I Changed My Smoker Setup And The Brisket Results Are Insane
Wood Cage Brisket on the Pitts & Spitts Maverick 2000
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Introduction
Can a Wood Cage Make a Pellet Grill Brisket Rival My Offset?
What’s up BBQ fans! Today on the patio, I’m answering a question once and for all: can the wood cage on my Pitts & Spitts Maverick 2000, burning real wood in a pellet grill, give my offset a run for its money? This is my first brisket on it, and the wood cage is one of the reasons I bought it.
For six years I’ve cooked plenty of briskets on my Yoder, and honestly, my pellet grill brisket is pretty darn good. I even ran two smoke tubes back to back for about 8 or 9 extra hours of smoke. Let me walk you through how this one went.
The Prep
The brisket came from North 36 Farms (use code: RUMANDCOOK100 for 2 lbs of free ground beef on a $100 order, or RUMANDCOOK200 for the ground beef plus a two-pack of NY strips on $200). Add the ground beef to your cart and the code takes it off at checkout. They’re a small family farm, mostly grass-fed and grain-finished black Angus, and they don’t list a full brisket, so I emailed and they got me one.
Froze the brisket for 20 to 30 minutes so it trimmed cleanly
Trimmed it myself, with my brisket slicer keeping it flat
Rendered the trimmed fat with about a half cup of water for tallow, and ground the trim to save for burger blends
Seasoned with salt [CHECK: the transcript says “seasonal,” so please confirm which salt] and lots of fresh cracked pepper from my Pepper Cannon (use code: RUMANDCOOK to save 10%)
The Setup
With the wood cage, I’ve learned that if I don’t set the fire up for success, it goes out. Here’s what works:
One straw starter on the bottom under a fairly big chunk of Bear Mountain oak, with two more chunks on top
Let it burn about 3 minutes, then turn the grill on so the fans kick in and stoke the wood
When I stacked everything tight the starter went out, so I moved it forward and relit it
Waited for smoke in the firebox, put it back together, and added one extra oak chunk to preheat, just like an offset
Pro tip: the smaller diffuser plate lets you shift your temperature side to side. Moving it about an inch and a half changes the temp on the opposite side, and with the firebox in the first third I got things about even. Yours may be different.
I put the Typhur Sync Gold Dual (use code: RUMANDCOOK to save 10%) in the brisket, picked beef roast brisket, and set it to 195°F. I’ve got 50 or 60 cooks on it and haven’t had a single drop.
The Cook
The brisket went on the second shelf, a little off-center so the water from the trimmings wouldn’t steam it from below, and I moved it up a rack once it came up to temperature. I ran smoke mode, which runs 15 to 25°F cooler than your setpoint, and stepped the temperature like this:
225°F for the first 4 hours
Up to 250°F, then up 25°F every 2 hours until 275°F
Oak chunks every 45 to 60 minutes for the first 6 hours or so
Rotated the brisket 180° about 4½ hours in, since the side by the wood chute runs hotter
The Wrap and Rest
At about 10 hours it hit 195.6°F, so I wrapped it in foil with Wagyu tallow. I didn’t use smoked tallow this time. If I told you how well the cage works and then wrapped with smoked tallow, you’d call me out in the comments, so I used Wagyu tallow instead. Even my foil was the wrong size, so I re-wrapped it.
Then it went in my oven for an overnight rest. You can hold a brisket a day or two as long as it stays above 140°F. Here’s where I messed up: my oven has a dial, and it was closer to 180°F than 160°F when I put the brisket in. Sixteen hours later it read 157°F.
The Results
It cut nicely and looked juicy, with a pretty good smoke ring all the way around. I have two misses, and both are on me. I waited too long to get up to 275°F, so I only got about 3 hours there instead of the 4 or 5 I wanted, and a pocket of fat didn’t render out. The hot oven also pushed it a little overdone. Not the brisket’s fault, not the smoker’s fault. It’s the pitmaster’s fault.
The flavor, though? Very smoky, and the smoke went deep. Does it beat my offset? No. Does it come pretty darn close? Yeah, especially on the flat. Even Ollie approved.
Final Thoughts
I put wood in the cage for about six hours and it absolutely added value. For smoke flavor, I think it beats two pellet tubes. You get that natural wood taste, and tubes burn so fast they’re a pain. Next time I’ll get to 275°F sooner, watch my oven temp, and add a little tallow on top of the brisket too. I’m excited to try more long smokes on it, and like my Yoder, I expect it’ll get even better once I get it dialed in.
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Thanks For Watching
Whether you’re a seasoned pitmaster or a novice, these tips will enhance your cooking skills and leave your family and friends raving about your delicious, smoky creations. Don’t forget to subscribe to my YouTube channel for more step-by-step videos, and let’s together become the barbecue heroes we were meant to be!
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