Packer Brisket

Ignore the giant spikes sticking out. I was bad about taking photos on this one and one just had my Meater probes in it

A few beers, Eagles fans, and a false sense of confidence during week 18 of the NFL led to a 2 day smoke

Got invited to a new space to watch the game with friends, started talking about meats, had a few beers between (aka 10), and of course beer Jack said “Oh yea can’t wait to watch game one of the playoffs here…of COURSE I can make a brisket it’s simple and definitely usually not a 2-3 day process. Still though I really did love doing it as brisket cooks are one of my favorites and actually the first smoke that broke in my Traeger.

As usual my car found it’s way to Arnie’s butcher in Cherry Hill. I’ve done 4 briskets in the last 2 years and al 4 came from here. This one was around 14lbs when I bought it. Friday evening I trimmed it all up and honestly it’s what I have to work on the most. The first one I did I was SUPER proud of, second almost more so. The last two I put on still came out really good but I notice sometimes I don’t trim enough fat off and struggle with smoke penetration in the meat.

For this one my ass found it’s way back to YouTube because when I smoke meat (even if I’ve done it before) I can always learn more and it’s just fun watching people who actually know what they are doing smoke. For this one (and my last 3 because he rocks) I turned over to Matt from Meat Church since I really do love his videos. They are super approachable for new people while also still going over things that people who have been smoking for a while can learn.

Let’s get down to how I spent 3 days prepping and smoking:
Little note, I was pretty bad about taking actual pictures of this one and mostly used Snapchat since I’m a dumb millennial
-I started by trimming this hunk of meat down (albeit I need to do better) and removed the hard fat, trimmed some of the extraneous fat and scored the fat side
-I used mayo as a binder in this one and rubbed my meat
-The rub was a mixture of Meat Church Holy Cow and Holy Gospel (yea I know I have a type) with a small amount of the Traeger Cherry Rub
-Meat went into the fridge Friday evening around 6pm to sit overnight
-Saturday around 10p I loaded the hopper in my Traeger with the Traeger Reserve pellets to start and set it to 180
-My hopper usually lasts around 8-10 hours (last time I forgot and overnight the pellets ran out) so I planned on it running out around 7ish so I could swap my pellets out
-I tried something different and went meat side down on this smoke
-Checked on it around 1am before I went to bed, hit it with the apple cider vinegar and whiskey spritz I had and said goodnight
-Woke up around 430a (which also woke my wife up) to check the meat, hopper, and give it a spritz, and increase the temp to 225
-Pellets did last till approx. 7am and I put in the Traeger Apple Pellets to finish the smoke
-I threw in my Meater wireless probes at this point and got the brisket to 170 internal at around 830a
-I like butcher paper so I got ready to wrap
-I laid out two strips of peach paper and sprayed it down with the acv mix I had and also had some tallow from my last brisket I used in place of butter and wrapped it like a newborn baby
-Meat stayed in paper for about 3.5/4ish hours (I forget times I usually check pictures but I’m a moron and didn’t take much) until it hit 205 internal
-I let her rest in a cooler until halftime which was around 430/5ish
-Once I took the paper off steam still came out and the temp was great. I was a little worried about the longer rest but it works
-Cutting it I started on the flat side and cut about pencil width slices until I got to the part where I saw the two muscles for the point and flat
-Turned my meat, admired it, and kept cutting noticing that it was really tender but I didn’t develop a great smoke ring and had a larger run of fat on the meat which shows I am absolutely average and didn’t trim enough
-Laid everything out and let the Birds fans have at it

All in all I loved how the bark developed, how tender the meat was, and the way the rub came through was unreal. As I said I would have really liked to have more smoke come through but I don’t know what the fu*k I’m doing and just need to work on trimming a bit better. My friends said it was really good (which I guess is true since I went out for a 5 minute work call and it was almost gone) but I’m my biggest critic and know that I have made better I gave it a 7.5/10. I wouldn’t change much about things except for the trimming and the fact I wish I could blink and have it done but I guess good BBQ takes time and I really do enjoy having something to focus on for a few days that I get to eat. People say they aren’t ready for a brisket who just start smoking but honestly fu*k it just snag one and get it on the smoker. If I can do it you for SURE can.