BARDSLJR

The final version of the brisket, and second, vacuum packed.

It will be vacuum packed before it goes into the bath, so it shouldn't be. I just checked on it in the Igloo locker, wrapped in a couple of dish towels, though, and there is a lot of condensation in the cooler, so now I am a little worried about my bark.

So, the big challenge with brisket is always the timing. Think about it- your standard brisket, depending on the size, is going to take 10 to 14 hours to cook properly. AND you're supposed to then put it, wrapped, in an Igloo cooler to rest for about 4 hours before serving. So, working backwards from 7PM....place in Igloo cooler at 3PM? About 12 hours (split the difference) before that is 3AM. Naw, I am not getting up at 3AM to start my brisket. I stayed up as late as I felt I could, 12AM, had the KK all stablized at about 250. I had previously trimmed (photo 1), rubbed with salt and pepper (2). This prime brisket started out at 16.7 pounds and I probably trimmed more than 2 pounds of fat off of it. So I estimated a 12-13 cook time, planning on boosting the temp to 300* when I got to the wrap stage. I got up and checked the brisket about 7 AM and it was at about 150-160 degrees (point and flat cooking at different rates) and the bark was forming nicely. I went back to catch a little more sleep.....Photo 3 is the brisket at about 9:30, bark formed nicely, time to wrap (photo 5) at a perfect 300* (photo 4). I went out for my morning walk (wilting in the Denver heat, it is going to be 97* today (36 for you centigrade types) and checked back in on my brisket: 196 and 205- just about perfect. But dinner is till projected for 7/7:30 or so.....brisket will be perfect serving temperature around 4PM...hmmmm. Can't put it in the oven to rewarm, it will dry out....So here's my solution: later this afternoon, when it has cooled to room temperature, I am going to vacuum-pack it and stick it in a sous vides bath set to 140, which should get it back to nearly optimal serving temperature without drying it out or affecting the tenderness of the meat. Stay tuned on that one, folks, I will report back later. Note to self: next time, cut wrapping paper about 6" longer to ensure a tighter fit. Not 100% happy with my wrap.

Oh, the burnt ends technique sounds wonderful. I wish I'd read this before I cooked last night. So last night I did six racks of babybacks and cooked about 8 CS style ribs along with them, using the 2/1/1 method. So the CS ribs were cooked the same as the babybacks. They came out a little dry, but the flavor was good. I think I am going to use the leftovers to season a pot of black beans (with garlic, cumin, and lime.)

Thanks much Hokie Ben- sorry I missed this on the first pass and am just catching up. This helps a lot. The challenge will be keeping the KK down around 225, which mine seems incapable of. I started out yesterday in the low 200s and finished still at 300 (not bad, since I had wrapped the shoulders and they were not going to dry out) and , GET THIS- last night I completely shut down the 32" KK about 9PM: it was still smoking and at about 300*F, but I thought I would save the fuel for a future cook. Well, this morning I got in from tennis about 10:30 AM and the darn KK is still registering 225! BTW, I started this fire around 9:30AM yesterday....

I got a nice pack of country style pork ribs in the grocery yesterday- will be cooking sometime mid week. It's been a long time and I don't think I did anything very fancy with them last time. Anyone care to share recipes and techniques with this wandering pork pilgrim? jim

Gotcha. I have used Red Eye Express with success on ribs and shoulder/butt. Te gustibus. Would still love tips or recipe for doing country-style ribs if anyone cares to share. In the meantime, we have another shoulder to use up this week and will be making smoked pork enchiladas (red chile sauce) , chef's salad with pork, etc......

And here's the final, which I have to say was pretty damn good, thought maybe not competition-worthy. The pork shoulder came out nicely done, tender, well smoked, good bark. There was one thing, though....I had forgotten that I mixed some left over Dizzy Pig "Swamp Venom"....quite hot- with what I thought was the "Red Eye Express" a nice savory barbecue rub with espresso to give it some extra umami. So....thing is, the rub on the two shoulders was a hot rub. So the bark was a bit more hot than salty-smoky-savory that I was going for. A little unusual for pulled pork. But the family loved it, and my 10-year-old grandchild, Lucia, who is about "this" (holds thumb and forefinger together) big around, ate a second sandwich. A good night was had by all.

Note to self......Next time, take those gray rubbery things off the temperature probes before putting them in the smoker....geeeezzzz....

So here we are at 6 hours, nice bark formed but we are still at only 170* and I am a little concerned about making the ETA for taking off at 6 PM so I wrapped them about 4:30PM....now shooting for maybe 6:30. KK is at 310 right now.

Ha, because of you, Hokie Ben, I picked up some country style ribs at the grocery just now. Can't wait to smoke them maybe mid-week. Care to share your temp/time/ details on those beautiful country ribs?

This is four hours in, at about 155 degrees (F) , just mopped with some Scott's sauce (vinegar and cayenne pepper, mostly).

GORGEOUS! Nice work, friend!

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And the cook begins......if the meat looks brown, it is because of the Dizzy Pig Red Eye Express (barbecue rub seasoning with coffee) rub. Updates to follow in real time.

I thought it was somebody's name, but this is certainly a good one.

Guys and gals.... I am trying to track down a barbecue wood supplier I used in the past- very good delivery service, really high quality wood chunks- apple, maple, cherry, of course, the usual, but also orange, peach, etc. Was not inexpensive but really high quality. Does anyone know this supplier? It's been seven or so years since I used them and I am having trouble bringing them up on the usual Google search. Thanks, Jim in Denver

I have to correct the record. I was trying to use up odds and ends of my DizzyPig rubs, and I said I used half Dizzy Dust and half Jamaican Firewalk. Sorry, it was "Crossroads"- their "classic barbecue" and "Swamp Venom", one of their hotter rubs, made with cayenne, cumin, sage, african bird pepper, and more. I thought it worked great on the babyback ribs- added a little bit of extra kick that complemented the applewood smoke and natural sweetness of the pork perfectly.

Tony, Interesting that you brought up the "jerk" seasoning...I had to look it up on the DizzyPig website, and yes, they do characterize it as "jerk style seasoning". I have great respect for Chris and his talent at putting together rubs and spice mixes, but I am used to using Budda Browne's Jerk Seasoning when I do try to do jerk, and I don't think they are at all similar. I still like the Firewalk a lot as a spice blend, but I wouldn't think of it as "jerk".

Tony B, no problem with the hard, level surface. I did a big batch of babyback ribs yesterday, specifically to pay attention to the ramping up of the heat and keeping the heat low, around 225*. The ramping up went quite slow as I did not want to, again, overshoot the goal and then be unable to effectively bring the KK down to the desired temperature. So if anything, the ribs were relatively under-cooked for the first hour. I also decided to experiment with just straightforward cooking for four hours, instead of using the 2/1/1 method. So while the ribs finished around 225-240*, they were cooking at a lower heat initially. In the first photo, the ribs are covered with the rub and ready to go in the smoker. I forgot to take "after" pictures until they were already plated, but you can see the two angles that the ribs were nicely cooked. I do think that the 2/1/1 method produces slightly more moist and tender than a straight four-hour cook as you see on the plate. However, they were not dry and not tough- good "tooth" feel. One thing I did nearly by accident was a VERY good rub application: I was using my favorite Dizzy Pig rubs and I had about 1/4 of a bottle of of Jamaican Firewalk that needed to be used up- I mixed that 50/50 some Dizzy Dust. AS you can well imagine, the Firewalk has a significant presence of scotch bonnet (habanero) pepper. It really popped up the flavor of the ribs and married beautifully with the smoke and sweet pork. HIGHLY recommended. (We had some potato salad and coleslaw left over from the weekend...it was an easy and delicious meal.)

I kept it really low heat today, somehow. I think the trick is to start really low and keep it tamped down so it never gets over 250.

Is this a 32" KK? I am interested that you say you can "dial it down real quick"....that is not my experience. My sense, at least so far, is that the KK is SO well constructed and insulated`that it is challenging to get it to drop temperature. However, I am doing a load of babyback ribs (9) today so I will pay attention to the method you've described. Babybacks take only 4 hours so with less fuel in the basket, maybe it will be a little easier to control. I am trying for as close to 225* (F) as I can get it.

Hard to tell, because it is Denver, but I don't think so.

Possibly, but it was already up there before I mopped for the first time. This has been happening to me consistently- I think I have it operating between 225-250 and I go away for 1.5-2 hours and it is up closer to 300, and then, as you know, because the KK is SO well insulated, very difficult to get it down. It is, I think, a technique issue that I need to solve. David had told me to just fire up a softball-sized portion of the charcoal to start with, and I have done that. I think I maybe I need to tamp down the air flow much earlier than I had previously thought.

The Morning After: Follow-up. Below is the snapshot of the largest of the racks as we separated the fatty portions (mostly) from the good beef and chopped it coarsely for serving. The consensus was that the plate rib meat was very similar to fatty point brisket- maybe even moister and fatter. I sent one of the other racks home with my daughter's family, and stripped the meat off the third one to package and refrigerate it for future use. There was not a lot of usable meat on the third rack. In comparing this plate rib to the beef chuck ribs we had been doing (recommended by my great local butchers at Oliver's as having "more meat and better flavor" than plate ribs, we reached another consensus: Jimmy and Richard at Oliver's were right, and the chuck ribs are our preferred beef rib for the future. (Photo included). The chuck ribs were almost all usable meat, and had a very similar super-beefy flavor, and a texture similar to brisket.