I know what you're thinking...
A 7lb USDA Prime Packer? "They don't exist"...or "I've cooked briskets for 30 years and I've never seen one."
Yeah I know. I thought the same thing.
So I picked it up and inspected it...
Point...check
Flat...check
7.05 lbs untrimmed
Alright...I'm game...even if it means I can shave 4-5 hours off of my brisket cook. I also picked up a 10.5 lb brisket as well (which will be cooked Sunday).
Yesterday, I decided to do the 7lb brisket with a snake burn on the 26.
After 3 hours
After 5 hours post stall
Wrapped after the stall
So how did it go?
Decent. I'm so impressed with the 26.75" every time I cook on it. It is a sheer joy to cook on. But, back to the meat. This brisket took 8 hours and some change from start to finish. Flavor and Smoke level were amazing. Even though I cooked it to 203+, checked a few spots for ease with the probe and let it rest, it came out a little under. I could tell as soon as I unwrapped it and put it on the cutting board. I had to guess with the thermometer placement in the point (smaller than usual) so that may have been part of it? Plus the point was a bit thinner than I'm used to. But there was no resistance when checking for doneness.
I did things a little differently with this one. Instead of 225-250, I opted for 250-275. I read you could still get a decent render. Perhaps? But portions of the top were rendered, but not completely so. Again, this may have.m been attributed to not cooking it long enough.
Also the wind was giving me some problems. At one point I had everything wide open and I was struggling to keep 225 (whereas I had 275 for the first few hours). It never dipped below that...but it wasn't cranking like I wanted it to.
I added a few Kingsford Professional briquettes to the end of the snake to around hour 6 to bolster the temp...it worked.
One thing I took away from this is Aaron Franklins advice of..."feel it" to know when it's done. Thermometers are great, but I have a feeling if I would have picked it up and tried to bend it, I would have probably let it go for one more hour and it would have been great.
Lesson learned.
Best part is...even though it was a little under, one of these two briskets was destined to be taco meat for my moms birthday dinner this weekend (hey she wanted me to make tacos). So flat and point chopped fine, seasoned again, and cooked together will make freakishly good tacos.
Back to the drawing board with the second brisket this weekend. Totally pumped for round two...stay tuned!
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