First Beef Brisket

Well.........after doing quite a few pork shoulders (pork butts) and working on getting my ribs to a point that I'm happy with I've now tackled my first beef brisket!

So far it has been in the "Q" for about 5 hours and looking fine if I do say so. The process to this point is pretty much the same as the pork shoulder. The only exceptions are the rub and injected seasoning. By seasoning I mean only really salt water and a little bit of ground lemon grass powder. The lemon grass powder is totally new to us. We went to the Oriental Supermarket here in town and picked up this along with a couple of different types of chilies and a medium plastic container of Mexican oregano. The rub is very different than the pork shoulder rub I used.

For me pork and a little sweet go together but beef and sweet don't. Having said that I did want some sort of sweet just not in the sugar kind. So here's what I came up with.
1/4 cup coarse salt
1 table spoon of black pepper corns
1 table spoon of rosemary leaves
1-1/2 table spoon of cayenne pepper
3 allspice balls (pods)
1/4 cup coarse ground Ancho chili
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon of ground sage
1/4 cup Mexican oregano
The allspice & cinnamon were the "sweet" I'm hoping for, once the cooking is done I'll know how it worked.


Now here are few things I've learned about the operating of the southern BBQ.
1- The temperature will fluctuate pretty much no matter what you do. That is the nature of fire.
2- That 4 or 5 hours of smoke is a good amount then heat control is important.
3- Lump charcoal is effective for keeping heat up but not required.
4- keep the lump charcoal from falling through the grate is important and a disposable aluminum roasting pan will totally disintegrate.

So taking some of the expanded metal left over from the BBQ build I fashioned a tray to put the charcoal in. As you can see in the photo I've also included some wood pieces to add a little smoke and provide more fuel. The charcoal heat doesn't seem to carry completely through the cooking chamber. I suppose it would be great for grilling over but since that's not what I'm doing I need to be creative.

There is still a few more hours to cook this brisket properly and I plan on making and addition to this post to let you know how my first brisket turned out.........stay tuned.