Brisket hell

[Bye Week]

Doesn't look like this worked. Any tips/help would be appreciated. I am a computer idoit.

 

[HKemhorns]

Should be as easy as clicking image, cutting and pasting the address in the pop up box and you're done.

Looks good by the way. Nice smoke ring. I'm betting time was the issue, right? I find that more than an hour per pound is necessary. Rookies are usually impatient. I know I was

 

[Bye Week]

Bingo. I wasn't keeping it on long enough, and my temp was a little high too. Thanks,

BW

 

[Son of a Son]

The trimmed briskets simply require a bit more caution. I have a good friend who competes and does pretty well, and all his competition briskets are the trimmed ones. At home he uses untrimmed, simply because he can be more "careless".

 

[UTEE]

Sure, you can smoke just about anything. My pork tenderloins are amazing, and there's hardly an ounce of fat on that cut. You just have to be much more cautious.

Smoking full brisket packers is extremely forgiving, while smoking highly trimmed brisket involves a lot more care.

 

[envgeo]

agsuks - do you buy hormone/antibiotic free meats? or grass finished meats? Just curious because you stated you didnt want "those" chemicals - refering to the rubs in your body and wanted to know if that extended to various chemicals in meats as well.

 

[pigboy1]

Most everyone is spot on here....I would like to throw in the "clean smoke" aspect of successful smoking. Think about briskets you have had that tasted like tar paper. They might have a perfect smoke ring, a perfect moist, tender interior, yet the bark tastes like burnt rubber that ruins the whole experience? Start your fire with wood and watch the smoke. You will see the smoke start out dark as the wood burns down to coals...never start a brisket until the wood turns to coals! Watch the fire....as wood turns to gray ash coals, the fire will become a very light white, to almost clear state. That right there is a smoking fire! I am a firm believer in starting said fire with loads of wood with a propane wand to get it going ....let it burn to coals....add meat and go. When it is time to refuel, either have a seperate pit going burning coals down to add to the fire box, OR use hardwood charcoal (not briquettes) to fuel up straight into the box....the charcoal will ignite and burn much cleaner than adding wood chunks or even chips. The unburned wood imparts resin into the smoke that makes that bitter, nasty flavor that those, who have no idea what they are doing, wonder why nobody comes back to their BBQ events.

 

[BigLeonard]

Anyone have a great tried and true rub recipe?

 

[horninchicago]

I use salt, pepper, garlic, , chili powder, paprika, and cumin. In that order from most to least. Don't have a recipe as it sort of changes slightly each time based on how I think I want it to smell.

 

[stina]

I too feel the need to point out that there are no chemicals in a rub that is only salt and spices, which is what most of the folks on this thread would use. The only chemicals used regularly in the typical smoking are those found in treated charcoal or in lighter fluids. Salt, pepper, garlic, cumin and cayenne, are not chemicals.

 

[Texas007]

In reply to:

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[BigLeonard]

I went with Zach's and some Woo and it turned out great. Thank me later.

 

[UTEE]

I do salt, pepper, and paprika.