AZ Barbeque.com

Small Grassfed Brisket

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brettgrant99

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So it turns out that the University of Arizona has a Meat Science Lab.  On Fridays, and only on Fridays, the general public can go down and buy whatever they have butchered recently.  Having never been down there, last week I went and checked it out.  They offer both corn- and grass- fed beef, pork, and lamb.  They also make sausage and bacon.  So, I get a brisket, a flank steak, something called a cowboy steak, beef ribs, some pork bacon and some beef bacon.  Total for everything was $80.  The cuts were all a little strange to me.  It was clear that they mostly sold rib eyes and t bones.  Anyway, I digress.  The guy puts the brisket up there and the first thing that I notice is how small it is.  And there is no fat on it at all.  And it is nearly uniform in thickness.  I asked for a packer, and he told me that it was the flat and the point.  Total weight: 5.7 lbs.  Well, I just got paid, so I thought I would try it anyway.

As a side note, the cowboy steak (which looked like a chuck steak to me) and the flank steak were both excellent.  I just grilled those up on the gas grill and everyone loved them.

So after doing a little research, I decided to do a High Heat Brisket with a simple Salt & Pepper rub.  I've done large, all night briskets before.  The only time that I did a HH one, it didn't turn out well.

Here is the brisket, out of the package.  I didn't trim it at all, so on the plus side, I lost nothing.



The tiny bit of fat on the left is the point.  In the package, I didn't really believe that there was a point, but the seam was there, so I went with it.
I put it on the WSM at 12:15.  I don't have a fancy monitor, I just check the dome temperature.  Two hours in, it was at 170*, so I put it in a foil pan, covered it, and left it for another 1 1/2 hours.  I go out to check it.  It was over 200*, but there wasn't super soft tender, so I left it in for another 1/2 hour.  Then I thought it was pretty tender, so I took it out and let it sit for about 45 minutes.  That was just the convenient time to wait for dinner.

I separated the point and sliced her up.



Everyone thought it was pretty good.  I thought that it was slightly overcooked.  Also, I did a 50-50 salt/pepper mix.  Next time I will tone down the pepper a little bit.  Probably more like 70-30.  Still it was pretty tasty.  I thought the flat was just a smidge dry, but my wife really like it, so that wins.  She liked it enough that she took it for lunch today.

It was a little hard to hold the smoker at 350*.  Toward the end it was more like 300, but I just let that go.  I didn't really want to add more charcoal.  Total cook time was 4 hours.  It took me 5 minutes to prep (nice that there was no trimming) and about 20 minutes to get the smoker going.  I was a little leery of the HH method, mostly because the first one that I did turned out so poorly, but this one worked out really well.

I used KBB and hickory and cherry wood.
#1 - February 15, 2014, 02:19:51 pm

Gizzy's Smokin Crew

  • Karma: 1
Looks good. Great pic's and write up
#2 - February 15, 2014, 06:07:41 pm
Gizzy's Q'N Crew......"FANG" Tastic BBQ
Brinkman Pitmaster Deluxe
Weber Genesis Gas Grill

Mark

  • Karma: 23
Very nice. Sounds like a terrific resource for meat!
#3 - February 16, 2014, 12:17:15 am
Mark Motta
Meatier Creator

Crash

  • Karma: 20
Very nice. Sounds like a terrific resource for meat!
Us UofA fans appreciate your support of this terrific source of meat.    ;)
#4 - February 19, 2014, 01:34:03 am
I love animals.  They're delicious!
VRM Pit Crew

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