SMOKING TEXAS BRISKET AT HOME 2019

I have to warn you, this is a very long posting.  I want to give you all the information that will help you smoke your own brisket--bear with me.


Like we did with smoking our pork butt, we watched numerous videos on smoking beef briskets.  Our favorite video was with Franklin smoking briskets.  I would advise you to watch a few of these which entail trimming, smoking and cutting the brisket after it is smoked.


The brisket escapade really came about because Kroger had a huge sale on them. I have paid about $5.99 a lb. when I cook briskets for our Church. This week, they were $1.99 lb.  I am embarrassed to say, I purchased 2 full sized briskets and then 2 the size of the one pictured below.


The Mr. and I planned our grilling event for the next weekend.  I decided to try our hand on the smaller size brisket first. 

I need to tell all of you that I did have the luxury of having freezer space so there was not a problem with the remaining meat.

Ok, so once we opened the package, I was a bit dismayed.  This brisket had the least amount of fat I have ever seen on a brisket.  In previous times cooking briskets in the oven, it's the rendered fat that makes the brisket so tasty. I was a bit concerned.  We will come back to this later.

This is the lean side.

This is the fattier side.  Trimming is necessary while smoking meat.  If any fat is hanging, it will burn so you need to trim it off.

At this point, I am still very concerned about the lack of having a fatback.

In the next photo, the meat is 'aerodynamic' as the Mr. says.  The smoking will go over the piece of meat evenly.

In cooking a Texas brisket, no rub is necessary. The only spices we will use are salt and pepper.  The videos tell you to premix the salt and pepper.  That way when you coat the meat, it will be even seasoning.

The experts recommend that you season the sides first.

Then, season both sides.

We wrapped the brisket in saran wrap and put it in the fridge overnight.  The salt will help tenderize the meat.

After we smoked the pork butt, we realized that we were missing 2 important tools: a set of bellows and a poker.  I order both and had to laugh when we received them in the mail.  The bellows was smaller than expected.  It did work.

Like we did with the pork butt, spritzing the meat with unconcentrated apple juice.  Don't worry, the juice will not add the flavor of apples, it will just add moisture.

The wireless thermometer  was really a great idea.  With it, you don't need to open the actual smoker so the temperature remains constant.  It's a good thing.  The heat resistant gloves are beneficial in handling the meat when taking it off the grill.

Another thing that really worked for us in making clean up easier was placing a wire rack under the hot coals and wood.

We also placed the water pan under the grill to catch drippings.  The extra wire grate on top made for cleaning the grates easier.

The chimney was stoked and cooking was ready to start.

It seems like with pork butts, you want to get the fire to 250 degrees before cooking.  The same goes with brisket.

When the meat reaches 165-180 degrees, take it off the grill, wrap it in a

double layer of heavy duty foil and return to the smoker and cook until the internal temperature is 203 degrees.

The brisket was removed from the smoker, wrapped in a double layer of heavy duty foil and put back on the fire until the internal temperature reached 203 degrees.

Once the meat was done, we let it rest remaining in the foil for one hour.

Here is the finished brisket after resting.

Once it was cut, the Mr. was thrilled that the smoke ring, something very important to smoking experts, was perfect.  See the pink ring at the top of the meat.  The ring was on all four sides of the brisket.  Sorry that my picture does not show it.

I think if the meat had a more substantial fatback, it would have been juicier.  However, with the amazing tasty juice, the meat was smoked and delicious.  By the way, the glass bubble platter actually was a wedding present from my parents' wedding.

The next time we smoke brisket, I will make sure the piece has enough fat to render while smoking the meat.  The other 2 full briskets have enough fatback, so they will be the next ones to smoke. 

While trimming the larger pieces, I will cut a slab of the fat prior to smoking and place it on the remaining smaller brisket before smoking.

Don't be disheartened about smoking meat.  It was so much easier to smoke meat the second time around.

ELEVATED TRAY MADE FROM A CABINET DOOR

When creating my projects, I always come in contact with people who love to share their trash.  When the contractor came by to give me an estimate on the fireplace, he looked at my shell tray and asked me where I got it.  I told him I made it with an old cabinet door.

He asked me if he could take a picture of it because he had a friend who loved shells and would probably want to create her own.  Of course, I obliged him.  As he was leaving, he turned and asked me if I would be interested in cabinet doors hanging around in his shop.  He wanted to clean the shop and he was happy to give me the doors.  I was in luck. The next day, he brought me 6 cabinet doors. 

 Within a week, one of his workers rang the doorbell and asked if I wanted more.  It felt like Christmas to me.  When I saw the stack of doors he had placed by the front door, I asked if I could see what he had in his truck.  Two of the doors were too large for what I could use.  I went to the truck and picked out 8 doors--and they were all free!

Now, I had 14 possible projects.  The first door I picked was a raw wood maple cabinet front. The door had a beautiful grain to it.  Initially, I was just going to stain in.  A few days later, when talking to my dear friend Tara, she suggested that I use the driftwood stain.  Of course!

I sanded the piece.

To the internet I went in search of the perfect legs.  I fell in love with these carved chair legs, which cost about $29.00 for the set of 4.  They were so unique.

I gave the legs a rough sanding, and cleaned off the residual dust.

I took a very damp rag and went over all the surfaces to collect any sediment that was left.  Notice in the next picture the difference in the wood before and after the damp rag was used.

In case any of you are interested in this great set of chair legs, here is the name and code. I purchased them on Amazon.

Enter Mr. Thrifty.  I am hesitant to use his power tools, so he joined me on the next stage of the project.

I first traced the attaching end of the leg to the top.  I then connected the ends to find the center of the leg.

I then used the vellum paper to match the exact point onto the leg itself so the dowel rod would match up after we drilled the holes in the base of the tray.

We discussed use a screw with the end cut off to connect the two pieces, but I thought it might not line up when I actually screwed one to the top.

The Mr. came up with the idea of  using a dowel rod.  We had one in the leftover wood pile, so we determined how deep the hole in the tray and leg was to be and cut the dowels accordingly.

Using the drill press, Mr. Thrifty drilled 4  holes into the top of the tray. He taped off the drill bit so we would drill exactly the same amount on each hole.

Then it was time to drill into the legs.  Because the legs were not square on each side, he placed the legs into the vice and used the level to make sure it was square.  Notice the paper towel wrapped around the leg that made sure we didn't mar the leg itself.

I inserted the dowel in the leg to see if we would get a good fit.  This was repeated with the other 3 legs.

Looks pretty awesome already.  I wanted to stain the 4 legs and top before gluing them together.

In order to stain the legs property, I placed the dowels into them and after cutting holes in a box, placed them upside down.

I pulled one of the driftwood stain packages out of my stash.  This is the same stain that I used on the Cherval  mirror.

The stain powder was mixed with a cup of cool water.

I stained the top first and was very happy with the results.

Now, it was time to stain the legs.

I was bothered by the fact that the stain did not take the same on the 4 legs.  It was time to change my plan.

I pulled out my grey chalk paint, watered it down and painted each of the legs with a coat of the paint.  Now the legs were all a  uniformed color.

The following picture is of the dried top.  The stain darkens in an hour when drying.

After the legs dried, I roughed them up with sandpaper to give them a distressed look.

I pulled out my Annie Sloan clear wax and brush and waxed all the legs and the top.  Then all the pieces were buffed out.

Now the legs were dry fitted on to the top.

The wax and buffing really gives the piece a nice sheen.

We are ready to glue this piece together.  After filling the holes with the glue, they were placed in position.

Two squares were used on the leg itself to make sure it was squared up.  Clamps were attached to the legs and left to dry overnight.

Another picture of the square.

 

And finally, the finished project!

I really think the legs add so much to this project. Adding water to the chalk paint allowed some of the grain to show through.

For now, I'm going to leave the tray on the buffet.  In the future, I think this tray would look great on a table at an event, maybe even holding desserts.

Once again, where would I be without the generosity of a connection with a contractor who just happened to have some trash that I could make into a treasure?

I am blessed!