Preparation:
That brisket came out so well, I almost cried. I knew that I had done well when I sliced through the blackened crust. As I went through what was left of the cap of fat, it bathed the meat below with just a touch more of delicious moistness. The meat was absolutely beautiful with a dark outside enclosing a picture perfect ring of pink. The meat just fell apart as I loaded it onto the sandwiches. After tasting it, I was initially speechless, then I set into an extended period of raving and eating.
Here's how I did it:
I got my meat from Sam's Club rather than a supermarket--4.3 pound half brisket. They don't trim their brisket there, so it had a good cap of fat on the top.
I applied a good layer of dry rub shortly before cooking--I usually don't give meats a real long time with the rub ahead of time. I built a fire to one side of the grill with the lump charcoal, and put an aluminum half pan of water on the other side to give a little humidity and catch the drippings (but not to produce steam). I put the meat on the grill to the opposite of the fire, and adjusted the vents so that the temp. on the dome cover read 250F for about an hour, then lowered it to about 230-240 for the rest of the cook. (This is what the thermometer read, I'm sure the meat was cooking a touch cooler.) I threw on a few large chips of mesquite from time to time, along with a few more chunks of the lump charcoal.
I gave it a bit over 11 hours on the grill, then took it off, wrapped it in foil, and held it at about 150F for a bit over an hour.
Sliced it across the grain, loaded it up on toasted buns and topped it with a modified version of Sam Higgins's Gud Sauce.
Next time, I will tone down the rub a little, and take it off a little sooner (or use a bigger piece of brisket), but if I say so myself, this was damn near perfe |
