Cooking Cheap

[Last update 4:45PM, 5/31/05]

Monday 5/30/05

Eventually, you have to stop researching and planning and start prepping and cooking. I started by making a loaf of plain old white bread — it smells wonderful. That’s to carry the brisket and sauce to my mouth tomorrow. I defrosted some BBQ sauce I made last year and some baked beans I made last month. I don’t remember what the sauce variation is but I wouldn’t have frozen it if I didn’t like it and it’s just enough one one person, one meal. I can always make more.

There are two questions left. Rub and starting time to cook. Since this my first really long smoke and my first “packer” (aka ‘full” ) brisket, there’s not point in going completely cheap. 1/2 cup of ground Sumatra coffee (Starbucks of course, its my daily bean so it was at hand) 3 Tbl of pure ancho chili powder, 3 Tbl kosher salt, 2Tbl of packed brown sugar. 1Tbl of freshly ground pepper. That makes a lot of rub but I used enough of it that the remainder wasn’t worth saving. A packer brisket is that big and mine’s a small one, just 9lbs. That recipe is straight out of “Smoke And Spice”.

Based on web research you can trim the fat or leave it on. I chose to trim the really hard and thick chunks. It’s actually pretty easy to do, far easier than taking the chine bone off of spareribs for example and clearly not necessary to some folks. The biggest problem was wrapping it in plastic and foil for an overnight chill in the fridge. It took my largest cookie sheet just to hold the thing. I used three overlapping sheets of plastic wrap but the wrap doesn’t stick well to rub so I wrapped that whole mess in aluminum foil. It’s all in the fridge. The only remaining question is when to start cooking it and how long will it take? I have two choices. Get up a 8:00 AM, fire up the pit and hope its done by 9:00PM. The other option is to put it on late tonight and then try to sleep knowing the smoker is unattended and get up often enough to attend to it. I’m leaning towards the latter, it just seems more exotic and I can hold it after its done for many many hours or so I’ve read). Nevermind. I fired up the pit at 9:15PM. Meat on at 10:00PM or there abouts

00:15 Tuesday

It took more than an hour to get the temperature up to the right place (240F). I got the meat on at 10:45PM and I just turn the vents down to a quarter open. Where they will stay until for a good long time. Until I get up when the alarm clock goes off at 4:00 AM. It’s a cool evening, I don’t expect to do anything but simmer. at 225, give or take a few.. Once last check, and I’m off to sleeply land. For a few hours.

04:45AM Tuesday

Reluctantly got up and checked the smoker. Running 240F. Closed the bottom vents completely, turned the meat. Added water to the pan. The spray bottle of apple juice is broken. Don’t care, Im going back to bed.

09:15 AM 5/31/05

Temperature was down to 185F but still cooking. I should have left some of the bottom vents open after all. Took and an hour to get it back to 200. I put the remote meat thermometer probe in. The meat reads 151. I’ll to to 165 and foil it and put it in the oven or 185 on the smoker. No idea how long it will take to get there. Nice looking hunk of meat.

12:30 PM 5/31/05

It finally hit 165F in the meat. That’s place where I could foil it and finish in an oven or keep going the smoker. I’ll go for 185 on the smoker instead of finishing it in the oven. Cooker is running 220F. With hindsight an overnight cook was the right choice instead of starting at 8:00AM and hoping it was done by 8:00PM (this one wouldn’t have).

1:45PM, 5/31/05

185F. I took the brisket off the smoker, wrapped it in foil and put it in an ice chest. Supposedly that’s good for several hours of holding time. By them, it will be dinner time. Perfect timing, no? ;^) Here’s a small picture of the brisket, click to get a larger picture.

4:45 PM, 5/31/05

The foil and cooler kept the meat hot for 3 hours! It was 151F, still too hot be sticking your fingers in it, but cool enough make a sandwitch.

Home smoked brisket, homemade BBQ sauce, home made bread. It was good. I like the rub. The taste and texture of the brisket was very good. Not a lot of smoke ring but I’m not fanatic about that. There was a lot of fat to deal with so I’ll trim it a little closer next time. Separating the point from the flat was a challenge I didn’t so well on. The flat’s all sliced and in the freezer. The hunks of point I’m not what I’m going to with. I may fire up the smoker in a few days and smoke the point into burnt end status. Too much meat to waste. I wonder if I could slice itwith the grain, dehydrate it and call it jerky?

The BBQ gods were with me on this smoke. Right at dinner time we had a thunderstorm roll through. If I had started the BBQ in the morning instead of last night it would have been rained out. One other happy event. The lawnmover drive fixed itself after I pushed it around half the yard. My back and arms are complaining about that.