Humdinger of a Brisket

Soooo ... As I am typing this post, I just went through a weird rabbit trail to realize I had not posted my latest Brisket cook ...

I just picked up "Crack" because I remembered that I really enjoyed it on my 2020 Thanksgiving Turkey.

As I was looking through Turkey posts on this blog, I started looking through Smoked posts.

At some point ... I started looking through Brisket posts, and saw that my last one was my Easter Brisket from earlier this year.

I thought that was weird ... because I knew I had cooked a brisket much more recently than that. 

In fact, I cooked one just on the 29th, which as I type this, was Sunday of last week.

I cooked one on my Humdinger of a Hootenanny (Batch 345) brew day. I'm absolutely sure I intended to blog about it. But, I have not. Yet. Until now.

Easter Brisket

I like brisket. I like making brisket. I like eating brisket. It's GUUUUD.

I would probably make it more if it wasn't usually quite so big. 

A 10 pound brisket is about perfect to fit on my 22 inch Weber Kettle, but it is rare to find a brisket in my local Sam's Club (which is where I get my briskets) under 15 pounds.

15 pounds is just a little too big. I can make it work, but it isn't ideal.

So ... whenever I see a 10 pound Prime "packer" brisket at my Sam's Club, I grab it.

Well ... about a week and a half before Easter, I saw an 11 pound packer brisket at Sam's. Close enough. I grabbed it.

Brisket Shepard's Pie

Last time I made brisket, I vacuum sealed and froze most of the point.

See Superbowl Brisket.

Since then, the brisket point has been sitting in the freezer waiting for an opportunity for me to use it in a relatively quick meal.

This past weekend, my wife and kid wanted to go out and watch The Batman, and as it is a long movie, I knew I wouldn't have a whole lot of time in the afternoon to prepare dinner.

I thought a Shepherds (Shepard's) Pie would be something good to make with left-over brisket.

This is something I thought would be great to prepare in the morning and just pop on the Weber Kettle for an hour or so.

So ... Saturday morning, I made some mashed potatoes, and heated up the brisket in a gravy with onion and corn.

Superbowl Brisket

If you follow this blog, you know that I brewed Superbowl Sunday.

Colorado Vienna Lager (Batch 306)

I also smoked a brisket.

Fairly recently, at my neighborhood Sam's club, I found a 10 pound prime brisket.

As I'm sure I've mentioned before, 10 pounds is about perfect to fit on my 26" Weber Kettle, so I had to pick it up.

It was in my freezer for awhile, and I decided brisket would be a good meat to have on Superbowl Sunday.

So ... I smoked it for our Superbowl dinner during and after the brew day.

Eric's Red Ale (Batch 289) and Brisket

I brewed and made brisket this past Sunday. 

At the same time I was in Sam's Club picking up my Country Style Pork Ribs, I saw a 10 pound brisket, and generally when I see a full brisket at that size, I try to pick it up.

In my opinion, a 10 pound brisket is the perfect size for smoking on my Weber Kettle, so I felt like I had to pick it up.

As far as the beer ...

This brew day was my 289th batch of beer. It was the 18th on my electric Anvil Foundry.

The beer is a recipe I've made a lot over the years, but I have not brewed in a few years....

Brisket in the Cold

Last week, while in Sam's Club I saw an 11 lb USDA Prime Brisket. 

When I see one around 10 lbs, I am always very tempted to pick it up. 

I succumbed to the temptation, which of course meant I had to cook it up this past weekend.

It was cold in Denver over the weekend. Much colder than we're used to here on the front range.

The high I saw on Saturday was something like 3 degrees F, and most of the day was colder than that.

I don't know for sure, but I'm fairly sure I've never smoked a big hunk of meat on such a cold day, so I was a little nervous about keeping my smoking temps up.

Even so, I was pretty sure my Kettle would be able to do it, so I gave it a try.

Brisket Flat

I cannot tell a lie. I. Love. Brisket. 

I love cooking it. I love eating it. I even love having left-overs. It is GUUUD!

For quite awhile during the whole Covid Shelter in Place reality, it was difficult to get brisket. Then, you could get it, but it was too expensive for me to want to buy.

Recently, it has become more available and much less expensive.

My wife was going to Sam's Club a week or two ago and asked if I wanted her to pick up anything.

16 lb Brisket on the Kettle

Well ... as I mentioned recently, I Bought Another Weber Kettle.

One of the reasons that I Bought Another Weber Kettle is that I wanted a bigger kettle on which to smoke bigger briskets.

For a month or two, every time I go into my Sam's Club (which is where I get most of my bigger cuts of meat to smoke), the meat department is pretty empty.

So, it has been awhile since I've seen a brisket to smoke.

Last week, I discovered that Sam's was now allowing briskets to be added to the online-order to pick up at the store.

So, I included a Prime Brisket to an order. To be honest, I wasn't sure I'd actually get one until I came pick it up.

But, sure enough .... when I picked up my order, included was a 16 pound USDA Prime Brisket.

I Love Brisket

I made my third brisket a couple weekends ago.

My first brisket was about 10 pounds choice and turned out really good.

The second one was almost 13 pounds prime and turned out better.

This third one was my best so far. I appear to be getting better at this, although I'm not sure what I'm doing differently each time.

This one was about 12 pounds when I bought it from Sam's Club, and I went with a prime cut again.

To be honest, 10 to 11 pounds is really about as big as I think fits on the smoker, and I think this would have been even better if I were able to find a 10 pound brisket.

But, it is hard to find one under 15 pounds at my Sam's club. Especially when the price per pound is reasonable.

My Second Brisket

So ... a couple months ago I smoked My First Brisket.

This past Sunday, I smoked my second one.

My First Brisket was a 10 pound (9.5 pounds) Choice Grade brisket that I purchased from my local Sam's Club.

It took about 11 hours from the time I put it on the kettle until I pulled it.

This second one was about 13 pounds (12.98) of Prime, also purchased at Sam's. I had intended on smoking this a few weeks ago, but ended up having to freeze it. I only started thawing it out in a water bath on Saturday.

Someone on a facebook group told me I "need" to let it thaw more gradually and to let it "rest" longer after the thaw but before putting it on the smoker.

Obviously I didn't "need" to, but I hope for my third brisket, I'll be able to smoke it without having to freeze and then thaw it.

My First Brisket

This past weekend, I smoked a brisket.

Honestly, the fact that it took me so long to smoke one is somewhat embarrassing. There really is no excuse.

If I'm honest ... I was a little scared of briskets.

I can't always find brisket at my Sam's club, and often when I see one it is really more expensive than I want to pay.

Part of the reason it took me so long to do one is that I'm nervous about screwing it up. A brisket is not nearly as "forgiving" as "pork butt" ... or at least that is what I've heard / read / seen.

And it takes a long time to smoke a brisket. It sort of sucks to spend all day making something that turns out less than awesome.

But a few weeks ago, briskets were on sale and I grabbed a 10 pound packer. I had intended to smoke it sooner, but my plans changed and I ended up freezing that brisket.

This past weekend is when I finally got around to doing it. Turns out I didn't really have to be afraid.