Brisketexan
1,000+ Posts
(Edit -- just added a couple of pics. Not overly fascinating, but they're what my wife sent me).
Our church had a big event on Saturday -- we had over 100 members gather at the church and then go out into the community to perform a total of 500 hours (actually, a bit more) of service. They then returned to the church, where our newly-formed ministry team, "The Holy Smokers" (yeah, that one is ALL mine -- I take credit/blame as deserved), had prepared lunch for what we were thinking would be 140 or so. This whole project was a big deal, as it was my wife's baby -- she just took on the job of director of lay ministry a couple of months ago, and this was her first big effort to get people involved.
What happened, and some things we learned:
We had a borrowed smoker on a trailer, courtesy of a church member who is an owner/partner of one. Figuring 140 people, with one brisket per 20 people, we had 7 briskets. On Thursday evening, a couple of us went up to the church, rubbed the briskets (simple rub -- season salt, black pepper, brown sugar, a bit of garlic powder and chili powder), and put them in the fridge. We then went down to the smoker, familiarized ourselves with it, and got the fire fixins ready to light.
Friday around 4:00 in the afternoon, a team member showed up and lit the fire. I got there around 5:00, and he was wheeling the briskets down. We put them on around 5:00. It took us a good 45 minutes of jacking with the damper to fully figure out the temperature control. Also, we had realized the night before that the smoker would only hold 5 briskets -- problem, as we had 7. Solution -- I brought 2 racks from home, and 6 bricks. We built 2 makeshift elevated racks in the smoker. The 7 briskets fit just fine. They started cooking for real around 5:45. I hung out till around 7:00, when a relief crew showed up. We rotated the briskets, to avoid any one of them being stuck in a hot spot.
I went home for a while to rest and see the family, then came back up at 10:45. The crew had just shut the damper and the intake vents. "What happened?" "Grease fire." I looked the smoker over, and realized that, upon unhooking it, the front end of the trailer had been cranked high so that the grease flowed back TO the fire box instead of towards the drain hole. A few cranks of the trailer jack, and a pan underneath the hole, and we were back in bidness.
By this time, the briskets were starting to get a nice color to them. We rotated them again, just to be safe, but things looked to be cooking pretty evenly. We had a pretty easy time maintaining the temp at around 220-230, with a few minor fluctuations. We were using good aged oak (with the bark on, for what that's worth). A couple of us were the late crew. We hung out from 10:45 till around 2:15, when I liked the color, feel, and smell of the briskets -- they had been on the smoker cooking in earnest around 8.5 hours. While we were there, we had a couple of cold beverages, and a lot of good talking about life, family, and Monty Python bits. At that time, we wrapped the briskets in foil, put them in pans, and put them in the ovens inside the church by around 3:00 (then we went home and slept for a few hours). A church member who was going to be there around 7:00 turned the ovens off.
Then, at 11:30 that morning, we turned the ovens back on to about 300 to warm them through. We pulled them out at 12:15, opened the foil, and let them rest. (see pic below)
The natives were restless, and hungry. By 12:40, I was carving (the briskets were still pretty tender, as they hadn't rested quite enough for my taste). (see pic below -- the little dude munching on a slice is my son, who probably mooched a half dozen slices before we even got any of it downstairs).
bums/y268/orngbld/PICT0083.jpg">
By 12:55, we were serving. Brisket, beans, potato salad, with pickles, onions, bread, iced tea, and 2 kinds of cake (all the other items were prepared by another church member who is a caterer in her spare time). We did have some sauce -- I picked up some "Austin's Own" sauce at Costco. For what it's worth, I was pretty impressed by the sauce, which was only $2 for a 40 oz bottle. But the brisket didn't need it.
After carving 5 briskets (and they were carting down pans of sliced meat as fast as we could fill them), we were told that we probably had enough. So, we wiped off our hands and went downstairs to eat (not that we all hadn't eaten about a half pound each of "scraps" from the carving process) -- to the applause of the well-fed masses. It was nice to get the acknowledgement, but it was really nice to contribute to a really great day for our church. We had numerous people telling us that they don't eat beef, or they don't eat brisket, and this was without question the best, and most tender, that they'd ever had. I watched one of our older male members go back for seconds, thirds, and then, concerning me about his cardiac health, fourths.
Now, some of the folks had already gone home before we served, and some folks with little kids just couldn't wait till 1:00 for lunch (indeed, my two kids hung out in the kitchen, mooching slices of brisket from me as soon as I started cutting -- proving that they were indeed my children). So, we ended up serving a total of 85 people with 5 briskets -- 17 people per brisket, with a little bit left over. We had overestimated the number staying for lunch, so we had 2 whole briskets left. I trimmed them, cut them into hunks, wrapped them in foil, and we put them in the big fridge with some to-go containers of beans and potato salad. A beloved member of our church had died on Thursday, and we marked the packages to go to his family and to his parents.
We cleaned up, and all talked about what a great time we had doing this project. Some of the guys who had never done anything like this before were actively planning for "next time." The food and the fellowship were both top-notch. And it's nice to do this sort of thing for your friends -- it's even more gratifying to do it for your friends and neighbors in your community of faith, as part of a greater overall picture and project.
I will try to get some pictures up soon.
Our church had a big event on Saturday -- we had over 100 members gather at the church and then go out into the community to perform a total of 500 hours (actually, a bit more) of service. They then returned to the church, where our newly-formed ministry team, "The Holy Smokers" (yeah, that one is ALL mine -- I take credit/blame as deserved), had prepared lunch for what we were thinking would be 140 or so. This whole project was a big deal, as it was my wife's baby -- she just took on the job of director of lay ministry a couple of months ago, and this was her first big effort to get people involved.
What happened, and some things we learned:
We had a borrowed smoker on a trailer, courtesy of a church member who is an owner/partner of one. Figuring 140 people, with one brisket per 20 people, we had 7 briskets. On Thursday evening, a couple of us went up to the church, rubbed the briskets (simple rub -- season salt, black pepper, brown sugar, a bit of garlic powder and chili powder), and put them in the fridge. We then went down to the smoker, familiarized ourselves with it, and got the fire fixins ready to light.
Friday around 4:00 in the afternoon, a team member showed up and lit the fire. I got there around 5:00, and he was wheeling the briskets down. We put them on around 5:00. It took us a good 45 minutes of jacking with the damper to fully figure out the temperature control. Also, we had realized the night before that the smoker would only hold 5 briskets -- problem, as we had 7. Solution -- I brought 2 racks from home, and 6 bricks. We built 2 makeshift elevated racks in the smoker. The 7 briskets fit just fine. They started cooking for real around 5:45. I hung out till around 7:00, when a relief crew showed up. We rotated the briskets, to avoid any one of them being stuck in a hot spot.
I went home for a while to rest and see the family, then came back up at 10:45. The crew had just shut the damper and the intake vents. "What happened?" "Grease fire." I looked the smoker over, and realized that, upon unhooking it, the front end of the trailer had been cranked high so that the grease flowed back TO the fire box instead of towards the drain hole. A few cranks of the trailer jack, and a pan underneath the hole, and we were back in bidness.
By this time, the briskets were starting to get a nice color to them. We rotated them again, just to be safe, but things looked to be cooking pretty evenly. We had a pretty easy time maintaining the temp at around 220-230, with a few minor fluctuations. We were using good aged oak (with the bark on, for what that's worth). A couple of us were the late crew. We hung out from 10:45 till around 2:15, when I liked the color, feel, and smell of the briskets -- they had been on the smoker cooking in earnest around 8.5 hours. While we were there, we had a couple of cold beverages, and a lot of good talking about life, family, and Monty Python bits. At that time, we wrapped the briskets in foil, put them in pans, and put them in the ovens inside the church by around 3:00 (then we went home and slept for a few hours). A church member who was going to be there around 7:00 turned the ovens off.
Then, at 11:30 that morning, we turned the ovens back on to about 300 to warm them through. We pulled them out at 12:15, opened the foil, and let them rest. (see pic below)
The natives were restless, and hungry. By 12:40, I was carving (the briskets were still pretty tender, as they hadn't rested quite enough for my taste). (see pic below -- the little dude munching on a slice is my son, who probably mooched a half dozen slices before we even got any of it downstairs).
bums/y268/orngbld/PICT0083.jpg">
By 12:55, we were serving. Brisket, beans, potato salad, with pickles, onions, bread, iced tea, and 2 kinds of cake (all the other items were prepared by another church member who is a caterer in her spare time). We did have some sauce -- I picked up some "Austin's Own" sauce at Costco. For what it's worth, I was pretty impressed by the sauce, which was only $2 for a 40 oz bottle. But the brisket didn't need it.
After carving 5 briskets (and they were carting down pans of sliced meat as fast as we could fill them), we were told that we probably had enough. So, we wiped off our hands and went downstairs to eat (not that we all hadn't eaten about a half pound each of "scraps" from the carving process) -- to the applause of the well-fed masses. It was nice to get the acknowledgement, but it was really nice to contribute to a really great day for our church. We had numerous people telling us that they don't eat beef, or they don't eat brisket, and this was without question the best, and most tender, that they'd ever had. I watched one of our older male members go back for seconds, thirds, and then, concerning me about his cardiac health, fourths.
Now, some of the folks had already gone home before we served, and some folks with little kids just couldn't wait till 1:00 for lunch (indeed, my two kids hung out in the kitchen, mooching slices of brisket from me as soon as I started cutting -- proving that they were indeed my children). So, we ended up serving a total of 85 people with 5 briskets -- 17 people per brisket, with a little bit left over. We had overestimated the number staying for lunch, so we had 2 whole briskets left. I trimmed them, cut them into hunks, wrapped them in foil, and we put them in the big fridge with some to-go containers of beans and potato salad. A beloved member of our church had died on Thursday, and we marked the packages to go to his family and to his parents.
We cleaned up, and all talked about what a great time we had doing this project. Some of the guys who had never done anything like this before were actively planning for "next time." The food and the fellowship were both top-notch. And it's nice to do this sort of thing for your friends -- it's even more gratifying to do it for your friends and neighbors in your community of faith, as part of a greater overall picture and project.
I will try to get some pictures up soon.
