20 lb brisket- timing?

[BARDSLJR]

 Posting this in a different format hoping for more response. My wife brought me home a 20 lb prime brisket from Costco. I've never seen, much less cooked one. Aaron Franklin gives guidelines for cooking a 12-lb brisket in 12 hours. Does this scale? Should mine take 20 hours????  Any input as to temps and times welcome. Also, using Fireboard for first time: tips? Anything I should know?

Jim

[PVPAUL]

 

Hey Jim, this may look like a weird response but below is a response from a different thread from Syz. I copied and pasted this to my notes in my IPad for future reference. IMHO I think this is the best response I’ve seen on this subject in the KK forum regarding Brisket cooks. I have done larger Brisket cooks ( probably in the 16lb range) at 225F that have lasted 25 hours. If you read SZY’s response below I think for a large Costco brisket cook you want 275 - 325F cook. Good luck on determining length of cook! Send Pics!!!

Paul

 

Brisket cooking info szygies 

 

It always helps to consider the source, and how their requirements are different than yours. Thomas Keller calls for quick 10% salt brines for seafood? In a restaurant kitchen there isn't room for an overnight "equilibrium" 0.5% brine. At home that same brine lets you buy fish for several days.

Most recipes are really dumbed down, and most people spread techniques that are only partially evolved. And a popular author could be aware that readers have foil, but they don't have pink (uncoated! white is coated, wrong) butcher paper. Do they say something?

I would only trust a source recommending foil if they explicitly make the comparison with pink butcher paper, and explain why they prefer foil.

Aaron Franklin is arguably the most deservedly famous barbecue guru today. He's primarily a restauranteur, not a "personality", so he's freed from a financial incentive to dumb down his advice. On the contrary, there's a showstopper chapter "Building a Smoker" in Franklin Barbecue: A Meat-Smoking Manifesto [A Cookbook], how anyone can make their own cooker from a recycled 500 gallon propane tank with "basic metalworking skills". I can do most things but this is still on my list...

He faces a restaurant constraint, perfect for you: All of his cookers run at 275°. Why? He prefers this to lower temperatures, gets better throughput, and doesn't have to juggle capacities of cookers set to different temperatures.

He gives the clearest directions I've seen anywhere for cooking a 12 to 14-pound packer cut brisket, wrapping at 6 hours or so in pink butcher paper.

I've varied my approach over the years: Temperature, wrapping, beef source, dry age? I believe that following exactly Aaron Franklin's protocol is spot-on.

For a different opinion, in Brisket Tricks and elsewhere, @mguerra has been advocating for 325° or so. What you propose is decidedly not "hot and fast". 275° is reasonable middle ground, not falling prey to equating seriousness of intent with slowness of cook. The very idea that "low & slow"  is such a sticky idea should serve as a warning not to take it as gospel. On the contrary, another of my favorite BBQ books is Legends of Texas Barbecue Cookbook: Recipes and Recollections from the Pitmasters. I don't follow any of the recipes, but I learned a lot about the diversity of approaches in Texas. It freed me from a blind adherence to "low & slow".

I believe that the most important factor in brisket is the beef itself. I'll travel an hour and pay three times what others consider reasonable to buy brisket from the Golden Gate Meat Company in San Francisco. They'll dry age a few days on request.

I also believe that the ideal cooker temperature is a function of the quality of the meat: 275° for the meat that takes an hour's drive and serious cash, varying up to 325° for more typical and affordable briskets. When there's less collagen/whatever to dissolve, time is your enemy. I no longer cook any brisket at 225°.

I've never eaten at Franklin's Barbecue, but the best brisket I've had in my life was in Elgin, Texas. (#2, #3, #4 would be my own.) They can source better brisket in Texas, the market demands it. It melts, you want to spread the fat cap on toast like marmalade. Aaron Franklin's advice is tuned to Texas brisket sources.

For potential owners, let me be clear that while Aaron Franklin uses an entirely different cooker, my own preferences are adapted to a Komodo Kamado. Compared to other ceramic cookers, a KK is far better insulated, so it maintains temperature with far less airflow. Airflow dries the meat out. Franklin's 1000 gallon cookers are good guides for us, because with scale he also controls evaporation.

[BARDSLJR]

So this is actually excellent, and somewhat similar to other thoughts I have had about the difference between cooking on a 500-1,000 gallon fashioned firebox-style smoker as opposed to the Kamado. In the KK, you don't dry the meat out from the air flow, but neither do you get as much smoke per sq.inch  moving across your meat. GREAT tip on the 275*, though, it makes total sense.  Thanks SO much !

[jonj]

It is always worth listening to @Syzygies.

[Cheesehead_Griller]

If possible, share some pics  

[BARDSLJR]

Planning on it. This brisket is a monster.....This evening I plan to trim, slather, salt-and pepper, bring it to room temperature, preheat the KK to at least the high 100s, put the brisket in around 10 PM. First time using the Fireboard controller....wish me luck!

 

[tony b]

3 hours ago, jonj said:

It is always worth listening to @Syzygies.

True, but he often makes my brain hurt! 😖

[jonj]

no pain, no gain, @tony b

😁

[tony b]

True dat!

[BARDSLJR]

The rest of the story to come later.

[Tyrus]

That brisket is barking at me!

[C6Bill]

Nice looking bark !!!!

[Poochie]

That's a beauty for sure!!

[tony b]

👍

[Dono]

Looks like good eats. Agree….nice bark.