I have no shame in saying before I got this new grill, I never considered myself any kind of cook. I could always get a fire set up and burning with my charcoal grills, we have even had propane grills and they were okay. Now, I was given a pellet grill which I had been thinking of buying and it has opened up a world I didn't think I even cared about in making me want to smoke a perfect brisket. I have always known that brisket is king here in Texas, but to me, it was more of a white guy's thing. I always thought as long as I can grill some fajitas, I am alright for a Hispanic dude. Now, with this grill that will maintain an exact temperature, I guess anyone can grill a near perfect brisket.
Although I am talking about the perfect brisket, I am far from it and still trying to understand them. At this point, I have smoked three by myself in the last month. Last nights was possibly the worst of the three, the meat just didn't cooperate. The first one, without doing anything too crazy, was smoked for 8 hours and when I cut it, it had a certain direction to the meat and as even Boy was telling me the brisket is made up of two muscles, the flat and the point, I could see where the strands of muscle changed direction and I cut it perpendicular and it worked out great. The one I smoked last week was all in the same direction, the muscle never seemed to change direction, so I cut it all the same way. The one this week, was closer to twelve pounds, the first two were more like ten pounds. Maybe the toughness was because it was bigger, it needed more time. Maybe it was just a different breed of cow, I don't know.
Don't get me wrong, even if the meat was a little tough, it was still delicious, it just wasn't fall apart tender like the first one. I was trying wrapping it in the pink butcher paper instead of foil as many cooks suggest on Youtube, so I am not sure if that had a negative effect on the result. I also tend to let them sit only for about thirty minutes after. It is so hard, after putting it in the grill early in the day and having to wait over eight hours, at the end I just want to eat, not put it in another holding place like it is suggested, for a couple hours.
I am not dissuaded, I asked Wife if she was getting tired of eating briskets on Saturday and she says no. I am like a machine, I will keep doing it until I feel like I have perfected the technique, so I will just try again next week. My plan is to get up even earlier than 9:00am so that I can go longer than 8 hours if that is what I have to do. I will give the butcher paper one more chance, but if it comes out tough next time, I will be going back to aluminum foil, I don't care what the experts suggest.
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