For my 35th birthday on Sunday, I celebrated with a birthday brisket. Started it at 1 a.m. in the morning after finishing up a wedding shoot:
It was a full packer cut, but on the small side, about 11.5 pounds. I trimmed maybe another 3/4 lb fat off it, so the weight at cooking was under 11 lbs. I also rendered the trimmed fat in a slow cooker, and got some nice tallow and cracklings for later use. I went a little more complicated than my usual salt-and-pepper rub, adding some cumin, coriander, onion powder, and red pepper flakes into the mix.
I set it, closed all the lower vents by a third, and went to sleep.
At 9:30 a.m.:
It was completely finished when I woke up. Nice little wobble to the meat, thermometer went in without resistance and read in the upper 190s. Done. Way earlier than I planned for. The meat wasn't going to be eaten until about 2 p.m. So I wrapped it in foil, placed it in a small Coleman cooler, and went about my day.
Me cutting the brisket, many hours later:
Crappy cell phone photo of the brisket:
Much to my shock, the brisket actually held pretty well for being four hours in the cooler. It did lose some moisture, but was still juicy. I sliced the flat and chopped the point. Interestingly, there was hardly any smoke ring on the meat, but the brisket was perhaps the smokiest I had made to date. (I did have about 4 fist-sized chunks of oak, and 4 of hickory in the WSM.) Somehow, the myoglobin-carbon monoxide reaction that forms the ring didn't quite get a chance to happen. Also, this was the most stress-free smoke I've ever had. From when I put the meat in to when it was finished the next morning, I never touched the meat or the smoker. (edit: This is not quite true. I did awake from my slumber at 6:00 a.m. and topped off the water pan through the side panel of the smoker. The meat was left undisturbed.) The coal ring of the WSM was barely half burnt at 8 hours of burn time. When I left for my parents' at 1 p.m. (almost 12 hours), there was still at least another two hours' worth of coals on the smoker.
Mom made some cold borscht (chlodnik), potato salad, and tomato salad, my cousin (UniAddict) came over with the bestest birthday gift ever, a bottle of 2009 Sam Adams Utopias, and what better way to celebrate the transition into a new demographic?
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Great day for your first smoke of the year. No rain and not to hot out.
