Wow. Just wow. All that sounds so great and impressive. This will be my first brisket and hopefully we will go bigger next time. All this is making me hungry and I have to go into the grocery store - not a good mix.
 
TotallyNotTheIG said:
Wow. Just wow. All that sounds so great and impressive. This will be my first brisket and hopefully we will go bigger next time. All this is making me hungry and I have to go into the grocery store - not a good mix.
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Forgive me for asking - I’m sure you know to let it rest and then slice against the grain, like you would do with a tri-tip, flank steak or London broil.

Keep it simple, have fun, brisket is usually very forgiving, Happy Fourth!
 
Oh - and I have a depths-of-winter slow and low cook in the oven version of brisket, tightly covered with foil and prepped with wet (red wine or cranberry juice) and dry (a range of herbs and spices) good stuff, and resting on a bed of thickly sliced Vidalia onions. Fall-apart tender. The aroma when you walk in from winter errands or shoveling snow is the best.
 
Capt MJ said:
That fat cap adds non-edible poundage. If you have the salmon and plenty of sides and dessert, you won’t starve. Caveat: anyone with teen in their age or cadet or midshipman-flavored can eat a significant percentage of their bodyweight in brisket.

We had some California friends staying with us - no strangers to grilling and smoking for a full table or tail-gaters, along with 4 sponsor mids (mix of men and women, varsity athletes, etc.). Total of 10. I did 3 full-size briskets from Sam’s Club. I do trim the fat down to a little finger’s width. They were astonished at the amount of meat I allowed per mid as opposed to per “normal adult,” said there would be a ton of leftover meat. They were doubly astonished after they saw the midshipmen eat. And triply astonished - the leftover brisket was a mere half of a half-size steam tray foil pan. Corn on the cob, crusty rolls, pesto rice, raw veg sticks and homemade bacon ranch, Turkey Hill ice cream. I still remember that one. A favorite menu with smoked
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Whoa!! How long did that take? And I didn’t realize after all these years that you also smoke meats!!

Pellet? Egg? What do you use?

You REALLY must write a book!!
 
justdoit19 said:
Whoa!! How long did that take? And I didn’t realize after all these years that you also smoke meats!!

Pellet? Egg? What do you use?

You REALLY must write a book!!
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Egg. My husband was the smoker pro. He’s had a lot of health issues the last few years (broken hip, 2 spinal surgeries, a few urological procedures, a lovely selection), so I picked his brain and became self-taught. I am definitely an amateur. I also have a nephew-in-law who has a full array of machinery in his backyard. Smokes really big things.
 
Capt MJ said:
The “bark” is the key.

Resist the urge to carve the fat cap completely off. It’s self-basting.

Have fun with your rub. My go-to beef rub for smoking is coarse flake salt, smoked sweet paprika, coarsely ground black pepper, thyme, cracked rosemary, granulated garlic, chipotle powder. I don’t measure, just generously rub in until it looks right.

Any chance you can get a bigger one? Leftover brisket is a marvel in omelets and sandwiches.

Allow plenty of time!

I often consult Raichlen:

barbecuebible.com

Beef Brisket Made Easy

I’m going to let you in on a little secret: smoking beef brisket is easy, requiring maybe 30 minutes of actual work from start to finish.
barbecuebible.com


barbecuebible.com

Slam Dunk Brisket

Here's how to smoke a perfect brisket every time. An easy, Texas-style brisket recipe from Steven Raichlen.
barbecuebible.com
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Ok, so I think it went really well. The bark was great and meat tender and cook to perfection. I’m the future, I may be even more generous with the rub and not trim off as much fat prior to cooking (you mentioned this 😅). We a ton of leftover for today as we also threw grilled some king salmon and chicken. I may wrap it in butcher paper vs foil next time after we put in back on. Also, I want to do the whole big piece of brisket in the future 8–12 pounder; I can always bring a plate to the neighbors or some into work.
 
lol we are having drama.

Put the meat on, brisket. First time. Went out for a quick kayak. Unexpected storm popped up (yes I almost died. Blew me across the lake I couldn’t get back. Super scary tbh). Which meant the trager was also inundated with rain. Which caused a flare out.

So.

First time doing a brisket. First time with the trager. Trying to manage error code. And a cold smoker when our drenched rat bodies got back. Ugh. Stay tuned…
 
TotallyNotTheIG said:
Ok, so I think it went really well. The bark was great and meat tender and cook to perfection. I’m the future, I may be even more generous with the rub and not trim off as much fat prior to cooking (you mentioned this 😅). We a ton of leftover for today as we also threw grilled some king salmon and chicken. I may wrap it in butcher paper vs foil next time after we put in back on. Also, I want to do the whole big piece of brisket in the future 8–12 pounder; I can always bring a plate to the neighbors or some into work.
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IF I have leftover brisket, sometimes I shred or chop it, freeze it in quart bags, use later, add it to stews as the protein, toss it with buttered egg noodles, use as omelet filling, or just defrost in a pot with a little bbq sauce stirred in and have it on toasted ciabatta rolls or potato buns.

Clearly you earned an excellent grade on your maiden brisket voyage. Yes, be generous with the rub, and yes, don’t overdo the fat trimming.
 
I was also reading on forums, to slice and vacuum freeze for future use. And to sous vide to bring to temp.

Which brings up perhaps another thread: Sous Vide 😬
 
What is this "leftover brisket" of which you speak?
 
Pics or it didn’t happen…
 

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Lots of good advice on smoking a brisket. I have found that generally the bigger the brisket, the better. It can take a long time and there are lots of factors that can change the cook time - ambient temp, humidity, wind,....I've done a few and learned two things that I was missing on my first attempts that have really upped my success rate:

1) Reaching your target temp is important, but maybe more important is the feel when you probe the brisket. The temp probe should see almost no resistance, like probing a room temp stick of butter.
2) Let it rest long enough. When I pull my brisket off the smoker I place it in a cooler for a couple of hours. The cooler will hold the heat so it will be warm when sliced/served. That rest time is key in holding the juices and further tenderizing the meat.

For a newbie smoker 3:2:1 ribs or pulled pork are great starters to gain experience and confidence. Much easier than brisket and still very satisfying and crowd pleasing. I love brisket, but due to the cost and time commitment I probably only average one or two a year.
 
I always baste my brisket with ginger ale (the full-on sugar kind, not diet) while it's cooking. It makes a really nice crust.
 
Dadof2 said:
Lots of good advice on smoking a brisket. I have found that generally the bigger the brisket, the better. It can take a long time and there are lots of factors that can change the cook time - ambient temp, humidity, wind,....I've done a few and learned two things that I was missing on my first attempts that have really upped my success rate:

1) Reaching your target temp is important, but maybe more important is the feel when you probe the brisket. The temp probe should see almost no resistance, like probing a room temp stick of butter.
2) Let it rest long enough. When I pull my brisket off the smoker I place it in a cooler for a couple of hours. The cooler will hold the heat so it will be warm when sliced/served. That rest time is key in holding the juices and further tenderizing the meat.

For a newbie smoker 3:2:1 ribs or pulled pork are great starters to gain experience and confidence. Much easier than brisket and still very satisfying and crowd pleasing. I love brisket, but due to the cost and time commitment I probably only average one or two a year.
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I am perplexed about the probing. One end was butter, the other? Not so much. I’ll have to explore this some more.

I wrapped in butcher paper at about 160, cooking at 180. Cranked it up to 225 and went to 202 on the temp prob. Wrapped all that in Saran Wrap and let it sit for about 1.5 hrs (cooler, or turned off traeger).

It was sooooo good.

And yes there are left overs. Absent having a survive, I rewarded slices in a baggie, placed in turned off boiling water. As good as day one, and moist.

My DH and family are really impressed!
 
@justdoit19 does your Traeger have super smoke? As you probably already know, cold meat takes on more smoke flavor. I like to use super smoke on the brisket and also put it in cold to take on more smoke flavor.

You mentioned one end butter and one not. Was it a full packer and which end was not tender? My guess is you probably could have let it go a bit longer. Being wrapped, the part the probed like butter probably would not dry out with a little more time and the end that was tougher may have needed a bit more time. I've had to go quite a bit over 202 on some briskets to get the "butter probe". Can make you nervous about ruining the meat, but I have come to rely almost solely on the probe feel and use the temp as a general guide.
 
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