BFG First Big Brisket Cook on my new BFG

[rhouser]

Sunday at 3pm finished a 22 hour marathon with my BFG (first serious cook) .

Saturday at 5 pm I loaded 10 full size packers delivered as two cases from restaurant wholesaler. Point being, these were not "hand picked competition" briskets, they were big, ugly, and common select beef listed as 85 pounds net per box.

The 22 hours was my fault with a series of compounded errors brought on by learning a new grill. The bottom line is that the briskets were all good and the recipient was happy. I admit I was scrambling at the finish to get 5 that were "hung up" in the stall to come free and get to temperature.

Lessons learned:
1. Always check the "grill reported" chamber temperature and make the adjustments within the setup programs or else just know the temp so you can set the temps for the offsets needed.

200 is not 200 here. Signals (thermoworks) confirmed at 5 am that it was 176 degrees. I was NOT at the 165 brisket temp for wrapping until 8 am. At 5 am I put my "Signals" in place and bumped the temps to 250 to try for 225 on the signals. That was a 50 degree push on the controller. Totally my fault and I won't fall for it again.

2. Racks, Racks, and Rack placement. The racks in the BFG are pretty darn well thought out. I LOVE the intermediate rack slide position for two rack usage with "bigger stuff" on each rack, BUT for filling 3 racks with brisket and using the bottom, middle, and top rack with brisket, I had problems. I would LOVE an extra 1/2" of height between the bottom racks and the number one slider, then, again between the number one slider and the number 3 slider. The BFG racks as they are, are well designed. My problems began with the "real world" meat I was using and not thinking through consequences. My restaurant supply briskets come with a SIGNIFICANT deckle on them. In an unwise attempt to "maximize" product, I filled the bottom rack with 4 big briskets, then pushed rack two in place over the raw (soft and flexible) deckle only scraping off a little of the run but I got it in place. I did the same thing with the 3rd shelf pushing it over the raw deckle. Can you see what's coming?

The rack slides on the BFG have a bottom and a top guide for each rack to go into. Each rack is trapped on top as well as supported on bottom. When wrapping time began, the top three briskets were a breeze. The problem began when I needed to pull the top rack to get to the next 3 briskets. They were no longer raw, an the cross supports would not pull over the 2nd layer of briskets. These were no longer raw. It became ugly quickly with me trying to lever the meat on rack two with slicing knives and a big spatula to get the top rack off with a minimum amount of damage to the bark on the second rack meat. Of course I got it done but it was ugly.

I then went through the same issues with the second rack trying to access the briskets on the bottom cooking racks.

I foil, so even though I tried to use the normal briskets on the bottom, I still had some ugliness with the final pull. Ripped foil, juice and grease everywhere. ARRGH and it was 23 hours!

This whole episode with the racks could have been avoided it I had thought to use a tape measure and check the actual clearance between the racks (at the support crossbar to the next grate below.) Knowing the measurements, I will trim these "Bulk Brisket" deckles to fit within the racks.

Alternately, I am going to look at placing the grates on top of the sliders for the grates. If the slider "tops" weren't closed, they couldn't be used to slide (a feature) but then the grates could be lifted and removed without being trapped by a deckle....

Again, my fault for not measuring and trimming back the meat to fit on the BFG as designed.

I felt I had plenty of smoke and the meat was cooked evenly with no big issue hot spots noticed. I did finally move the temp to 275 setting to push the laggards out of the stall.

Overall, I am very happy with the BFG. I will address the lessons learned. I sold off two smaller traegers to make room for the BFG. It did what I wanted in that I can easily place 10 large packers in a single cook.

I now am working though my first cleaning.

Separate note; I love the grease management system and the v shaped twin drip trays. It handled the load well, but did require both buckets to be emptied 3/4 of the way through the cook. I loved the shorter run created by the split grease trays and the "high v" shape. I also love the cast iron diffuser. No warping. Lots to love with the BFG,


my report and I stand by it.

v/r r

 

[Jim6820]

Sunday at 3pm finished a 22 hour marathon with my BFG (first serious cook) .

Saturday at 5 pm I loaded 10 full size packers delivered as two cases from restaurant wholesaler. Point being, these were not "hand picked competition" briskets, they were big, ugly, and common select beef listed as 85 pounds net per box.

View attachment 20722


The 22 hours was my fault with a series of compounded errors brought on by learning a new grill. The bottom line is that the briskets were all good and the recipient was happy. I admit I was scrambling at the finish to get 5 that were "hung up" in the stall to come free and get to temperature.

Lessons learned:
1. Always check the "grill reported" chamber temperature and make the adjustments within the setup programs or else just know the temp so you can set the temps for the offsets needed.

View attachment 20723

200 is not 200 here. Signals (thermoworks) confirmed at 5 am that it was 176 degrees. I was NOT at the 165 brisket temp for wrapping until 8 am. At 5 am I put my "Signals" in place and bumped the temps to 250 to try for 225 on the signals. That was a 50 degree push on the controller. Totally my fault and I won't fall for it again.

2. Racks, Racks, and Rack placement. The racks in the BFG are pretty darn well thought out. I LOVE the intermediate rack slide position for two rack usage with "bigger stuff" on each rack, BUT for filling 3 racks with brisket and using the bottom, middle, and top rack with brisket, I had problems. I would LOVE an extra 1/2" of height between the bottom racks and the number one slider, then, again between the number one slider and the number 3 slider. The BFG racks as they are, are well designed. My problems began with the "real world" meat I was using and not thinking through consequences. My restaurant supply briskets come with a SIGNIFICANT deckle on them. In an unwise attempt to "maximize" product, I filled the bottom rack with 4 big briskets, then pushed rack two in place over the raw (soft and flexible) deckle only scraping off a little of the run but I got it in place. I did the same thing with the 3rd shelf pushing it over the raw deckle. Can you see what's coming?

The rack slides on the BFG have a bottom and a top guide for each rack to go into. Each rack is trapped on top as well as supported on bottom. When wrapping time began, the top three briskets were a breeze. The problem began when I needed to pull the top rack to get to the next 3 briskets. They were no longer raw, an the cross supports would not pull over the 2nd layer of briskets. These were no longer raw. It became ugly quickly with me trying to lever the meat on rack two with slicing knives and a big spatula to get the top rack off with a minimum amount of damage to the bark on the second rack meat. Of course I got it done but it was ugly.

I then went through the same issues with the second rack trying to access the briskets on the bottom cooking racks.

I foil, so even though I tried to use the normal briskets on the bottom, I still had some ugliness with the final pull. Ripped foil, juice and grease everywhere. ARRGH and it was 23 hours!

This whole episode with the racks could have been avoided it I had thought to use a tape measure and check the actual clearance between the racks (at the support crossbar to the next grate below.) Knowing the measurements, I will trim these "Bulk Brisket" deckles to fit within the racks.

Alternately, I am going to look at placing the grates on top of the sliders for the grates. If the slider "tops" weren't closed, they couldn't be used to slide (a feature) but then the grates could be lifted and removed without being trapped by a deckle....

Again, my fault for not measuring and trimming back the meat to fit on the BFG as designed.

I felt I had plenty of smoke and the meat was cooked evenly with no big issue hot spots noticed. I did finally move the temp to 275 setting to push the laggards out of the stall.

Overall, I am very happy with the BFG. I will address the lessons learned. I sold off two smaller traegers to make room for the BFG. It did what I wanted in that I can easily place 10 large packers in a single cook.

I now am working though my first cleaning.

Separate note; I love the grease management system and the v shaped twin drip trays. It handled the load well, but did require both buckets to be emptied 3/4 of the way through the cook. I loved the shorter run created by the split grease trays and the "high v" shape. I also love the cast iron diffuser. No warping. Lots to love with the BFG,


my report and I stand by it.

v/r r

That’s a heckuva “first serious cook!” Congrats for pulling it off!

Good thing you had a TW Signals unit available to help spot the temperature issue. That’s all I use now for monitoring grill and protein temp (or, the new Combustion Inc. wireless Predictive Thermometer). I have never found the Recteq probes and/or app to be either accurate or reliable.

I think I would have trimmed some of the deckle before putting the briskets on the grill, but that’s just my style. It might have resolved some of your clearance issues, however.

Smoke on!

 

[rhouser]

Jim6820. Roger that. I will have a marked ruler on the meat boards to insure I stay in height boundaries. I might even template a meat board for length and width max. I saw the RECTEK mother ship brisket video where they put 15 briskets on (5 each on 3 shelves). Those were either smaller briskets or they had been trimmed to fit. Not a crime, just not the world I live in.

I am going to check and see if each slide level of the bfg could be used with the grates on top rather than inside the slides. This would give me the half inch on each and would not Trap the meat because I could lift them up and off. The only thing I would lose is the ability to safely slide the loaded trays in and out. The top rail of each slider is what lets that happen.


When I first starting helping stock the trucks, I was still shaping and trimming to some standard of presentation. Now, since it all goes to sandwiches, if it fits I cook it. Nothing bad goes on (no dead meat, old meat, or inferior practices tolerated in my house), but now if I can fit it, I will cook it. If I would serve to my family, I will use it to support my son's business

 

[SmokeZilla]

Congrats on your cook and your new cooker. You started with a big challenge and it can only get easier from there. You are correct about the temperature differences. I worked with RT’s senior techs when I got my RT700 and they offered that the temp sensor in the grill is not set up to give you a true ambient reading for the chamber. It has some predictive mumbo jumbo (that’s the technical term, lol) that allows it to anticipate changes in the chamber temps and proactively adjust to keep the temps stable. My unit was running about 20 degrees off and when I probed it in 6 spots, they were all over the map but remained stable. It also doesn’t help that the probe is on the side of the chamber not in the middle but at that point, I knew I wouldn’t rely on it exclusively. A trick I use when I have many packers to cook is to remove 80 percent of the deckle and pretent like I am Rocky in a boxing ring and pound the point down about 30%. This helps break the fat and muscle but also allows for a more uniform shape and helps me keep the point and flat temps more under control. YMMV.

 

[rhouser]

SZ, I appreciate the tips on "uniforming" the deckles and points. I am going to look at stacking my grates on top of the grate slide slot instead of in them. I will stop talking about the "on top of" until I go look this morning and see if it will work.

Thanks to all who make this forum great.

I'll be back.
v/r r