(Edit -- just added a couple of pics. Not overly fascinating, but they're what my wife sent me). Our church had a big event on Saturday -- we had over 100 members gather at the church and then go out into the community to perform a total of 500 hours (actually, a bit more) of service. They then returned to the church, where our newly-formed ministry team, "The Holy Smokers" (yeah, that one is ALL mine -- I take credit/blame as deserved), had prepared lunch for what we were thinking would be 140 or so. This whole project was a big deal, as it was my wife's baby -- she just took on the job of director of lay ministry a couple of months ago, and this was her first big effort to get people involved. What happened, and some things we learned: We had a borrowed smoker on a trailer, courtesy of a church member who is an owner/partner of one. Figuring 140 people, with one brisket per 20 people, we had 7 briskets. On Thursday evening, a couple of us went up to the church, rubbed the briskets (simple rub -- season salt, black pepper, brown sugar, a bit of garlic powder and chili powder), and put them in the fridge. We then went down to the smoker, familiarized ourselves with it, and got the fire fixins ready to light. Friday around 4:00 in the afternoon, a team member showed up and lit the fire. I got there around 5:00, and he was wheeling the briskets down. We put them on around 5:00. It took us a good 45 minutes of jacking with the damper to fully figure out the temperature control. Also, we had realized the night before that the smoker would only hold 5 briskets -- problem, as we had 7. Solution -- I brought 2 racks from home, and 6 bricks. We built 2 makeshift elevated racks in the smoker. The 7 briskets fit just fine. They started cooking for real around 5:45. I hung out till around 7:00, when a relief crew showed up. We rotated the briskets, to avoid any one of them being stuck in a hot spot. I went home for a while to rest and see the family, then came back up at 10:45. The crew had just shut the damper and the intake vents. "What happened?" "Grease fire." I looked the smoker over, and realized that, upon unhooking it, the front end of the trailer had been cranked high so that the grease flowed back TO the fire box instead of towards the drain hole. A few cranks of the trailer jack, and a pan underneath the hole, and we were back in bidness. By this time, the briskets were starting to get a nice color to them. We rotated them again, just to be safe, but things looked to be cooking pretty evenly. We had a pretty easy time maintaining the temp at around 220-230, with a few minor fluctuations. We were using good aged oak (with the bark on, for what that's worth). A couple of us were the late crew. We hung out from 10:45 till around 2:15, when I liked the color, feel, and smell of the briskets -- they had been on the smoker cooking in earnest around 8.5 hours. While we were there, we had a couple of cold beverages, and a lot of good talking about life, family, and Monty Python bits. At that time, we wrapped the briskets in foil, put them in pans, and put them in the ovens inside the church by around 3:00 (then we went home and slept for a few hours). A church member who was going to be there around 7:00 turned the ovens off. Then, at 11:30 that morning, we turned the ovens back on to about 300 to warm them through. We pulled them out at 12:15, opened the foil, and let them rest. (see pic below) The natives were restless, and hungry. By 12:40, I was carving (the briskets were still pretty tender, as they hadn't rested quite enough for my taste). (see pic below -- the little dude munching on a slice is my son, who probably mooched a half dozen slices before we even got any of it downstairs). bums/y268/orngbld/PICT0083.jpg"> By 12:55, we were serving. Brisket, beans, potato salad, with pickles, onions, bread, iced tea, and 2 kinds of cake (all the other items were prepared by another church member who is a caterer in her spare time). We did have some sauce -- I picked up some "Austin's Own" sauce at Costco. For what it's worth, I was pretty impressed by the sauce, which was only $2 for a 40 oz bottle. But the brisket didn't need it. After carving 5 briskets (and they were carting down pans of sliced meat as fast as we could fill them), we were told that we probably had enough. So, we wiped off our hands and went downstairs to eat (not that we all hadn't eaten about a half pound each of "scraps" from the carving process) -- to the applause of the well-fed masses. It was nice to get the acknowledgement, but it was really nice to contribute to a really great day for our church. We had numerous people telling us that they don't eat beef, or they don't eat brisket, and this was without question the best, and most tender, that they'd ever had. I watched one of our older male members go back for seconds, thirds, and then, concerning me about his cardiac health, fourths. Now, some of the folks had already gone home before we served, and some folks with little kids just couldn't wait till 1:00 for lunch (indeed, my two kids hung out in the kitchen, mooching slices of brisket from me as soon as I started cutting -- proving that they were indeed my children). So, we ended up serving a total of 85 people with 5 briskets -- 17 people per brisket, with a little bit left over. We had overestimated the number staying for lunch, so we had 2 whole briskets left. I trimmed them, cut them into hunks, wrapped them in foil, and we put them in the big fridge with some to-go containers of beans and potato salad. A beloved member of our church had died on Thursday, and we marked the packages to go to his family and to his parents. We cleaned up, and all talked about what a great time we had doing this project. Some of the guys who had never done anything like this before were actively planning for "next time." The food and the fellowship were both top-notch. And it's nice to do this sort of thing for your friends -- it's even more gratifying to do it for your friends and neighbors in your community of faith, as part of a greater overall picture and project. I will try to get some pictures up soon.
You guys available for an AISD fundraiser? Seriously, sounds like a great time and that great work was done. Congrats.
Bravo, well done. It's a huge production to feed that many people. Sounds like y'all pulled it off with flying colors.
Congrats on a job well done, sounds delicious! Goal for next time should include no foil and no oven, then you can talk about tender briskets
01 grad, I heartily disagree. The foil and oven method is something I put together through experience of hundreds of briskets. The foil wrap is good because (A) it stops the permeation of smoke into the meat. After 8-10 hours, the meat has all the smoke it needs, and really, all that it can take without getting a "creosote" flavor to it. (B) It traps moisture, and completes a slow-cooking process that makes for tender brisket. The oven is good because it's easy. Once the brisket is foil wrapped, then it's not getting anything from the fire but temperature (no smoke gets to it, remember?). And, if our only task at this point is getting temperature to the brisket and keeping it there, ovens are much easier and much more precise than continuing to man a wood fire in the smoker. I HAVE done the wrapping part in the smoker, but it's just easier to finish in the ovens. You can claim to be a purist by being against foil wrap and ovens, but the chemistry and the physics stand against you -- cutting off the smoke after a certain point actually helps the flavor, wrapping enhances tenderness, and the ovens make the temp control a snap.
01 grad, I follow your method, but the man knows what he's doing. that's part of the fun of smoking red meat. Everyone has their own methods that make the meat their own. Nice work Brisket. Rotating briskets/racks of ribs can be cumbersome and challenging, but if anyone could pull that off, you could. Looks like a fun day.
Great job brisket. I like the little boy in the last pic obviously sneaking some brisket. Some of my best memories at that age were hanging around my dad and his buddies at various pig cookings, calf fries, fish fries, sausage making, goat barbeques, etc. Of course, a major coup was sneaking as much beer as we could.
that looks great -- congrats. i think 1 brisket is hard enough to get just right, so 7 is an achievement. always enjoy reading your smoking/brisket posts.
Brisketexan-- I think your meat looks like it turned out great, and the proof is in all the happy people you served. I agree, smoking meat should be fun and that all that really matters is the end product. I too have smoked many a brisket. Creosote flavor on your meat is not a given, it is caused by a combination of poor ventilation, excess water vapor, and over-smoking. Each of these can easily be remedied: Do not use water soaked wood(a very common practice). Once you achieve the desired bark and smoke ring, stop throwing fresh logs and throw hot burning wood coal. Keep the inside of your smoker free of sediment (another common practice -folks seem to never clean their smokers, they think it adds flavor). I always keep the top vent full open and control temp with lower damper, to provide sufficient ventilation. You can go to the oven and foil, I won't dispute that it turns out a fine brisket. But I don't think using creosote buildup as an excuse is necessary.
