Smoking two briskets vs. one

[RichUT]

I recently pulled off my first brisket, and I'm already looking forward to the next outing. Based on the number of people that might be in, I'll need two briskets to make sure I feed everyone and still have a reasonable amount left over for my greedy ***.

So, I'm just wondering what adding a second brisket to the pit does to the cook time, if anything. Ultimately, I'll be working on getting the internal temp to 190, but would like to have an idea of how much extra time the 2nd one adds so I can plan properly.

Any advice is appreciated.

 

[BigWill]

Declarations: 1) yankee 2) never smoked anything
3) haven't eaten enough brisket to make me an expert


Seems to me that having two on the pit would, if anything, help to keep the temps steadier

 

[NCAAFBALLROX]

The accepted "time per pound" is due to the density of your beef & has little to do with the total quantity.

I run two briskets often without any major variations in overall time.

 

[hornian]

The only difference I make is that I rotate the briskets halfway through the smoke time so that one is not cooking faster being closer to the firebox.

 

[3_yard-out]

Yeah, just rotate them so you aren't cooking one hotter the whole time. It's also a good time to try a different rub, foil method, or something like that on each brisket, because you have a lot of things being controlled and can taste them together.

 

[Luke Duke]

What everyone else said. My cook time is the same with one brisket as it is with 10.

 

[NCAAFBALLROX]

Yeah, if I'm doing two @ one time, I'll usually take the smaller of the two & make it a bit spicier in the rub... maybe a bit less brown sugar in there as well. This spicier brisket would go on the bottom (Bandera user here, so it's vertical). If I am gonna rotate, I want the spiciness to NOT fall off in the early stages & land on the "non spicy" brisket.

 

[Brisketexan]

What Hornian said.

Only in a man's voice.

 

[TheFied]

Does the extra volume of meat impact the temperature in your smoker? Ie, do you need to run your firebox hotter to still get the desired temperature in the smoker?

 

[UTEE]

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[NCAAFBALLROX]

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[dahorns]

2 briskets and me... that's the only threesome I'm ever going to have at my home ... done it plenty of times when having family and friends over to swim, drink and eat

 

[hornian]

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[Sooner-Tuf]

If one end of your smoker is significantly hotter than the other you should consider a heat deflector plate. My new smoker has one built in that is adjustable and I can keep a 24" x 48" cooking chamber within 10 degrees or so end to end. It looks like it would be simple to add one to just about any horizontal smoker.

Mine looks like this but I had it made out of 24" .287 wall pipe.The Link
These guys will sell you just the deflector plate for something like 30 dollars.

 

[flaco]

2Briskets1Pit