Do you or does anyone you know put a coating of BBQ sauce on the brisket a short while before it goes into the foil? A buddy of mine is trying to get me to try it for my birthday BBQ this weekend. Now I do that for my ribs and I love the results, but I don't want to lose my HornFans BBQ Man Card for doing to a brisket. I'm cooking 4 or 5 briskets this weekend and I'll document it for the BBQ board.
Coopers supposedly dips their briskets in the sauce before wrapping them in foil but their sauce is thin and vinegary.
I was going to suggest just that: if you do dip/mop it, go the Cooper's route with a vinegar-based sauce. I've never touched my brisket with anything but dry substances, but if Cooper's does it, it can't be sacriligious.
I firmly believe that adding sauce to brisket when wrapping it is unnecessary. When adding sauce to ribs at wrapping, it helps add moisture. Briskets don't need any added moisture -- when I unwrap mine at the end, there's plenty of liquid in the foil. Still, if you can do one with, and the rest without, it will give you a comparison. I recently inadvertently cooked one of seven briskets fat-side-down instead of fat-side-up. I never really thought there was a debate, so I've always done them fat-side-up. Still, I now had a test case to see if I was right. I was right. Fat side up is definitely the way to go. The exposed bare meat on top got dried out, with no fat to baste it. If you do the split experiment, let us know how it turns out, or even if you can tell any difference (I doubt that you will be able to tell).
OT: can somebody give me a good homemade sauce recipe for basting baby back pork ribs halfway through the 3-2-1 method? I'm doing 3 racks plus a brisket this weekend. I'm planning on hitting them with basic (wet) yellow mustard & some dry ingredients (brown sugar, salt, pepper, cayenne) before smoking, but I've never added anything before they get wrapped in foil.
pulque, I believe that you misread the question. He asked, "can somebody give me a good homemade sauce recipe, " not "should I use sauce and foil"
I would caution against adding any sauce that contains sugar. Sugar burns at a relatively low temperature. Any saucing or basting with sugar should be done very near the end of your smoke.
I thought this was stupid when I read it, but it was in a cookbook from a guy I respected and it came from a guy that wins big time cookoffs fairly frequently, so I gave it a shot, and it was pretty damn good. Anyway, he just mixes a bottle of KC Masterpiece with a cup of honey. Pretty damn good and doesn't really get any easier.
