u/_fabiotis_

Felt wrong finishing the lucky bottle without documenting it somewhere. This has been been my “working late, take a few sips while I work” tequila.

I was pretty crazy about this bottle when I first opened it, but the further I got through it the less enthusiastic I became.

Still good tequila, and I appreciate the production and 50% ABV, but I’ve realized there’s something in the Don Fulano house style I can’t quite identify that eventually becomes a little too much for me.

The same thing happened with the reposado. I loved it at first, but over time something changed.

With all the blancos I’ve been drinking lately, I’ve found myself preferring some of the more mineral, vegetal/agave-forward and rustic expressions.

Cheers, bottle 6660, a proper send off for you, and likely farewell for future Don Fulano products at work or at home. 🥃

Anyone else really enjoy Don Fulano initially but cool on it over the course of a bottle?

Pretty much ran out of room on this 22” kettle.

The family loves these wings and they taste great without sauce.
Thawed, patted dry, avocado oil coated then well-seasoned with a mixture of salt, garlic, onion, pepper, smoked paprika, sugar and corn starch.
Overnight is best, but today I only had about four hours until grilling time and that works too.

Grilled skin side up for 20 minutes at ~425° then flipped until 185° internal.

Why “bacon”?

Because some applewood was thrown on just before the wings and that gives these a coating of smoke that complements the seasoning very well!

Served with blue cheese dressing and Frank’s Red Hot + butter in the side for those who want a little more heat.

As the title hinted, here’s my very first brisket. I’ve done plenty of pork butts on the WSM but never tackled brisket until now. Figured I’d document the whole process.

Setup:
7lb choice grade brisket from Costco. Trimmed, patted dry, yellow mustard binder, simple 50/50 kosher salt and coarse black pepper rub. Let it rest about 45 minutes before going on.

Fuel and smoke:
Kirkland briquettes as fuel using the Minion method. FOGO post oak chunks as primary smoke wood with apple chunks as accent. First time running my Inkbird fan controller and it held 250°F essentially the entire cook with minimal babysitting. Genuinely impressive piece of kit!

Cook:
On the smoker at 2:04pm. Had a minor wood chunk situation early on where nothing had caught so I pulled two chunks and placed them directly on the hot coals which solved it quickly. Thin blue smoke from there on out.

Stall hit around 165°F and sat there for nearly two hours. Added a foil boat at the 6 hour mark which broke the stall almost immediately. Pulled at 190°F internal at the thickest point at 10:20pm. 8 hours 16 minutes total cook time.

Sous vide hold:
(This is where the haters might do their best work.)
Rest 30 minutes tented, collected every drop of foil boat juice, vacuum sealed with a tablespoon each of homemade prime NY strip tallow and Wagyu tallow from Costco. Into the Anova at 150°F for an overnight hold.

Developed a small bag leak overnight and lost some liquid but captured most of it. I’ll have to double bag next time.

Finishing touches:
Pulled from the water bath and collected what juices I could, took out back and hit it with the torch until the crust developed again. Sliced and served.

Result:
Bark is present but not amazing. Smoke ring is consistent and flavor is good! The post oak did exactly what it was supposed to do. Texture was slightly tougher than ideal which I’ve since diagnosed as a slicing angle or even meat quality issue rather than a cook one.

What I’d do differently:

1. Double bag the vacuum seal.
2. Mark grain direction before the cook so slicing is cleaner.
3. Inject with tallow before the smoke rather than adding it to the bag

Overall I’m quite pleased with this first attempt. The Inkbird and WSM combination made the actual cook surprisingly manageable.

Happy to answer questions on any part of the process.

Found this in my mailbox advertisement today and figured this fine bunch of Redditors might be interested.