Results are in

Yesterday's schedule was just plain hectic. Since Wife and Son were leaving for Miami early this morning, Wife spend all day prepping for her 20th HS reunion, and all night packing. Dinner was pretty much her time off. So I had Son with me most of the day, taking him to tennis, getting my haircut, having lunch, doing some food shopping - all while making the brisket.

I wanted to really give it the time in the grill it needed, but because of the cooler temperature and the constant wind, the kettle was cooling off much faster than I expected. So I did spend quite some time reloading briquettes to keep the temperature up. And as good as the Cook's Illustrated recipe is, if the procedure deviates from the recipe, they don't really tell you how to get back on track. Honestly, I'm still pretty new at all this to be able to throw caution to the wind and play it all by ear.

Nevertheless, 7 hours on the grill gave a great char and a brisket just on the north side of getting dry. It had great taste, but just wasn't as tender as I was hoping. I did take it off heat at around 195 degrees internal temp, but that was at the thickest part, and the thinner areas were the ones that were a little drier. Still, that simple salt/pepper/sugar seasoning crisps so well, and their Texas-style BBQ sauce is such a perfect blend of tomato-sweet and vinegar-tang, that putting the sauce on made for a fantastic combo.

The goat cheese toast points came out really well - just a hunk of softened cheese with chopped parsley, chives, and thyme mixed in. Not much different than what you can find in a store, but fresher.

Asparagus was really good grilled, but I lost 2 or 3 spears through the grates on the gas grill. Will be cleaning that today.

And although I had forgotten about them and was too full anyway, the smoked potatoes were awesome. My mom and I pecked at half of one while we were cleaning up. The skin was really crisp, the the potato inside was just perfectly done. They took over three hours, so I should have put them on earlier in the brisket's timeframe, but then the temp inside the grill may have been too hot and they may have cooked too fast. Since the brisket is so big and needs to stay away from the heat, the potatoes naturally must be placed closer to the coals. Experience will tell, because I'll definitely try them again.

All in all, another really pleasing meal, especially given that I just didn't have the time all day to nurse and watch over the kettle. No pics either, unfortunately. But I'm sure I added a few pounds to the waistline yesterday as a nice memory. That's a picture no one needs to see.