Here's the info... two packers. Grade unknown. Larger one is about 18#. Smaller is ~10#. Rubbed both with Instacure.. let sit for about 5 minutes.. then rinsed it off. Patted dry, then rubbed with Olive Oil, and coated with Diamond Kosher Salt and Coarse Black Pepper. The smaller one also got a dusting of dried ground Chipotle.
Put them both in the #2 with 3oz pecan, 3oz post oak. Smaller one on top rack, larger one two tracks down (to make it barely fit under the top rack). Larger one barely fit... had to push it in, then kind of lift it up a bit to get the door shut.
Auber set at 300 degrees t .5 , 225 degrees f 195, 140 degrees t 4.0. Meat probe was in the lower brisket, in the thickest part of the point. Started it up at about 11:30pm Friday night and went to bed.
Woke up at 7:30 Saturday morning, and the Auber was beeping DONE. ... ... Thought something had to have gone wrong. No way did it run the .5 time cycle, the 195 degree temp cycle, and 4 hours hold cycle all by 7:30AM. That would mean that 195 internal temp was hit by 3-3:30AM.... only 3-1/2 - 4 hours into the smoke.... But meat temp was showing at 160ish.. so we were out of the "danger zone" and I had no reason to suspect that the meat was comprimised in any way.
So... scratched my head for a bit.. verified meat temp with two other Thermoworks probes.... and decided that maybe the Auber meat probe was in a fat pocket... or was too close to the edge.... or something. So, box temp was down to about 130. I power cycled the auber, and just put in a single program of 225 to internal temp of 195.
Box heated back up.... meat temp went back up... passed 160... 170... I was waiting to see a stall... nope 180... 190... 194 by 10AM. What in the world is going on??? ... I opened the box... got out the Thermoworks probes again... and they went in smooth as butter. A smack of the brisket resulted in a jello-mold like vibration of epic proportions. (I have a 10sec video available of this..) so... much to my dismay... they appeared done... problem is.. this was for dinner Saturday night... with almost 30lbs of meat in the #2, I was worried that it would be done in time for dinner with a midnight start time... now, it was 10AM, and it's done. So, double wrapped both in foil, and loaded them back into the smoker at 150degrees to keep them warm while I furiously packed up the car, cooked the baked beans, made the BBQ sauce, and got the kids ready to go 2 hours to the lake...
By noon, everything else was done, cars were packed... so I pulled out the foil wrapped briskets and tossed them into my RTIC 20 cooler, one on top of the other, both wrapped in towels.
Drive down to the lake... carry everything inside... and wait until 6pm for dinner... I'm feeding 15 people... it's my birthday... and this is going to be a train-wreck. I've never had a problem with briskets before, and I can't, for the life of me, figure out what went wrong....but... it was time to eat. I start slicing....
ok...
Wow... incredible... moist from first cut to last... flavorful... best damn briskets I've ever made....
So.... I'm going to continue on with my plans... Smaller brisket got turned into this....
So... I have no idea what happened with this smoke.... No idea how the meat cooked so fast, and stayed so incredibly moist and tender and amazing. One thought is that since my box temp probe is on the highest rack, and the lower brisket's thickest part was likely right under that (but not touching it in any way) perhaps the cold meat mass made the box temp reading off... but I would think that if box temp got too high, the meat wouldn't have stayed so incredible.
Also worth noting - I didn't use any water pan of any kind for this smoke. The juice tray under the smoker overflowed by 7AM... with that much moisture loss, I thought that the meat was going to be leather....
Finally... my favorite local butcher never seems to get briskets with any kind of marking of Grade on them.... But, the marbling on these things was beautiful... and the bend on them before cooking was incredible...so.. I'm thinking definitely Choice... if not edging into Prime territory.
If you made it this far... thanks for sticking with me...I'd love to hear any theories/input you may have.
Put them both in the #2 with 3oz pecan, 3oz post oak. Smaller one on top rack, larger one two tracks down (to make it barely fit under the top rack). Larger one barely fit... had to push it in, then kind of lift it up a bit to get the door shut.
Auber set at 300 degrees t .5 , 225 degrees f 195, 140 degrees t 4.0. Meat probe was in the lower brisket, in the thickest part of the point. Started it up at about 11:30pm Friday night and went to bed.
Woke up at 7:30 Saturday morning, and the Auber was beeping DONE. ... ... Thought something had to have gone wrong. No way did it run the .5 time cycle, the 195 degree temp cycle, and 4 hours hold cycle all by 7:30AM. That would mean that 195 internal temp was hit by 3-3:30AM.... only 3-1/2 - 4 hours into the smoke.... But meat temp was showing at 160ish.. so we were out of the "danger zone" and I had no reason to suspect that the meat was comprimised in any way.
So... scratched my head for a bit.. verified meat temp with two other Thermoworks probes.... and decided that maybe the Auber meat probe was in a fat pocket... or was too close to the edge.... or something. So, box temp was down to about 130. I power cycled the auber, and just put in a single program of 225 to internal temp of 195.
Box heated back up.... meat temp went back up... passed 160... 170... I was waiting to see a stall... nope 180... 190... 194 by 10AM. What in the world is going on??? ... I opened the box... got out the Thermoworks probes again... and they went in smooth as butter. A smack of the brisket resulted in a jello-mold like vibration of epic proportions. (I have a 10sec video available of this..) so... much to my dismay... they appeared done... problem is.. this was for dinner Saturday night... with almost 30lbs of meat in the #2, I was worried that it would be done in time for dinner with a midnight start time... now, it was 10AM, and it's done. So, double wrapped both in foil, and loaded them back into the smoker at 150degrees to keep them warm while I furiously packed up the car, cooked the baked beans, made the BBQ sauce, and got the kids ready to go 2 hours to the lake...
By noon, everything else was done, cars were packed... so I pulled out the foil wrapped briskets and tossed them into my RTIC 20 cooler, one on top of the other, both wrapped in towels.
Drive down to the lake... carry everything inside... and wait until 6pm for dinner... I'm feeding 15 people... it's my birthday... and this is going to be a train-wreck. I've never had a problem with briskets before, and I can't, for the life of me, figure out what went wrong....but... it was time to eat. I start slicing....
ok...
Wow... incredible... moist from first cut to last... flavorful... best damn briskets I've ever made....
So.... I'm going to continue on with my plans... Smaller brisket got turned into this....
So... I have no idea what happened with this smoke.... No idea how the meat cooked so fast, and stayed so incredibly moist and tender and amazing. One thought is that since my box temp probe is on the highest rack, and the lower brisket's thickest part was likely right under that (but not touching it in any way) perhaps the cold meat mass made the box temp reading off... but I would think that if box temp got too high, the meat wouldn't have stayed so incredible.
Also worth noting - I didn't use any water pan of any kind for this smoke. The juice tray under the smoker overflowed by 7AM... with that much moisture loss, I thought that the meat was going to be leather....
Finally... my favorite local butcher never seems to get briskets with any kind of marking of Grade on them.... But, the marbling on these things was beautiful... and the bend on them before cooking was incredible...so.. I'm thinking definitely Choice... if not edging into Prime territory.
If you made it this far... thanks for sticking with me...I'd love to hear any theories/input you may have.
