seanwiley

How long did you rest it?

Re: The Grand Champion injects... Cool! look forward to your results.

Re: A Champs Secret.. One of the Chris Lilly brisket recipes uses beef bouillon crushed and rubbed onto the surface. I wasn't too impressed. I thought his other recipe as well as the coffee/cardomon rub provided a lot more flavor. Then again, I had other issues with that particular brisket and so maybe the error is with me, not the bouillon. I assumes the crushed bouillon is supposed to absorb fluid from the beef, but maybe if I pre-mixed the bouillon it would work better. Something I should consider. Having said that, on the weber thread that Doc pointed to a while back I see that sometimes they add Worchestershire, vegetables, etc. to the wrap. Sounds interesting

Sitting through some excruciating conference calls, so did a little googling... Per http://www.virtualweberbullet.com/meatrest.html which seemed to be the most thorough: "In the book How to Cook Meat, authors Chris Schlesinger and John Willoughby state that as meat proteins are heated during cooking, they coagulate and squeeze out some of the moisture inside their coiled structures and in the spaces between the individual molecules. The heat drives this liquid toward the center of the meat. In the book CookWise, author Shirley O. Corriher reveals a bit more detail: as meat proteins cook, they begin to shrink. Up to 120°F, the proteins shrink in diameter only and there is little moisture loss, but above 120°F the proteins also begin to shrink in length, which really puts the squeeze on moisture. By 170°F, most of the moisture will be squeezed out of a lean piece of meat. As meat rests, this process is partially reversed. The moisture that is driven toward the center of the meat is redistributed as the protein molecules relax and are able to reabsorb some moisture. As a result, less juice runs out of the meat when you cut into it. Willoughby claims that if you cut into meat right away, almost twice as much liquid is lost than if you let it rest before carving " The article goes on to say that you should let a brisket rest for 30 minutes. But that really seems to be tied to letting it finish cooking, not juice reabsorbtion. An australian site http://www.taste.com.au/news+features/a ... prime+time mentions "Always rest meat before you carve it to settle the juices and keep the meat moist. Cover with foil and set aside for 5 minutes per 500g." 500g is about 1.1 pounds, so an 8 lb brisket would be about 36 minutes. In my experience, after 30 minutes if it has been wrapped in a towel or foil, then it is still pretty warm, so I was thinking that maybe it had not reabsorbed enough yet. Or maybe I am going down the wrong path. I may not be getting the best cuts of meat. I pretty much take whatever my wife hands me. (not to blame her) Injecting seems like cheating though I have done that in the past for Turkeys. I wrapped this one at 172 then cooked just over 1 1/2 hours more. Stuck a fork in it twice to try to evaluate doneness. Was perfect when I first tasted it after the rest period so I feel like I pulled it at pretty much the right time. Hmmmm

Actually, I did try that method this weekend, along with the Coffee / Cardamon rub. In was kind of impromtu as I'd had a long night at the House of Blues and didn't wake up till 11:00 in the morning. So.... seemed like the right time to try the high temp method. It was great when I sampled it. But still didn't really stay moist when served. Am bummed...

I've done 3 briskets on the Komodo which have come out great - tender, nice smoke ring, nice bark, flavorful and seem very moist.... up until the time I slice and serve. In the minutes between moving from cutting board to table it seems the individual slices dry out a lot compared to a roast, for instance. Any suggestions on this? I am wondering if I am not letting it rest enough before I slice it. For instance, last night I was running behind schedule and I let it rest for only about 30 minutes after I pulled it off the cooker.

hitting lower temps Someone said "However, I was utterly unable to get to 200 and maintain it without the fire going out." One helpful suggestion made to me when hitting lower temps is to simply not start too much charcoal burning in the first place. I use a chimney, not a torch and when aiming for something low start about 10 - 12 of the coconut briquettes. I drop them on top of some woodchunks and more charcoal inside the cooker. When I first started I think I was lighting too much and as mentioned many times, once you've overshot it is very hard to get low.

exact same thing happened to me earleir this summer. Wife though I was crazy trying to fiddle with it during the rain & thunder. But hey, the first day only happens once......

My experience witht he skin down is that it kept a lot of the moisture in since nothing dripped through the skin itself. Since the Komodo holds in so much of the smoke then I think the meat absorbs plenty in through the top of the cut. Just my experience ....

Pallet Share I wouldn't be interested in sharing a pallet of Wicked Good at the moment. At this rate I still have a couple months of the extruded coconut and I think I'll wait and see what happens with Dennis. Assuming he comes up with something in the relative near future, then i wouldn't want that much of something else. But who knows, maybe down the road......

The loaf pan chicken was the first one I tried. Irritatingly, my wife cooked it the 2nd time and it seemed to come out better than mine She cranked up the heat at the end to get the skin crispier. Dang that woman.....

The thread on the coffee rubbed brisket reminded me of a question Michael Geurra asked me on a separate thread about temperature plateaus. In that thread I mentioned I was following a specific recipe out of Chris Lilly's Big Bob Gibson cookbook which wanted you to cook the meat till it hit 160, then wrap and continue cooking till 190. He suggested I compare to the other recipe in the book where you don't wrap. Well, that was already in my plans as I had sort of set a goal for myself of working my way through the entire book. This weekend I did the 2nd recipe and in my opinion it was superior. Extremely tender, smokier and I liked the flavor of the paste (though I am quite tempted to try the coffee paste too.) If you are interested, I am posting a blog on my effort to cook through his book at http://inpursuitofbigbob.blogspot.com/ mostly on my Komodo. It is strictly for my own amusement and given the level of expertise here I doubt you'd learn anything. However, it is kind of fun....

To elaborate on the my goal a little, I was following one of the brisket recipe's in the Bob Bob Gibson cookbook and the instructions are to cook till 160 - 170, pull it off and wrap in foil, then put it back on till 190. I've never had this fine degree (pun intended) of temp control in the past, so I guess I have never realized the plateau before. thanks for the good answers! It's cool to understand how things work.

Say I intend to slow cook a meat till the internal temp hits 160. Is there an ideal cooker temp to aim for? If the cooker is sitting on 225, will a brisket hit 160? or will the meat act as an insulator and the internal temp level off at 145 or something? Although I had kind of assumed that the meat temp would come up to the cooker temp if left long enough, that didn't seem to be the behavior I was seeing. just curious if there is a rule of thumb here.

Any plans for more? Approximate schedule?

I might be itnerested if you're still planning this. I'm in McKinney. Google says we're an hour apart though, so not real close. What would my half cost?

yup, i've got it now. I think part of my problem was that I had the spring too tight, so i loosened it up and now I can actually press it all the way down. I had read it about the two stages of the latch, but I guess I didn't really "get it" at first. problem solved....

Looks like I have the exact same pattern. It looks fabulous when the sun gleaming off it!

yeah - did some burgers on it tonight and i think the latch isn't catching when I press on it. Just pops back up a fraction. Seems like that little screw in front is a little loose. Too hot to mess with it much right now though...

When I shut down the cooker, I see wisps of smoke come out of the lip between the lid and the base. Not a lot, but majority of the charcoal burns each time. Last night I was using the extruded coconut and cooking around 250 for 2 hours, so based on other folk's descriptions, it seems like i should've had a fair amount left over. Is that an accurate perception? Is it normal for a little bit of smoke to leak out? I wiped around the lip to make sure there wasn't any food or ash possibly keeping it open. Didn't seem to be. Any help/suggestions would be great.....

Ha! Funny you would notice that. I did a consulting gig for Coke once and that was my bonus. But you are correct. I have strategically located at the heart of triangle beween the pool, the billiard table in back there and the dart board that you can't see off ot the right. It has taken me several years, but my master plan is finally coming together. It's 9:00 AM now. Just about time to get the turkey out of the brine and get this baby fired up.....

I've managed to stick a wine bottle stopper in it which will hopefully solve the immediate issue. Can't let a little mechanical issue slow me down...... Wiley

ok, thanks! don't remember seeing that... but will look.

The photo Finally, here it is.....

I don't see it described in the user manual. Should I plug it?