Planned First Brisket & A Pork Butt On The Electric Smoker & Bouquets

Cindy walked around the yard and picked some flowers to make a couple of bouquets to welcome Bev home from her two-week trip.  Pretty neat that she can do this from our yard.

I’ve been making some serious progress on reducing the amount of stuff in our freezer and realized that a seven lb. brisket took up a lot of room so I decided to smoke it for our Friday card group.  And since I was planning to run the smoker and knew we had no pulled pork in the freezer, I decided to smoke a 10lb. frozen pork butt as well.

For the brisket, I used Chris Lilly’s brisket method, as shown below, for my seven-pound brisket flat.

Smoked Brisket

Ingredients:

1/2 tbsp. salt

1/2 tbsp. paprika

1/2 tbsp. black pepper

1/2 tbsp. sugar

1/2 tsp. garlic powder

1/2 tsp. onion powder

1/4 tsp. oregano

1/8 tsp. ground coriander

Beef brisket flat, 5–6 pounds (7lbs for Larry)

1 tbsp. beef base

1 cup beef broth (our homemade)

 1/2 tsp. liquid smoke (added by Larry)

Instructions:

1. In a small bowl, mix the first eight dry rub ingredients.

2. Remove most of the fat from the brisket.

3. Cover the entire brisket with the beef bullion paste.

4. Coat the brisket with the dry rub.

5.Wrap in plastic and refrigerate overnight.

6. Remove the brisket from the fridge an hour or so prior to cooking time and put it on a rack over a pan with about a half inch of water.  Insert a remote probe thermometer in the thickest part of the meat.

THIS IS WHEN THE PLAN CHANGED.  When I went out to start the smoker, I discovered I had no power and I couldn’t figure out why so I opted to just cook it in the oven.  I could have probably used an extension cord to power the smoker, but I thought this would provide an opportunity to see how we liked oven cooked – after all, a smoker is just an oven with a smoky atmosphere.

7. When the cooker oven reaches 225 degrees on convection bake, place the beef brisket on.

8. Cook until the internal temperature of the brisket reaches 165 degrees.

9. Remove the brisket from the smoker oven and place in the disposable aluminum pan.

10. Pour the beef broth over the brisket and cover the pan tightly with aluminum foil.

11. Place the pan in the cooker until the internal temp of the brisket reaches 185 190 degrees.

12. Remove from the oven and the pan and let the meat rest undisturbed for 20-30 minutes (this is so the juices can redistribute).

13. Add the juices to a de-fatter.

When serving, slice the brisket across the grain. 

I used my many years old method for cooking the pork.

1. Trim most of the external fat. See note.

2. Rub the meat with a mixture of Billy Bones XXX Cherry and Competition rubs, wrap tightly and let it sit in the fridge overnight.

3. Remove the pork butt from the fridge an hour or so prior to cooking time and add to an aluminum pan.

4. Add to the smoker oven with the brisket and when it is the desired color, add a thermometer, cover with foil, and add several drops of liquid smoke to the liquid in the pan. (I flipped it at 147F to get some crust on both sides).

5. At an internal temperature of 162F, I inserted the remote probe thermometer, covered the pan with foil and raised the oven temp to 275F.  Since all we are doing at this point is oven-roasting a pork roast, no need to worry about "low-and-slow."

6. Cook to an internal temp of about 202F (meat probe slides in easily).

7. Remove from the smoker oven and remove the pork from the pan.

8. Pour the collected juices into a liquid de-fatter.

9. When cool enough, pull the pork, removing as much fat as possible.

10. Mix in the defatted juices and any other desired flavors (salt, BBQ rub, lemon juice, liquid smoke).

Forgot to get the pulled pics. 

Note: Most BBQers leave a fat cap on the brisket and pork then argue about whether to cook them fat side up or down but since I cook them on a rack over a pan , which protects from direct heat, and I want the rub on the meat and not the fat which melts off, I trim almost all of the fat.

The Verdict:

The major difference in appearance is the lighter color of the bark and the lack of a smoke ring.  As for the taste, the smoked bark makes a fundamental difference and not that the oven version wasn't plenty good, they are just so different, it's hard to compare them, especially the brisket. 

Photos can be enlarged by clicking on them and the blue words are links.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by Almost Heaven South.

Larry

04/27 & 4/28/23 meal date