Day/Night Owls Chit Chat

[Texan]

Most of us on both sides are smart enough to convert.

If I was on an American forum, I would convert to Fahrenheit out of respect so they understand the relevance.
After all, most nations use Celsius.

105F is about 41C and 111 is 44C.

[BigP]

Hottest day of the year here. We have temperatures of up to 111F in the area. Its only 105 at my house.

That is meaningless to me. I live in a Celsius country.

over 40 c im thinking, 99 is body temp

[Nom De Plume]

Most of us on both sides are smart enough to convert.

If I was on an American forum, I would convert to Fahrenheit out of respect so they understand the relevance.
After all, most nations use Celsius.

105F is about 41C and 111 is 44C.

44 is extreme Tex! Good thing you have aircon.

[Black Orchid]

Hottest day of the year here. We have temperatures of up to 111F in the area. Its only 105 at my house.

That is meaningless to me. I live in a Celsius country.

over 40 c im thinking, 99 is body temp

Naughty P I think you mean 37?

[BigP]

Hottest day of the year here. We have temperatures of up to 111F in the area. Its only 105 at my house.

That is meaningless to me. I live in a Celsius country.

over 40 c im thinking, 99 is body temp

Naughty P I think you mean 37?

Forgive me for mixing my efen c's lol

[Black Orchid]

Happy Father's Day to all the dads.

[Texan]

Happy Father's Day. I didn't realize your Father's Day was now.

Mrs. Texan just got in from visiting our granddaughter. I scolded her for leaving so late, but she made it home at 0100. I just took the brisket out of the smoker and I'm letting it cook in the oven overnight while I sleep. I don't want to stay up all night tending fire in the smoker. By the time lunch is ready, it will have been cooking for 17 hours. I'll probably have scalloped potatoes, green beans, and corn on the cob with it. Mrs Texan will feel really guilty about me making such a meal.

[BigP]

Happy Father's Day. I didn't realize your Father's Day was now.

Mrs. Texan just got in from visiting our granddaughter. I scolded her for leaving so late, but she made it home at 0100. I just took the brisket out of the smoker and I'm letting it cook in the oven overnight while I sleep. I don't want to stay up all night tending fire in the smoker. By the time lunch is ready, it will have been cooking for 17 hours. I'll probably have scalloped potatoes, green beans, and corn on the cob with it. Mrs Texan will feel really guilty about me making such a meal.

Good to hear from you Tex, I have always fancied a slow cooked brisket or Boston butt, If you have some time could you give me some insight as to how you set it up, Cheers mate

[Texan]

Happy Father's Day. I didn't realize your Father's Day was now.

Mrs. Texan just got in from visiting our granddaughter. I scolded her for leaving so late, but she made it home at 0100. I just took the brisket out of the smoker and I'm letting it cook in the oven overnight while I sleep. I don't want to stay up all night tending fire in the smoker. By the time lunch is ready, it will have been cooking for 17 hours. I'll probably have scalloped potatoes, green beans, and corn on the cob with it. Mrs Texan will feel really guilty about me making such a meal.

Good to hear from you Tex, I have always fancied a slow cooked brisket or Boston butt, If you have some time could you give me some insight as to how you set it up, Cheers mate

Most of cooking a brisket is having the right equipment to cook it with. They make wood pellet smokers that will automatically add wood chips as needed to maintain an assigned temperature and you can set it and forget it. My smoker is old school and I have to constantly monitor it. I've only had it for a few months and I'm still learning, but here is what I do.

I bought the brisket at the grocery store. There is usually too much fat on it and the excess needs to be trimmed off. You want to leave about 1 cm of fat on the meat to add flavor and protect the meat from blackening too much. Some blackening is desired, as that adds flavor and the fat adds flavor and moisture to the meat. After trimming the fat, I rub mustard all over the outside of the meat. This is mainly to provide something for the powdered seasoning to stick to. I sprinkle on generous amounts of seasoning(there are many different available and it's all a preference thing) and some pepper and rub it into the surface of the meat. You can also marinade it in sauces before you season it, but that's optional.

Here is where you preheat the smoker. Mine is a charcoal fired offset smoker. The meat goes in the main, larger compartment. The fire goes in the smaller compartment to the side. Once the charcoal is burning well, you can add the wood of your choice to provide the smoke. I used hickory last night. I put a metal pan full of water in with the meat to provide moisture for steaming the meat. Ideally, you want to keep the smoker at a constant temperature of about 110C for about 10 hours and let the brisket be constantly permeated with the smoke. The temperature is regulated by adjusting the air intake and exhaust and frequently adding charcoal and wood chips. The goal is to get the core temperature of the meat to about 75C.

After about 10 hours, it's time to raise the heat to about 125C for 2-3 hours. This is where the outside will blacken some. The meat should be done at this point and be very tender. Once the knife gets through the blackened shell, the meat should be very tender. The blackened shell should only be about 1cm thick or less. I cheated last night. After 7 hours in the smoker, I put the brisket in a roasting pan with a little water and put it in the oven and set the temperature to about 80C and went to bed. I figured the meat already had enough smoke and I wanted to go to bed without having to get up every hour to check the smoker temperature. I just raised the temperature to 110 C on the oven and in about 3 hours I should have a good brisket. It tasted good when I checked on it and it was starting to blacken a little. When all is said and done, it will have been cooking for about 15-16 hours.

This is my smoker. I bought it off of a friend for $50. He wanted to upgrade to a pellet smoker. Manually adjusting the temperature becomes tedious and he didn't want to put up with it as often as he smoked meat. You can also put the charcoal directly under the meat in the main compartment and use it as a charcoal grill for cooking steaks, burgers, hot dogs, pork chops, or whatever.



Cheers for that Tex, That is a pretty comprehensive list of instructions. Im going to give it a shot, I will be home killing a steer a little later in the year so will get the butcher to take a nice brisket out of it, I have an assortment of drums and beer kegs kicking around to knock up a smoker,,

[Black Orchid]

Tried fixing that post but couldn't.