I thought I'd write up about it as this rub has some very interesting ingredients (see the photo below or SmokinJ's website) and others might like to know how it stacks up.
Please bear in mind that I've cooked brisket only about 10 times or so in my life, so I'm far from an expert. These are just my observations based on limited experience. Any advice or suggestions are welcome.
This is the brisket I got from the butcher. I ordered it a few days before and he cut it with me there to make sure it was the right cut (this butcher normally cuts it very differently). The weight: 4.2Kg. I presume this means it is from a fairly young beast and it also explains the fact that it wasn't very thick (I've cooked thicker briskets).
I trimmed a fair bit of fat off:
This is the Oakridge Black Ops Brisket rub that I used:
Last Saturday just before midday, I added the rub to the brisket on both sides (please note that I scored some areas lightly to ensure the rub reached the meat):
At this point, I folded the brisket flat in half and wrapped the entire thing in alfoil. I put it back in the fridge for a sunday cookup. I felt this should be ok because on tasting the rub I didn't think the amount of salt was terribly high. BTW, the rub tasted good on its own. Very well balanced between salty, sweet, tangy, spicy.
On Sunday I started cooking at 10am for dinner (getting the BSK clean and ready a bit before). In the past when I've made brisket I went too strong with the smoke. This time I didn't want the brisket to have a strong smoke flavour, I wanted it to be mild. I used banksia cones, a few small branches of apple and mulberry. I placed the Brisket in just after 10am once the smoke and heat had settled down:
The BSK is such a great BBQ! Here's how it ran the entire time. I kept the top vent on three and the bottom vent just under 1. The temp was steady at 250f for the duration of the cook:
The BSK has a knack for keeping the juices in meats. So I left the meat unwrapped for quite a few hours. At around 4pm (almost 6 hours in) I wrapped the brisket in foil, in the process adding a small amount of Oakridge rub on the top and about 50ml of water in the foil:
At 6pm I closed both BSK vents.
I took this baby out at about 7.30pm and let it sit on my bench (still wrapped) for a good half hour.
Here it is unwrapped:
I'm afraid this is the last shot, because the wolves took to it after this:
The verdict from the wolves was that it was very yummy.
From my perspective, I think this is the best brisket I've done. It retained juicyness and moisture. The flavour of the rub was excellent. Spicy, but not too spicy and some great flavours. The smoke level was also exactly what I wanted (I couldn't taste smoke, just it's effect).
Although I was able to slice it, I found it easy to pull bits off the edges a bit like pulled pork. I'm not sure if this means it was too soft?
The Black Ops brisket rub get the thumbs up from me. I used about one third of the packet, so it might be brisket time again in a couple of weeks
