The other day I came across an odd brisket while going through my regular source's select, choice and prime briskets.
It was a 6.29 lb prime with a full point and flat. Hadn't come across one quite that small before in my memory with most being 10, 12 and more pounds. Looked over many others but I kept coming back to the little fellow and trying to come up with a plan on how to cook it in the little big #1. It was too long to fit on one rack and way too petite to cut it into a separate flat and point .... humm
Being prime grade I looked it over close to try and determine why it was so small, but it seemed to be in proportion to a larger one with only maybe a tad on the thin side. At less than $17.00, the price of a one pound prime ribeye, I thought OK here is a learning opportunity. Bought it and parked it in the refrigerator for a few days until I came up with a plan.
Decided to trim most fat and grey edge off and then I folded the point over the top of the flat and nestled it together fat side on the bottom ... kind of like a comb over ... LOL I planned to to smoke it @ 200 and monitor it very close.
Rub was very very light kosher salt and cracked black pepper only. Wood consisted of Hickory, Pecan and a small amount of mesquite. In the box I included a foil boat of just water ... nothing fancy. I also placed it fat side down to insulate the meat from the heat. This is opposite to what we usually do here in TX with stick burners. Then. into the #1, double probes and a final check of the internal start temp. BTW, the foil under the miniB is the trimmings for our dog.
Set temp dial @ 200 degrees indicated and buttoned it up. After five hours the internal temp was 155 on both probes so I pulled the brisket, double wrapped it and put it back in @225. The mini brisket hit 195 at the start of the ninth hour and I turned the smoker off but left the wrapped brisket in to slowly come down. Man these #1's are tight and well insulated. Two hours later the miniB was still 180. Brought it in and waited 30 more minutes before slicing and serving.
All's well that ends well and the mini ended very well ... or for us, most excellent!
