Friendsgiving Brisket

My friend acquired a 14 pound America wagyu brisket from Snake River Farms and trusted me to smoke it in my Kettle Joe. After trimming (which I absolutely made him do because he paid for it) we seasoned it with salt, pepper, and Meat Church “Holy Cow” seasoning before an all day dry brine. I added a touch of Meat Church “Holy Gospel” right before putting her to bed at about 230 degrees at 8pm Friday night.

I really struggle to keep the Kettle Joe at 230, and typically if it hits 225, my fire is dying. Friday night my kettle really wanted to creep up into the 240, getting as hot as 260 at one point before I decided I had to close the bottom vent completely and burp it to let heat out again. If anyone is good at getting a kettle Joe to truly stay low and slow, I would love tips. I basically had to keep the bottom vent all but completely closed with the tiniest sliver of space only and my top vent as closed as possible. I was terrified my fire would go out. Ambient probes from my Chef IQ were reading in the 230s.

At 2am I added a chimney of charcoal, saw it wasn’t enough and basically started a second chimney immediately. This caused the brisket to drop from 166 to 147 while waiting. Again the fire wanted to be hotter than I liked and I was using all natural briquettes rather than lump so it was even harder to keep the temperature low. In think all the burping slowed my bark development. By 5am we were in the high 190s on both probes and I decided to wrap her and finish in the oven at 225 to give the meat plenty of time to get soft (also we weren’t eating until the afternoon, so why rush?)

She was at 204 and probe tender at 9am. I rewrapped in peach paper, wrapped in foil and a towel before placing it in a cooler on a towel and under 2 more towels (people kept bringing me towels) to rest.

Judging the bark in the dark, even with a flash light and porch lights was a bit difficult. I probably could have wrapped it and put it in the oven around the 5 hour mark picture 1 and been reasonably happy but the extra time really did improve the bark.

The bottom was a little crisp though probably from the length of the cook or maybe the heat so I need to figure out how to improve that (although several people like that part best.) The remaining pictures are of the brisket after we unwrapped it at 5 pm Saturday, still wonderfully warm.

It tasted amazing. Seriously we apparently had enough to serve 22 people and 10 of us basically finished it off along with some of my amazing succotash, my friend’s fantastic Mac and cheese and all after grazing on homemade focaccia, baba ghanoush, and a deliciously fancy cheese spread.

If you are making a brisket this Thanksgiving I suggest adding something bright and acidic to the table. In this case it was homemade cranberry chutney. (2 bags of fresh cranberries, a Granny Smith apple, the zest and flesh of a navel orange and a lemon with a dash of salt sugar to taste- for me about a quarter cup chop the cranberries, apple and citrus independent of each other in a food processor to get even sized bits your looking for basically a slaw with very small but distinct pieces not a mince.)

Somehow most of us eventually found room for homemade icecream, nut bread and pecan pie. I am still full today and sad because we are out of brisket.

I forgot to take a picture of it sliced up but it was incredibly moist inside, even in the point. The flat was so soft it fell apart. The only thing holding it together was the bark.