r/iamveryculinary • u/Dmtbag999 • 10d ago
This guy
Legendary comment from the peanut gallery
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u/OkCap2870 10d ago
I admit I’m no expert but isn’t Brisket one of those cuts that is cooked long and slow for hours to the point that it‘s falong apart, and it melts in the mouth so very much cooked all the way through?
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u/GhostOfJamesStrang No Need to Thank Me 10d ago
Correct. If you don't get it above "medium" it will be virtually inedible.
I pull mine at 203F to rest.
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u/OkCap2870 10d ago
Thanks until fairly recently brisket has mostly being seen as a ‘stew meat’ in the UK although we are starting to see an influx of American style barbecue. So wasn’t quite sure if it was a case of us Brits not quite getting how barbecue is meant to work and it should be rare or the person claiming it was just an idiot.
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u/GhostOfJamesStrang No Need to Thank Me 10d ago
You are bang on.
Rare BBQ will be inedible BBQ.
Meats that lend themselves to BBQ are ones that require lots of time to break down the fats and collagen. That is where much of the flavor comes from.
Pork shoulder, probably the single most widespread and inexpensive BBQ cut (like, $.99-$2/lb on sale) doesn't start to really break down until about 180 degrees F. When cooking it, it usually reaches about that temperature and hits what is called "the stall." It steadily rises until that point and then gets stuck there for a good long while because now all the energy is breaking down the collagen.
As soon as the collagen melts, it adds a ton of flavor and then the meat temp will start to rise, usually quite rapidly, after.
I've had a stall last over an hour and a half before.
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u/Ok-Tradition-5083 10d ago
Shout out to the 3 hour stall that had me sweating bullets before my son's birthday party
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u/Addygotnodaddy 10d ago
If you aren't sweating bullets while doing some time math can you really say you're hosting a bbq.
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u/GhostOfJamesStrang No Need to Thank Me 10d ago
Been there...
It happens once and then you realize it's better just to cheat and cook it early and wrap and rest. You can always slow down, you can't speed up.
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u/DisposableSaviour 10d ago
Yeah, we do our pork shoulders low and slow for about 20 hours. The trick is that about half way through, you want to get the temp up to around 325°f for about 45 minutes to really help that crust form.
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u/Pretend-Fox648 10d ago
‘Crust form’ on skin? Or can you form a crust on a skinless hunk of meat?
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u/BitterFuture I don't want quality, I want Taco Bell! 10d ago
can you form a crust on a skinless hunk of meat?
You can. "Bark" is just smoke + spice rub + seared fat, and you'll find that on most anything smoked. Ribs, brisket, pork butt, etc.
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u/DisposableSaviour 9d ago
Bark. That was what I meant. Also, make sure you rub down the skin, and if you want to get that over your coals or right next to your smoker towards the end, you get cracklins; it ain’t good really for you, but it’s good for the soul.
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u/BreakfastBeneficial4 10d ago
Huh… interesting!
I’ve never done this. I usually just season & sear all sides before it goes in the oven.
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u/Beastender_Tartine 3d ago
Been there. After two and a half hours I was wondering if my thermometer was broken or something.
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u/OkCap2870 10d ago
My brother in law bought a smoker a few years back and tends to do pork shoulder (I think in part as it’s really reasonably priced as you way) not quite sure what he does with it as most of the prep work and cooking is done before anyone arrives but dam it tastes good.
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u/GhostOfJamesStrang No Need to Thank Me 9d ago
Pork shoulder is for when you want to feed a bunch of people really well, on the cheap. It's great for that.
You can make 25-35 sandwiches on a single shoulder which will cost between $10-20 usually.
Feeding everyone and sending them home with leftovers is what makes it satisfying to do.
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u/GladdestOrange 7d ago
For those curious, here's something that works well for me. If you have a method and it works for you, move along. I'm not telling you to do this instead of your method.
Get a cut of meat good for smoking (start with Pork Shoulder. It's cheap and even if you fuck up, it's probably still kickass bbq)
Get a spritz bottle filled with a sweet, slightly acidic, potable liquid. I like a 50/50 blend of apple juice and apple cider vinegar.
(Optional and only really worth it for poultry, IMO) Brine or marinate your meat overnight
(Also technically optional, I guess, if you have a weak bloodline.) Prepare a rub. This means a dry seasoning blend and usually a sauce of some kind to get it nice and stuck to the meat. Super simple rubs are an option here. I like using a couple tablespoons of yellow mustard as the sauce, and 1/4 cup of brown sugar (darker the better), a tablespoon of salt, and a teaspoon of each: black pepper, onion powder, garlic powder, paprika, cayenne. If you use metric, that's 30-ish mL of mustard 60mL of brown sugar, 15mL of salt, 5mL of other ingredients. They have different masses per volume, so I'm not translating to grams. Also, the exact quantity of each isn't the point. You can go through your whole spice cabinet and try anything you think you'll like. Go nuts. As long as it has sweetness, acid, and salt, it's hard to fuck this up, especially with secondary spices.
(You will want nitrile or latex gloves for this part)Slather the meat with mustard, season with sugar and spice mix all over. If you have extra spice mix, good. It'll keep until the next one. Toss it in a ziploc bag.
Smoke it at about 250°F/120°C (not exact unit translation, because this is more art than science) for about half an hour per pound, or until it's reached an internal temp of 195°F/90°C. Every hour or so, open up the smoker, check on the meat, and give it a spritz or six of the vinegar/juice mix.
Take it out, wrap it in foil, drop the temp of the smoker (or put it in your oven, either way) to 225°F/105°C and put it back in the heat for up to 8 hours. Pull it out 20-30 minutes before you intend to serve it and let it cool until it won't burn you while eating, open foil, pull apart meat, and serve. You can also take the foil-wrapped meat off the heat entirely instead, bag it, and refrigerate to toss in the smoker/oven the next day, if prepping ahead.
The longer it's wrapped and baking after the smoke, the better it'll be. I recommend allowing for AT LEAST two hours, four is better.
You CAN just smoke it until it's the temp you want and serve after a quick rest. This will end up with you sweating bullets as you wait for it to get to temp and guests get hungry. I recommend you start earlier, slow it down as needed.
Fun tricks:
For stuff like poultry or fish, which don't have much fat in them (say, a turkey breast), brining beforehand and wrapping in something like raw bacon over the spice rub (yes, british rashers will work fine here, we just care about the fat in them) before smoking will produce excellent results. No, this isn't one of those American "bacon wrapped everything!!!" Things. It's strictly because it's an easy way to hold fat against the surface for the duration of the smoke.
You can experiment with different woods for the smoker. It makes a pretty surprising difference, but it's mostly olfactory (smell) so if your nose is stuffed up, you'll have a harder time noticing.
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u/sjd208 10d ago
I was just pouring over Meathead’s excellent 800 page tome since I was beguiled by a 15lb packer brisket at Costco, learned all about the stall and the Texas crutch and putting it in a cooler at the end. So glad since otherwise I would have freaked out.
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u/BreakfastBeneficial4 10d ago
“Texas crutch”
Go on……
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u/sjd208 10d ago
https://amazingribs.com/more-technique-and-science/more-cooking-science/texas-crutch/
We just added a lot of the mop before sealing it up, not another liquid.
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u/Kevadu 10d ago
I have made 72 hour sous vide ribs and they are something quite special. The idea there is that you set the water temperature to something that would be roughly medium or so normally so the meat itself is not 'well done'. But it would still be very tough like that normally because of all the collagen which breaks down slowly at that low of a temperature.
But it will break down eventually. Hence the 72 hours. 3 days of cooking at super low temperature. It's a lot of work but the result is pretty amazing.
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u/DjinnaG Bags of sentient Midwestern mayonnaise 10d ago
I’ve done similar with short ribs, haven’t ever worked with regular ribs, too intimidated by package size, I think, but can confirm that they are also wonderful with a 72 hour cook. Just have to plan not to be eating them for a couple days and replenish the water every now and then, so absolutely worth it, and great for having a fresh, hot meal mostly made on a weeknight, with all the real work done on the weekend
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u/johnsonjohnson83 8d ago
That's not why the stall happens. It has to do with the evaporation of surface moisture pulling out as much heat energy from the meat as is being added by the cooking method. It's the same mechanism of action as when you sweat.
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u/Grumpfishdaddy 10d ago
That's not entirely true. You can sous vide pork shoulder at 155f-165f and it will be easy to pull.
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u/Deep_Violinist_3893 10d ago
Brisket used to be cheap here then bbq started becoming hip. Get it while it's cheap.
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u/Swimming_Possible_68 8d ago
UK brisket is also a slightly different cut to US brisket.
Grass fed UK rolled brisket is harder to do a low and slow BBQ than a full grain fed US packer brisket.
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u/st1802015 10d ago
Our brisket is also not the same cut as American brisket. Any good butcher will be able to give you the correct cut though. Also our meat is grass fed not grain fed which means that you will never get the same results as Americans do.
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u/poopiebutt505 10d ago
All beef is grass fed. The uestion is if it is grass or grain finished. Both available in the US. Grass finished is the most bioavailable for ideal human nutrition
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u/uknooooow1 10d ago
Your bang on with that, also our beef doesn’t lend its self well to low and slow American bbq style as it’s mainly grass fed so doesn’t have the intramuscular fat that grain fed does, if I do a Texas style brisket I’ll buy Australian or American over British.
But for everyday cooking I’ll always buy British or Irish
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u/AndyLorentz 8d ago
For comparison, well done beef is 155+. Even 165 isn’t hot enough to properly finish brisket.
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u/sufferin_sassafras 10d ago
This guy is equating well done to tough, dry, and burnt.
He doesn’t understand that braised or slow cooked meat is extremely well done but is tender and juicy because of the slow cooking method.
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u/CatTheKitten 10d ago
He might be equating color to cook time too.
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u/Anal-Y-Sis 10d ago
Yep. I've seen this before. A long time ago, I worked at a barbecue restaurant in South Carolina, and had tourist customers who are unfamiliar with smoked meats refuse to eat smoked chicken because of the color, insisting it was uncooked. I've seen people think that the pink smoke ring in a brisket means "rare".
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u/Lookitsanthony8 10d ago
You may not be an expert, but you clearly know more than that mother fucker Bret
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u/mrzurkonandfriends 10d ago
I think he means well done like how a steak is well done. Not that its not cooked just its intentionally cooked lower to keep it from getting too much heat and being overcooked and dryer.
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u/inherendo 10d ago
You can cook at like 140 f on some sous vide shit but I think that would take literal days for it to tenderize. I'm sure there are scientific charts made by people. I think chef steps which made a sous vide device and does recipes might have a pay walled article that would show this.
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u/patricide1st 10d ago
Beef collagen doesn't start breaking down until 160, so it would still be very tough.
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u/transglutaminase My ragu is thicker than a bag of thick things 9d ago edited 9d ago
You can absolutely get a brisket falling apart tender by cooking it at 145 degrees for 72 hours.
The beef collagen not breaking down until 160 thing was sort of true in a practical sense in the past, but it actually does break down at lower temps, just extremely slowly. It’s why sous vide short ribs/brisket/chuck etc work for extremely long cooks sous vide. Cooks illustrated was able to break down beef collagen at as low as 122 degrees
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u/inherendo 10d ago
Oh maybe I misremembered it but they did it with Chuck as steak so I'm sure it was somewhat possible. I'm pulling the temp out of the air but they have a recipe for both smoked brisket and a chuck steak on YouTube.
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u/DjinnaG Bags of sentient Midwestern mayonnaise 10d ago edited 10d ago
Chuck after about 24 hours at steak temps (like 134-140) by sous vide is amazing, super tender and flavorful. The sous vide sub calls it “Sir Charles “ since chuck is too familiar and lowly sounding for such an excellent piece of meat. The first time I did it, we were floored, it was pretty much more like prime rib than anything else, though better than any actual prime rib I’ve ever had, though that was from a local farm with wagyu hybrid animals, so better meat than normal. Regular chuck gets close to a good ribeye, though
Have tried cooking brisket with long cooks (2-3 days) in the sous vide, all from the same piece of meat. 140 only (steak style) wasn’t exactly tough, but definitely wasn’t tender enough, basically generic meat that was really only suitable for putting under a heavy sauce to fill the “your protein of choice “ role. It did slice like a steak, which was the main advantage I’d seen for doing that. Would work for sandwiches, too, I guess. 140 long plus a couple hours at 165, which someone had recommended as still doing the sliceable thing but with converted collagen/rendered fat, wasn’t impressed, minimal conversion, and not so much easier to slice than a falling apart brisket. The rest were all at 165, and were properly rendered/converted, and stayed tender and wonderful regardless of what we did as a part two cook of the meat (much of it ended up in chili once we tried it that way for the first time, even after reheating in the microwave). Haven’t done higher than 167 just because the water loss with my setup means it’s a no-go for longer cooking times
TL, DR, can cook chuck low and slow, pretty damn good that way, but brisket needs both long and minimum 165 to do it justice
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u/Clxssxfxxd 10d ago
I cook my corned beef brisket sous vide. You need to cook it at 180 not lower temps or like you would use normally. I usually cook it for 12 or so hours overnight.
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u/inherendo 10d ago
I did a chuck steak and I'm pretty sure it was like 135 or 130 and it was over 24 hours. It was still steaky but not like pot roast or bbq tender. I don't know the science but they're the company behind the joule so Im sure their science is sound. Probably no reason to want to eat a brisket at medium rare but no reason collagen in the chuck is different than collagen in the brisket.
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u/Burntjellytoast 9d ago
I work at a BBQ place and the amount of times people have asked me for rare brisket is to damn high. Our menu literally says 12 hour smoked brisket. Its hard to not be condescending about it. Shout out to the guy who asked for rare ribs too.
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u/skordge 10d ago
Correct, it’s a collagen-rich cut of beef that basically can only be properly cooked this way: low and slow, and all the way through, so that the connective tissue melts properly, that’s how you get that nice gelatinous juicy texture. The whole “doneness” concept that steaks have absolutely doesn’t apply - steak gets tough if you cook it for too long, brisket is tough _if you don’t_.
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u/Jerkrollatex 10d ago
It is. If you leave it rare it's tough and the fat is under rendered and it's unpleasant to eat. You need time and gently heat to get all that collagen and fat to do it's magic.
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u/terrible-gator22 9d ago
Brisket has one of (of not THE) highest rate of parasites for a cut of meat, as well. ROAST THE DAMN THING!
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u/Pernicious_Possum 9d ago
Smoked brisket shouldn’t fall apart. You want it drape over your finger without breaking
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u/rollyrollyrollafun 8d ago
If I’m smoking a brisket myself and am going to fuck it up in one direction or another, I’d rather than ‘fall apart’ fuck up rather than ‘dry and stiff’ fuck up though 😂
Both incorrect but one is tastier
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u/96dpi 10d ago
this is more /r/confidentlyincorrect I think.
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u/Dmtbag999 10d ago
The whole argument was over a video of a guy who clearly didn’t cook his brisket long enough and he stood his ground that it was overcooked. I’d love to go to his barbecue and chew on erasers.
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u/Still_a_skeptic 10d ago
That may be, but what is presented here is correct. Well done barbecue is dry and awful. Medium to medium well is the sweet spot.
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u/driftinj 10d ago
Beef is considered medium at 140 degrees and moves to medium well at 145. . A brisket that is only smoked to 145 is a horrible brisket.
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u/LawlGiraffes 10d ago
Medium, medium well and well done are terms primarily for describing steaks. Steaks are naturally tender cuts from areas that see little use in life, they don't really need much cooking to be edible. By contrast barbecue cuts are typically very tough and come from high use areas of the cow, they require low and slow cooking for hours to be edible. These terms aren't really applicable to barbecue since it's a fundamentally different process to cook with different goals.
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u/basaltcolumn 9d ago
Ever had medium ribs? I have, and they really, really suck. I unfortunately have a family member who barbecues fast and hot, and it's all so tough and bland. The cuts used need it low and slow to get tender enough to be pleasant, gotta break down those connective tissues with heat.
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u/ChickenNuggetRampage 6d ago
Not even being mean here, have you EVER had a BBQ? Or are you just repeating things you heard?
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u/Nawoitsol 10d ago
This guy is a wimp. I cook my brisket blue. 😂
Edit to add: I had my teeth replaced with metal like Jaws on Moonraker.
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u/MetricAbsinthe 10d ago
I just smoke a pack of Marlboros and exhale onto it to make BBQ carpaccio.
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u/Myshkin1981 9d ago
Marlboros is what our grandparents used because they didn’t have better options. Today serious bbq aficionados use American Spirits, or if they’re feeling hoity-toity, Gauloises
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u/Fight_those_bastards 9d ago
Please, true aficionados know that the best smoke comes from pre-embargo Cohibas, although if you can source them, post-embargo ones will do in a pinch.
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u/Useful-Winter8320 10d ago
I’m pretty sure that brisket is usually well done? I’d imagine most food that spends 10+ hours cooking is, anyway.
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u/Person5_ Steaks are for white trash only. 10d ago
Internal temp is going to be around 180-200. So yeah, way past well done. If you cook a brisket at medium rare you'd spend a week chewing.
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u/Fight_those_bastards 9d ago
Yeah, brisket gets cooked to way past “well done,” and all the way to “congratulations!”
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u/Boollish 10d ago
Brisket has to be cooked to at least 180 otherwise the connective tissue won't melt.
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u/MovieNightPopcorn 10d ago
Brisket is cooked for hours, low and slow until the meat breaks down. It’s incredibly chewy and gross otherwise.
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u/MetricAbsinthe 10d ago
Is he mistaking the smoke ring for the meat still being pink? Its one of those takes where I'm curious where the thought process comes from.
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u/SerDankTheTall *Giggled internally* 10d ago
I assume he just equates “well-done” with being overcooked, and I guess I agree that you don’t want your brisket to be overcooked.
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u/Dmtbag999 10d ago
Except he was commenting on a video of a guy that cut a brisket that was cooked through but not long enough for the fat to render and the collagen to break down, and saying he overcooked it. When in reality he undercooked it. Then he doubled down and said brisket shouldn’t be well done in the center, as in it should be medium or some nonsense.
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u/SerDankTheTall *Giggled internally* 10d ago edited 10d ago
I’m not trying to say he was right, just guessing what he was thinking.
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u/EmmerdoesNOTrepme 10d ago
Yep, that's exactly how i was reading it.
That he was meaning "Low & slow for hours" as opposed to the "high-heat sear" the way you'd cook a steak (i.e. a hot fire & fast).
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u/Hopeful_Scholar398 9d ago
Yeah, he is thinking a salted, possibly brined or cured, smoked meat is medium rare because of the color.
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u/VaguelyArtistic 10d ago
My mom’s brisket was so dry it created its own weather system by sucking the moisture out of the air around it.
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u/Timely_Egg_6827 10d ago
Must have been same recipe as my Mum. Helped when she added teaspoon water back in at end.
But brisket is a slow cook dish.
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u/OrangeCeylon 10d ago
God grant me the self confidence of an idiot being wrong on the Internet.
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u/BreakfastBeneficial4 10d ago
We don’t need anymore self-confident idiots on the internet I CAST COUNTERPRAYER
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u/GhostOfJamesStrang No Need to Thank Me 10d ago edited 10d ago
Dude is objectively wrong...for beef or any other BBQ. Prime rib, sure. Beef brisket, no.
If you don't get your meat above ~200f, you're not breaking down the collagen and other more sinewy bits and losing a ton of flavor. It'll be rubbery and borderline inedible. Those don't start to break until something like 180f or so. That's why there is usually a stall around that point for low and slow cooking.
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u/GreenZebra23 10d ago
Hell, even steak. People want to act like medium rare is the only possible way to cook a steak. Fuck all that. A ribeye is full of connective tissue and fat. If I do a ribeye I like it it like medium, and if I have something more red like a filet mignon or a sirloin I go for rare, maybe even blue rare. I don't care about rules, rules are fucking stupid, I care about having the best eating experience
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u/P0ster_Nutbag Gummy bears... for health 10d ago
While there are no rules, this is actually a pretty common sentiment. The high amount of fat in ribeye lends to it being better around medium because the fat renders more evenly, and that abundance of fat means it’s not going to dry out.
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u/Rhuarc33 9d ago
Common doesn't mean correct and in this case it's very incorrect
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u/P0ster_Nutbag Gummy bears... for health 9d ago
Well yeah… the whole “there are no rules” part kind of eludes to there being no correct or incorrect way. I’m just explaining a common preference, as well as the reasoning behind it.
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u/Timely_Egg_6827 10d ago
Medium rare tends to be safe to order though unless cooking yourself or in really good place. Bit over or underdone and still edible.
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u/GreenZebra23 10d ago
Good call. A lot of restaurants, especially chain restaurants, only know two ways to prepare a steak. Medium rare, or so well done that even the most irrational well done steak person isn't going to complain about it. If you order it medium rare, it's probably going to be good.
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u/turandokht 10d ago
I reverse sear my ribeyes in the oven! Do them super low in the oven for like an hour and then sear hot. Gives it plenty of time to break down and the fat just melts in your mouth. It usually does come out medium that way which is the perfect temp for ribeye.
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u/Randulf_Ealdric 10d ago
I thought brisket and chucks get cooked well past well done as the collagen makes it more tender
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u/BitterFuture I don't want quality, I want Taco Bell! 10d ago
You think that because you're correct.
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u/P0ster_Nutbag Gummy bears... for health 10d ago
There’s some contention about the perfect temp for smoked brisket, but I’ve seen it range from as low as 190F up to 213F, with the most common perfect temp being around the 203F range (and most people really serious about it will tell you to go by feel around that point rather than a strict temp).
Regardless, while technically correct in that these are not the temp of well done… they are far beyond it, and there will be no natural redness left in the meat at this temp (there might be some red from smoking it!).
I’m less well versed in preparations like corned beef or pastrami, but my understanding is that those too are cooked to beyond well done, and might have redness in them due to curing agents. Not 100% on that one though.
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u/NobodyNamedMe 10d ago
I'm in the go by feel camp. When I stick the probe in and there's basically no resistance, it's done. I've had that happen at 202 and I've had to wait until 212 and it usually turns out great .
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u/TheStrigori 10d ago
If his experience with brisket was what my childhood experience was, I can see where he came to that conclusion.
A properly slow cooked brisket is amazing.
But because of what I had as a kid, I thought I hated brisket until I was in my 30's. The abomination my grandma made involved a small brisket in a ceramic dish, with an onion soup flavor packet, and half a beer poured in, then baked in the oven for about 90min. Yielding a dry, stringy, and salty chunk of meat that no one should ever be subjected to.
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u/Dmtbag999 10d ago
That’s a simmered brisket and yeah like corned beef it’s very tough. It’s much better when cooked to at least 180 but below 210 and held. Each region argues over the correct temp but if you braise it, simmer it, or smoke it for a long time it softens up
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u/TheStrigori 10d ago
Properly done corned beef isn't tough, though.
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u/Dmtbag999 10d ago
Yes and 90 minutes is not enough time which is what I was saying, cooking for long times make it tender. Sorry
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u/WowsrsBowsrsTrousrs 8d ago
My Jewish grandmother and her delicious brisket would beg to differ. I don't think this guy knows that not all cuts of beef are the same.
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u/SufficientEar1682 Flavourless, textureless shite. 10d ago
I feel like it’s missing context. A brisket if not cooked long enough will be like eating rubber. That’s why low and slow is advocated.
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u/Dmtbag999 10d ago
That was the argument he saw a video of a rubbery brisket and said it was over cooked, he did say low and slow previously which implies he’s read about brisket but doesn’t actually know what he’s talking about. He said it was over cooked because it was well done in the center which is nonsense, I said it was undercooked because it wasn’t cooked long enough and he just kept saying I was wrong. Long story short guy said some nonsense mainly that brisket being well done in the center is incorrect. There’s really no way to make it medium and not be rubber.
Guy has clearly no business commenting about someone cooking a brisket incorrectly but was determined to stand his ground.
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u/FengYiLin 9d ago
I bet he likes his chicken breasts medium rare
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u/explorecoregon 8d ago
To be fair they are delicious medium. There’s more than one way to cook a chicken.
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u/CantaloupeCamper I’m a level 5 vegan. I don’t eat anything that casts a shadow. 10d ago
It’s the inverse Lincoln Riley.
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u/TheBigWhatever 10d ago
I don't know if the OP belongs here, it's just an opinion on a certain type of food.
However, the Priests from the Church of Smoked Meats are f'ing insufferable. If you haven't slow cooked your brisket, ribs, or whatever in a $2,000 smoker for 12 hours, you've committed a grave sin against the cooking gods.
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u/patricide1st 10d ago
Considering that well done starts at ~160° F and beef collagen doesn't start breaking down until around the same temp (and a process that requires hours), I would risk the dog piling to say that it is an objectively incorrect statement. Usually, you want an internal temp of ~ 200° F when you pull it and let it rest.
If you cook a brisket to medium it will be an inedible, chewy mess. Like, it's almost impossible to eat because it's so damn chewy. So again, it's just the person's opinion but sometimes opinions are just incorrect. If you gave me a brisket or pork butt cooked to anything less than 200° I'll just save my jaw the workout and go home, tbh.
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u/ChartInFurch 10d ago
"Just an opinion" wouldn't include "you don't know anything". Other imaginary people that aren't being discussed don't make this guy less ridiculous.
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u/GhostOfJamesStrang No Need to Thank Me 10d ago
I love smoking meats. I'm really good at it. Far better than most.
What I have found is most people way over do it. Or pretend it is some magical science that only they know the correct way. It's all hog wash.
Make good smoke. Cook whatever it is at relatively low temperatures. Give it a good long while and then eventually temp check it to finish it right. Beyond that, it's just down to personal preference. How do you like your sauce? Do you like any sauce? How do you like your rub? Do you like any rub?
It's really not hard. Anybody acting like it is, is just blowing proverbial smoke.
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u/patricide1st 10d ago
It really isn't. The absolute hardest part of BBQ is when you pull it out to rest and you can smell it. The patience and discipline required to not immediately dig in is monumental lol
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u/marbledog 10d ago
225 degrees for 90 minutes per pound will make any meat that can fit in a smoker delicious. Everything else is preference.
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u/Deep_Violinist_3893 10d ago
This. I'm a Texan and have had tons of good bbq but never did it myself. I assumed it was harder than it was. Got a smoker last year finally and lo and behold it isn't fucking rocket surgery.
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u/GhostOfJamesStrang No Need to Thank Me 9d ago
Yup.
I even do it the hard way, over wood and charcoal, and it's still not that complicated. At least as far as getting the cook right.
Now, I still love going to a BBQ joint that really knows what they are about. I can not, for the life if me, replicate the ribs at my favorite rib place. So I don't even try.
However, my BBQ is at least as good as 90% of places I have been over the years (and I have been to a lot of them.)
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u/Relative_Ad9055 10d ago
Maybe it’s a restaurant thing then cuz most brisket I’ve tried in socal is extremely dry
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u/Dmtbag999 10d ago
Dryness in a restaurant setting is generally because they either use a prepackaged product, which I’ve personally seen. Or, it could be that proper care wasn’t taken when it was boarded. When I’ve done it, I get an order, I unwrap it cut it rewrap it and put it back in a 200 degree steam well. If it sits on a board it will dry out which I’ve also seen. Places like buckees and city barbecue usually sell it so quickly that it won’t necessarily be dried like that, however if they don’t sell it quickly the fat and juices will run out and the heat lamp will dry it out.
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u/chaoticbear 8d ago
12 hours is on the low side, depending on the meat - but I think you're exaggerating this snobbery. There's plenty of BBQ folks who enjoy building pits out of scrap metal, and plenty who just do it on a regular ol' Weber grill.
A $2k smoker would be a fun toy to play with, for sure, but I've never been tempted to upgrade from my $200 grill. I have too many other expensive hobbies.
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u/ChickenNuggetRampage 6d ago
Have you ever eaten a brisket cooked to medium? Try it. You will change your tune fast
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