More Barbecue

I am enjoying my new tools for barbecue cooking. I had wanted to make beef short ribs (which are the large ribs you get at Texas barbecue places. They're called short ribs not because they are short, but because of the meat primal cut they are taken from.) However, I wasn't able to find any that weren't cut flanken style at any of the local grocery stores. I'll have to establish a relationship with a butcher to be able to get them in the form I want. Instead, I picked up a brisket point.

I trimmed up the fat, and applied a dry brine yesterday as soon as I got it home from the store. Then it just sat in the refrigerator until this morning. That's when I started up the grill, and applied the rub. The rub was a slightly modified version of Big Bad Beef Rub (mostly because I ran out of mustard powder). Once the grill was well on its way to smoking temperature, I got it on the smoke. That was at about 8:30 in the morning.

Throughout the day I watched the temperature of the smoker fluctuate, and I did my best to keep it around 225°, while I also watched the meat temp climb until it hit the stall. Then the meat stayed at about 157° for a few hours. I did see it come out of the stall, but I had to refuel the grill, and at that point the meat started regressing. From that point, I kicked the smoker temperature up to between 250° and 275°. It still took several more hours. I had thought that cooking just a point would reduce the amount of time needed to reach 203° internal. It did not. I have learned my lesson. Brisket point takes as long as a whole brisket because it is the same thickness. It was a good learning experience for me, but it made that part of dinner much later than I thought it would be this morning.

In the end, it came out nicely tender, and with a heavy bark. I didn't wrap it with anything, and that would have kept a few bits from getting too dry, and sped up the cook. But I'm not displeased. My wife liked it. So, I'll get to do it again. I consider that a win.