What's for dinner tonight?

[maximus]

Lunch today.

[n2horns]

11 hours ago, NOTAGS said:

So,be careful what you ask for…I strutted up to the meat counter at Fry’s the first day of their last sale on brisket and said” give me your biggest brisket!” Smooth…,when the butcher  dropped the slab  of meat, I was concerned for his health as he was elderly. There was no backing down at that point.

 

26.5 lbs going to smoke for 12_14 hours tonite.   Was not sure it would fit,on the Traeger.

it is like cold water, it will shrink, dont worry shrinkage wont hurt the taste

[Chef]

14 hours ago, 25-06 said:

Now that looks good as always. Hector you need to write a CWT cookbook. I'll pitch in to get it published. If I'm not mistaken Amanda was ready to do it a few years back.

Yes, that was in the works but as we all know...other things come up.  Besides, we would have to make a video series anymore as people don't do the cookbook thing as much as they used to.

[Chef]

13 hours ago, n2horns said:

How was the grind on the lamb, medium coarse? Flatbread of fire is the best, really any dough type over flame gives a different chew and flavor.

Coarse ground.  Yes, I agree with your take on things cooked over fire.  Things are just that much better.  Between the char, the smoke, everything.

[Chef]

11 hours ago, NOTAGS said:

26.5 lbs going to smoke for 12_14 hours tonite.   Was not sure it would fit,on the Traeger.

If you are cooking at such high temps that this will cook in 12-14 hours, it will definitely shrink substantially.

This looks like an easy 18-20 hours cook complete on a pellet smoker at low temp to me.  Even after wrapping at the stall.

The point is thick too, you may end up drying out the flat on this.  Let us know how it turns out for sure!

[Chef]

10 hours ago, maximus said:

Lunch today.

This is one of my favorites!

[muledeerarea33?]

Cutting meat for supper tonight.

[galiuro mountain man]

8 hours ago, Chef said:

If you are cooking at such high temps that this will cook in 12-14 hours, it will definitely shrink substantially.

This looks like an easy 18-20 hours cook complete on a pellet smoker at low temp to me.  Even after wrapping at the stall.

The point is thick too, you may end up drying out the flat on this.  Let us know how it turns out for sure!

So, chef is correct, it will dry out the flat trying to get the point to temp.  Something I do is separate them and smoke them together (stack them like they were never separated) until I start seeing a big temp difference, or I have the flat where I want it.  Looking at bark and temp (170 to 180 for most of my smokes).

At this point you can wrap or move the flat to a cooler part of the smoker.  Wrapping will make it cook faster, but let you focus on burnt ends.

Point meat around here is what the ends are made from.  

Get the flat probe tender and pull it 198 to 210 for a brisket.  Let it rest at least an hour to reintroduce the juices.

Forgot to say, I do spritz every 45 minutes to an hour on a brisket after 2 to 3 hours.  

If this is your first one, my average brisket is around 16 hours.  15 to 18 lbs. untrimmed 

 

[HuntHarder]

Def. Not Notags first brisket.  He's a grill junkie.  Confidence is high

[galiuro mountain man]

It's tomorrow, but going to smoke the beef bacon early.

[NOTAGS]

After smoking for 14 hours whole, I separated the flat, and wrapped it and the point separate.  With 12 plus hour smokes, my cooking time is short, the flat hit temp in around3 hours at 225. That tree trunk took forever, another three to get to 203 after turning up the heat.  Turned out excellent. Made a sauce that HuntHarder turned me on to, and it was game on. I donr think I will go for such a biggun again. 17-20 lbs seems to my sweet spot, and much easier to manage at all steps.

[NOTAGS]

On a side note, I have no finished product pics, cause my 90 YO mom and her friend from the senior living  kept grabbing meat as fast-as I could slice it and eating with their hands like a couple starving savages.  It was actually comical ,except  I was afraid I was fixing to take one of  her friends fingers  off.

[ctafoya]

Nacho bar 

[galiuro mountain man]

Here is something that could be helpful also, I don't know if you render the tallow from the fat trimmings, but it is worth it.  

If you have room on your smoker, put the fat trimmings in a pan (disposable) and let it cook with your brisket.  

About the time you start having to spritz the meat, you have some smoked tallow.  Do this throughout the cook.   

Strain it through a coffee filter.  

Here is the important stuff, after you have rendered the tallow, while it is still liquid, turn your jar upsidedown.  This will put all of the water, or any other undesirable stuff at the bottom.  

Let it solidify in the fridge and scrape the jelly like stuff off and toss it.  

Now you have pretty close to pure tallow, give or take the smoky flavor.

[galiuro mountain man]

It turned it sideways, but you see what I am saying.