"Franklin Barbecue"

[Norm Matthews]

It's the internal marble fat and the collagen along with slow cooking are wrapping at the right time that keeps the brisket tender and moist, but I'd like to have a fat cap anyway.

 

I am not finding a good brisket to try out yet. The butcher at Hen House said they would have some brisket with the point in the next day but when I went in, a different guy brought out a 'whole' brisket and it was just the whole flat and most of the fat had been trimmed off. He said they didn't have any with the point. 

 

Franklin says he uses prime grade brisket and that will be even harder to source around here, IMO.

[rotuts]

thanks for keeping an eye on the topic

 

""   Franklin says he uses prime grade brisket  ""

 

​i ve missed this :  does he mean  " brisket from a total cow that has been judged " Prime "

 

in the past Ive gotten blade roasts from  a 'prime cow'

 

it not meat that is generally sold as " prime "  those are the more expensive cuts if you get my drift

 

​in the " lucky peach "article " from some time back  he said he could get " better brisket " but not in the quantity he needed

 

so he went  ( I think ) for the best he could buy that would be consistent for his needs :  30, 000 lbs /month

 

​and he did note in that article that based on the season, they were different and he took that in to account when he ' stick smoked " them,

[radtek]

Interestingly, I've been able to find Choice packers at walmart for the same price as Select at HEB. And they turn out pretty well. I think you just need to ask your favorite butcher to get you a decent brisket packer Norm. Can't find a good brisket in Kansas City? Amazing. 

 

Unless they all go to the BBQ joints.

[Norm Matthews]

He said (paraphrasing) that there was a fire at the place where he got his brisket and supply was cut off for a short time and that he had to get less than prime briskets.  While he was using lesser grades of brisket, a writer visited and he got his only ever bad review.  He discussed grading as prime being USDA judged "defined as being from young,(nine to 30 months in age) well-fed beef with abundant marbling."

 

This kind of was discouraging to me, for him to admit in effect that his methods were not as effective with less than top quality meat.  

[Norm Matthews]

Radtek, yes I know.  Prime isn't easy to come by and the one or two times I got meat from Walmart (steak, not brisket) it was poor quality and stringy tough. But I will take your advice and check out Walmart and another couple of stores to see if I can get some good brisket.   I suspect that Hen House is going through a phase of downsizing or cost cutting in the meat dept. Some of the workers behind the counter seem to not be as aware of cuts or terminology as they were 6 months ago.  Once they had to call someone out from the back to cut some meat to my order.  (and he got it wrong anyway)

 

 

PS It was easier to get really nice beef before I moved back home to Kansas City 3 years ago. I lived near a cattle ranch and they sold direct to the public.  The meat wasn't graded but you could tell it was better than grocery store stuff by a good margin.

Edited May 15, 2015 by Norm Matthews (log)

[radtek]

It's kinda like hunting. An eye out for a deal on a nice piece of meat when it comes available.

[rotuts]

I went up to 

 

http://countrybrookfarms.com/yoders_smokers.php

 

in NH to look the Yoders over.  nice day.  no snow, 42 miles most of it at speed. 

 

they will deliver to me to my deck for a reasonable fee, and their prices are good,  they have pellets at a fair 18 / 20 lbs.

 

so its going to be either the 480, or the 640.  the 480 is probably all I really need

 

but the 640 was really talking to me, its 8 " longer and 'roomy'

 

they had the off-set stick smokers there to study also.

 

the Yoder stuff looks really exceptional to me.  very heavy, nice welding.

Edited May 17, 2015 by rotuts (log)

[Norm Matthews]

That's what I told myself when I got the Classic smoker. And it's true, I'll probably never really need more capacity, but every once in a while I catch myself kind of wishing I'd got the bigger one. 

 

ps my son and I got to looking around and found there are several meat markets in the area.  I plan to check one out tomorrow. It's over on the Missouri side via Penzey's and an antique store.  

Edited May 17, 2015 by Norm Matthews (log)

[rotuts]

NM :

 

it s been my plan for some time to keep what you have for as long as its usefull

 

 

when you need new need new 'hardware '  i.e. computers, your lawn mower  like that

 

i fiddle and faddle for some time, and get the 'next one up'  as long as I can afored

 

 

why ?

 

I do not plan another os his " item "for a long long long tme

 

just saying

[Norm Matthews]

I found a meat market that sells whole, untrimmed briskets.  It is in Missouri and not far from Penzey's   The brisket was about half what I expected to pay for it.  It is 11 lbs USDA Choice.  I plan to smoke it on Wed. 

 

 

Look at the size of their smoker.

 

 

This is standing outside next to Penzey's.  On Saturdays and Wednesdays, it is not a parking lot but filled with farm trucks selling all kinds of goodies.  I like this time of year in Kansas City.

[rotuts]

wow  Brisket and Penzey's  ?

 

you're cooking with 'wood'

 

Im  just sitting her and waiting for my 'quote' from N.H. for the 680.

 

delivered " on the deck "

 

I decided then I better get the 'Franklin' book

 

Sold out at Amazon.

Edited May 18, 2015 by rotuts (log)

[rotuts]

NM :

 

""  a corned beef and seasoned it for pastrami ""

 

​Id like to hear a but more about this.

 

I only now do pastrami  SV.  but should I get the Yoder, Id like to try it on the smoker, indeed w pastrami seasonings.

 

time ?  temp ? seasonings ?    " slice-ability ? "

 

thanks

 

I still have not gotten my quote for the two Yoders, but I did speak w the folks at Yoder and the pellet consumption they say is the same for all three of their pellet

 

smokers.  this might be enough for me to move to the 680 as its easier to get into and get the stuff out of it.

 

they say they remove the bottom defuser  at about 400 degrees converting the smoker to an indirect or direct 'cooker'

[weinoo]

I own a few barbecue cookbooks, some even from back in the day when I had a backyard and the ability to, well, barbecue.

 

For instance, The All-American Barbecue Book, published in 1988, is an excellent primer.

 

I have a few Sunset books, circa mid-80s, which were great for my introduction to smoke cooking.

 

Then there's Peace, Love and Barbecue, BBQ Champion Mike Mills' great book.  

 

What I don't get is the profound outpouring of love and need to have this book; a book based on one barbecue guy's one product. Sure, his brisket may be wonderful, but you're never going to duplicate it exactly; not unless he lets you use his smoker and his beef and he stays up with you all night.

 

My guess is that what's made him such a barbecue maven is social media. To whit:

 

A complete meat- and brisket-cooking education from the country's most celebrated pitmaster and owner of the wildly popular Austin restaurant Franklin Barbecue--winner of Texas Monthly's coveted Best Barbecue Joint in Texas award. 

Edited May 19, 2015 by weinoo (log)

[rotuts]

well, the brisket is said to taste really really good  consistently.  but that's TX and that's brisket  not a cut of meat that interests me much.

 

lots and lots in that book that is not brisket.

 

I have a largish collection of BBQ/Grill books.   a long time ago i went w a Weber 3 burner rather than a Traeger.  that turned out to be a wise choice for me.

 

i checked out all the BBQ/Grill books from my library system, back then about 20 years ago there were 50 +

 

i then went scrounging around the used book stores and got the ones that interested me very cheaply, about 15.

 

here are two books I highly recommend from those times  :

 

http://www.amazon.com/Great-American-Barbecue-Grilling-Manual/dp/0936171030/ref=sr_1_1/189-8585726-1361843?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1432040406&sr=1-1&keywords=smoky+hale

 

no color pics at all.  " 5 positions of BBQ "

 

http://www.amazon.com/Barbecue-America-Pilgrimage-Search-Americas/dp/073700021X/ref=sr_1_3/189-8585726-1361843?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1432040463&sr=1-3&keywords=barbecue+america

 

convinced me a gas grill  carefully managed and augmented would be ' just fine '

 

and a local ( transplanted ) person : Chris Schlesinger

 

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=a9_sc_1/189-8585726-1361843?rh=i%3Astripbooks%2Ck%3Achris+schlesinger&keywords=chris+schlesinger&ie=UTF8&qid=1432040542

 

you can do very decent 'ribs' in your ordinary oven.

[weinoo]

Yep - the Schlesinger/Willoughby books are also in my library - the East Coast Grill was damn good back in the day.

[rotuts]

at the ECG there was a grilled calamari  ( hot ) placed on room temp ( or cold ? ) 'grilled tomato' soup that was to die for.  only when they had garden fresh tomatoes.

 

and they didn't have it often enough.  you would stop right next door at " jake and earls "  ( their place also ) and take home a side of pork ribs.

[chileheadmike]

It's the internal marble fat and the collagen along with slow cooking are wrapping at the right time that keeps the brisket tender and moist, but I'd like to have a fat cap anyway.

 

I am not finding a good brisket to try out yet. The butcher at Hen House said they would have some brisket with the point in the next day but when I went in, a different guy brought out a 'whole' brisket and it was just the whole flat and most of the fat had been trimmed off. He said they didn't have any with the point. 

 

Franklin says he uses prime grade brisket and that will be even harder to source around here, IMO.

 

 

Check out Bichelmeyer's. 

 

The last time I tried to get a whole brisket from Hen House the butcher looked down his nose at me and said they don't really deal with THOSE kinds of cuts. "

Edited May 19, 2015 by chileheadmike (log)

[Norm Matthews]

Rotuts:

 

A friend or mine, a retired Italian plumber in New Jersey gave me these guidelines for what he does with store bought corned beef at St. Pat's Day dinner.  

"rub the corned beef with fresh garlic, lots of coarse ground peppercorns, a little fresh ground coriander, double wrap it in foil, place in a covered roasting pan and slow roast in a 250°F oven for 5 to 6 hours depending on size. The flavour is closer to pastrami when roasted this way."

 

I had made corned beef from scratch for Irish day but bought a couple of corned beef packs when they were on sale afterward. I made one as he described it and it was good.  I did the other one later in the smoker instead of wrapped and in the oven.  

 

As for the discussion about Franklin Brisket, I felt I could use some more information about just briskets. It is an area I would like to have more confidence in before i attempt another one.  I thought I'd get the book and maybe get some insight on doing briskets since I haven't really tried to do a whole one after the first one I did a couple decades ago.  I thought the book would be a little dialog and a lot of recipes but instead it was all dialog and a couple recipes at the end.  I think i realized from reading this book that my offset smoker is not too small to be a wood burner.  Another veteran smoker told me it was but I think I can manage a good smoke with smaller logs and a smaller fire.  After reading the book and watching some of the videos, i have some extra insight in the way I can get more out of my smoke.   It didn't hurt to  find out that he just won this years James Beard Best Chef award.   So tomorrow I am going to try to do a whole brisket once again and spend the time to do it right this time. If it turns out well, I will be glad that I succeeded.  It's like one of the things to check off my bucket list.  I don't think I will do another one soon if this one turns out well.

 

Quote from chileheadmike: Check out Bichelmeyer's. 

The last time I tried to get a whole brisket from Hen House the butcher looked down his nose at me and said they don't really deal with THOSE kinds of cuts. "

 

 

I got a similar remark from one of the meat cutters last year when I was looking for nice big ham hocks. I found McGonigle's Meat Market here in Kansas City and they the kind of brisket I was looking for. 

Edited May 19, 2015 by Norm Matthews (log)

[rotuts]

looking forward to hearing and seeing your experience.  the book is back on reserve for me so today Ill take another look

 

for the CB in the smoker :  did you still wrap it in foil ?

[Norm Matthews]

I only wrapped it in foil after it got plenty of smoke and was almost black on the outside.

 

i have been up since 4:30 this morning with the brisket, battling heavy rain at times and almost losing. I think things are going well now, and I'm keeping a log of everything I do.  

[radtek]

I think the crutch is the way to go, but without having read the book it looks like Aaron uses butcher-paper or the like instead?

[Norm Matthews]

I have no qualms about using the crutch. Crutch is just a word and I don't have butcher paper.  I call foil a finishing tool instead of a crutch.

 

Click on the link at the bottom of my post for a blow-by-blow of the progress of the brisket up to a few minutes ago.  

[radtek]

Shame how they shrink up like that... 

 

What grade was the brisket? 

[Norm Matthews]

Choice grade.  I am kind of glad it shrunk. I was wondering how we'd ever eat all that meat.

Edited May 20, 2015 by Norm Matthews (log)

[radtek]

I like to give bbq away to friends and family. Vacuum sealed usually. But, yeah- even a small whole brisket is quite a bit to consume. I like to make chili out of the point. Or chopped beef, which if you haven't had a chopped beef sandwich then you must try it. Now,  Hope you have some pickle and onion.