Bare Naked Brisket (The brisket, not me)

There were so many good looking pizzas around here that I wanted to do a grilled pizza too. Only problem is I was supposed to be breaking in the gasket on my BGE and staying away from high temperature cooks. So I decided I would do a recipe from the Big Bob Gibson’s BBQ Cookbook called Bare Naked Brisket. The recipe name referred to doing a straight ahead brisket without the use of foil. I didn’t want to do an overnighter so I was waiting at the door when my local yuppie supermarket opened at 6 AM. Their website showed they sold 4-5 pound brisket flats.

I was surprised to find the only briskets there were only 2 pounds. I spoke with a butcher and he said that no one wanted a full flat because it was such a big piece of meat, so they cut them in half. I probably should have gone with my initial instinct and said thanks but no thanks, but the wheels started turning...This would only take 4-5 hours to cook...This amount of meat would make a decent sized meal for 2 without a lot of leftovers...It would be interesting to see if a small quick cooking brisket was as good as the full sized cut. The clincher for me was the thought I’d have enough time in where I could have pizza for supper!! Here is that link:

Greek Pizza w/ Yogurt-Mint Sauce: http://www.barbecuebible.com/board/viewtopic.php?p=220795#220795

I am going to describe my first attempt at low in slow on the Egg in detail, so for those of you here for the food porn and not my eggsperience scroll down to the pics. After the pics, I will describe how the brisket turned out.

Doing low and slow on the Egg was an amazing experience. I wanted to add some wood chunks and distribute them through out the pile of lump. After 90 minutes cooking time yesterday there was a small area of lump about 6 inches in diameter that was greyed over, but not even burned through. Wow! That would have used up half a 13 pound bag of charcoal on the CG. Here a 6â€

Wow Jim that looks great. I like the paste slather you did. I may try that on my next brisket. Great smoke ring.
I have been struggling lately on my smoke ring on my ceraamic and my kettle. I Went to to wood chips as thought my smoke ring was better when I used chips but now its lacking with chips also.

Brisket looks tasty... Wish I was there for a slice!

Sure does look pretty, Jim. Though I've made tasty briskets, I've never made a juicy one-- except for my "California briskets" (tritip)

Thanks fellas.

jsperk:
I've never found I could get any where near as much smoke out of chips vs chunks. I was able to get more smoke out of chips on short cooks by only soaking them for 5 minutes. But still nowhere near what I'd get from chunks.

The ceramic cooker is a whole new ball game. When I made the brisket I distributed 4 hickory chunks throughout my pile of lump. I put them in at a distance of about 6"inches from the center. I don't like over smoked meat and this brisket was just right in the smoke department.

Some folks advocate using a layer of lump, a layer of chips, a layer of lump, a layer of chips etc. Will have to try that too.

beercuer:
I've had some that were gushers. Literally. You cut into them and juices start gushing out. Others not so much. I sometimes wonder if it isn't the piece of meat. I'll make the identical recipe, the same exact way and one is juicy and one isn't.

Jim[/b]

Great looking brisket and beans, Jim! Nothing beats baked beans on the smoker....just had some myself earlier.

jfm0830 wrote:

I've had some that were gushers. Literally. You cut into them and juices start gushing out. Others not so much. I sometimes wonder if it isn't the piece of meat. I'll make the identical recipe, the same exact way and one is juicy and one isn't.

If you ever feel like splurging a bit, try a Snake River Farms Wagyu brisket. I dry aged one for 55 days and it was absolutely tender and super juicy. I'm sure it's just as juicy and plenty tender without the dry aging.

Nice looking smoke ring on that brisket In my experience, flats generally tend to be a little drier than a whole or packer brisket. They just sometimes turn out that way depending on the cut of neat. Looks like you had a really good meal.

Very nice looking Brisket!!
And awesome smoke ring. I think you already mastered temp control on the new grill.

Jim, I'm sure you'll be much happier with the next brisket.

Which I anticipate will happen in the next couple of days, at the rate you're going.

Brad

ScreamingChicken wrote:

Jim, I'm sure you'll be much happier with the next brisket.

Which I anticipate will happen in the next couple of days, at the rate you're going.

Brad

LOL. Sadly no Brad. The grill happened to be delivered just before a weekend where my wife was going to be away all weekend. This let me play and play hard. This week it's back to the grind, in fact I'll be busier than normal. Any chance I get to I will try and sneak in some time on the BGE.

Jim

I much prefer naked briskets, but one that small probably would've benefited from foil. It does look good, though!