Well we had the brisket yesterday around 4. It had been in the cooler around 3 hours and was still about 178*. The meat was pretty good. It was not dry by any means, but it could have been more moist. I thought it tuned out pretty well, as did most people that tried it, but for me the rub was a bit over-powering. Maybe I am sensitive to cumin, but I thought it just had too much. Here’s the rub recipe we used:

1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup salt
1/4 cup brown sugar (dried)
8 teaspoon chili poweder (or 2 tablespoon + 2 teaspoons)
1 tablespoon + 1 teaspoon cumin
2 teaspoon MSG/Accent
2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
2 teaspoon black pepper, freshly ground
2 teaspoon garlic powder
2 teaspoon onion powder

I think because chili powder also contains cumin, next time I would leave the cumin out. The brisket had a little heat to it, which I didn’t mind, but it may be too spicy for some. I think next time I will half the cayenne pepper, omit the extra cumin, and see how that goes.

After I cooked the brisket, I loaded up the WSM yet again with charcoal and did a pork butt from Walmart. They are one of the few places that had bone-in pork butt. Unfortunately the butt had been “enhanced”, I couldn’t find one that was not enhanced. Essentially this means they inject a saline solution into the meat, so there is already a lot of salt in it. For the rub, I used Salt Lick BBQ’s Dry Rub, and I didn’t go too heavy on the rub. I put it on the WSM around 1800 Saturday, and added about 15 coals before going to bed. At that time it was around 170* and I was afraid it would get way too done overnight so I backed down the vents to only 30% open. When I woke up the WSM lid temp was around 175* so I fired up a chimney full of coals to get the temp back up. When the butt hit 190* I pulled it from the WSM and wrapped it in foil for 30 minutes to let it rest. After that I pulled the pork and put serving-size portions in the foodsaver bags, then into the freezer. Jenn and I had pulled pork sandwiches for lunch with a little BBQ sauce and it was really good. A really forgiving piece of meat.

Well today Jenn and I did our third smoke on our Weber Smokey Mountain Cooker. The first time, we did pork loin back ribs. The second time, we did pork spare ribs, trimmed St. Louis Style. This time we bought a 5.75 pound brisket flat from Costco and gave brisket a try. I wanted the meat ready to eat at 4:00PM, so including meat rest time, getting the smoker going, etc., I decided to start at 4:00AM. I thought this would give me time for the meat to rest, and give me a little extra time in case the brisket didn’t cook as fast as I had planned for.

So the timeline went something like this:

0400: Wake up, pull brisket from fridge and apply rub. Set on counter wrapped with plastic wrap. Back to bed.

0530: Light about 20 coals in chimney starter since I’m using the Minion method.

0545: Put brisket on top grate of WSM. Back to sleep.

0615: Wake up, curious what the smoker temp is at. Checking it, I see it is lower than I expected (around 165). I see that while I opened all the bottom vents, I forgot to open the top vent. I opened the top vent and hoped it would recover. Back to bed.

0730: Wake up, check temp. Looks good now, lid temp was around 235.

0815: Wake up for good, check temp, looks good, still around 235-240ish.

0930: Baste brisket with 1/2 BBQ sauce, 1/2 water.

During the day I would occasionally check the temp to make sure things looked good. The WSM did not dissapoint, holding steady between 225-240. We went to Costco and ran a couple of errands for a few hours.

1200: Baste meat again, meat temp is now at 180, and has been there for a while.

1230: Wrap the meat in foil with meat temp at 181.

1336: Meat has now hit my target temp of 188. Rush to get cooler and stuff to store meat until it’s time to eat.

1345: Meat is in pre-heated cooler, wrapped in foil, and surrounded by a sleeping bag. I then wrapped a toe-down strap around the cooler to keep it shut. The probe is still in the meat to make sure we stay at food safe temperatures (i.e. >140 degrees F).

1400: Put some almonds in the smoker, drizzled with vegetable oil and sprinkled with salt and pepper. Put on a few chunks of apricot to get the smoke going pretty good.

…

And thats where I am now. I’ll pull the almonds around 1500 or 1530 to do the next batch. A great way to use the fuel still burning, the smoked almonds are delicious.

So around 1600 we’ll taste the brisket. Hope it turns out well!

That’s all for now.

Scott

Jenn and I have been casually looking at houses the last couple of months, and have a few prospects that we like. We have had a plan for several months to find another house and now that Jenn will be done with the school year it is almost time to put the plan into action.

In the last couple of months we have really made the front and back yard look nice, as well as made some interior improvements. I put in 120′ of brick pavers as a lawn border, put in 11 yards of bark, spread 13 yards of gravel, got rid of all the dandelions in the grass, trimmed all the rose bushes, stained the deck, cleaned out the garage, tiled the bathroom, replaced 2 sinks and faucets, had out tub coated so it is white, installed crown molding, sold the camp trailer, sold the motorcycles, and replaced the toilet with a white one. So needless to say there has not been much time for hobbies and leisure, but that’s OK. I am looking forward to next summer where we can sit on our back porch and relax and talk about how our first summer with Ava was so busy, compounded by all the extra work we did. Jenn has been a saint by watching Ava and being so understanding. It feels good to have my list of work done, I’m so glad we planned things out in a reasonable and thoughtful fashion so it did not have to be crammed in to marathon sessions to complete it in time.

So, lots of details to work and and negotiations to be made, but hopefully we will be in a new (to us) house in the next couple of months. Exciting and scary times, but we feel it is the right move. Lots of work ahead with moving, but hopefully all the preparation will pay off.

Jenn’s last day teaching is tomorrow, which is great because she will then get to be home with Ava and Farley. Things are going well at my work, we continue to have a lot on our plates and I still really like my job.