A nice brisket off the breeze block smoker

[Col (Shizzling)]

It was slathered in mustard and sprinkled with salt, pepper and chilli flakes, in the fridge overnight.

Here it is as it goes in at 8am. It's on a roasting tin over a mixture of beer, stock and herbs.


I cooked it using a grate full of charcoal to get up to temp then oak chunks and beech and birch logs for the rest of the cook.

Here it is after 5 hours. You can see how the smoke has coloured the exterior. I had just mopped it with a sauce based on beer, cider vinegar, cumin, stock, my own chilli powder, pepper, onion and fresh poblanos.


I foiled it when it reached 150F and removed the foil when it got to 180F. After 12 hours it reached 186F and was pulled off the smoker, rested for 45 minutes and sliced.

Here's a shot showing the point meat.


And here's a shot with flat to the left and point to the right.

[Minesamojito]

Great job there, and look at all those wonderful juices in the lowest shot, man I would like to mop my bread in that.
Cheers
Marcus

[KamadoSimon]

Looks delicious! Do you think the water tray added any flavour? I have stopped using anything other than water under the meat as I can never taste the difference - that's with pork though, first brisket in two weeks time for friends.

[Col (Shizzling)]

Hi Simon,

I don't think the mixture in the water tray adds much flavour, if at all. However, I think it helps retain moisture and the juices dripping down from the meat into the tray make an amazingly rich flavoured gravy to serve with the meat (I spooned a bit over each serving).

[JEC]

That looked fantastic, did you use the liquid to make the au jus or was that just the natural juice that came out from carving? Either way it looked tasty.

[Col (Shizzling)]

It's a combo of the initial stock in the water tray and drippings while cooking. I also added the liquid that seeped from the meat when resting and carving. Didn't want to waste anything.

I'm dead pleased with the results - it was very close in quality to the best brisket I tasted while I was in Texas in March.

[KamadoSimon]

Do you have to add much water to the pan during the cook? I seem to have to add loads which makes think I might need to look at raising the pan off the heat deflector in my Kamado. Problem is that there isn't a huge amount of room between the top of the heat deflector & the bottom of the grill... Enough for a drip tray but maybe not enough to raise it very far up. Need to have a play I think.

[Col (Shizzling)]

I added half a kettle full of water at the 5 hour mark.

One advantage of this breeze block smoker is that the grills site a good 18 to 20 inches above the vents where the heat and smoke enter the cooking chamber - that means the water pan is also indirectly heated.

Perhaps a couple of ceramic tiles under your water pan would help - so it is not sitting directly on a hotplate/deflector?

[KamadoSimon]

Yeh - that would help being so far from the heat source. My water pan rests on the ceramic plate which in turn sits directly over the fire. I think I might try a couple of sections of metal bar between the pan & the plate - should help a little.

Am thinking of trying the brisket & getting the burnt ends as well - did you bother with this?

[Col (Shizzling)]

Yeh - that would help being so far from the heat source. My water pan rests on the ceramic plate which in turn sits directly over the fire. I think I might try a couple of sections of metal bar between the pan & the plate - should help a little.

Am thinking of trying the brisket & getting the burnt ends as well - did you bother with this?

I didn't do burnt ends this time - I like the point as it is, really.