Another First Brisket Smoke Thread!

[wmarkw]

Hey everyone. I decided to try out my first Brisket tomorrow. I picked up a flat at Costco for a decent price. Itâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]s a little over 5#s and I think itâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]s a good piece of meat so far. It looks thin, but hopefully it will slow cook ok and not too quick. Anyways Iâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]m excited and I hope it will work out. I know most here prefer the whole packer and I actually saw some at my local Wal-Mart Supercenter today and damn theyâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]re big and not sure I could fit one on my electric ECB. But I think I will give this flat a go for my first try and see how it turns out. I have been reading a lot lately on how to cook this bad boy so Iâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]m going to ramble my procedure here so I can easily update my smokerâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]s diary. Please chime in and let me know if Iâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]m off kilter. I have questions in the (bold font) that I could use some opinions on. Thanks again.

Mark

• Rub Brisket in my usual Rub (Brown Sugar, Paprika, Black Pepper, White Pepper, Salt, Chili Powder, Garlic Powder, Onion Powder, Cayenne Pepper, dash of cumin, cinnamon, and Tony Câ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]s canjun fun)
• Wrap in saran wrap over night. (see pics!)
• Will start smoker at 7am and warm up for 30 minutes.
• Using chunks of Hickory & Oak (Is this ok??)
• Smoking fat cap down due to vertical smoker.
• Will use a tin foil pan to catch the drippings to save and make sauce.
• Smoke for 2 hours undisturbed and then spray with apple juice and whiskey every hour (does this sound ok??)
• Use maverick probe to set temp at 170* and then will foil with some of my spritz.
• Throw Brisket either back on smoker or to the oven to take temp to 195*-200* (If I use the oven, what temp would you recommend? 225 to 250?)
• Slice or pull the brisket. Havenâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]t decided.

Iâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]m off to a party but will refresh this thread tomorrow morning. Thanks and hope you all are having a good weekend smoke!

Brisket Rub:






The wonderful wife who helped me wrap the brisket. I have no patience for saran wrap!

 

[brennan]

Ahh home sweet home. I miss Denver.

Thats all I really have to say about that...I've never smoked a brisket...yet.

I share your plasti crap woes too friend.

 

[bbq bubba]

Son of a gun, people do take our advice!!!

You have a great plan,rub sounds interesting,wood mix sounds great, I do fat up, spritz with apple/jack mix

foil at 170 or sooner if it stalls, finish at 225 and slice at 200+
Keep up with the updates, i'm impressed!

 

[wmarkw]

Hey eveyone. I'm about 4.5 hours into my smoke and my temp is right at 159* Is this normal? I haven't hit the plateau yet but I thought the temp was going up pretty quick. I have my probe inserted correctly and it's not near any fat, etc. Here are some pics about 2 hours in. I also did my first fatty rolled in my rub. Really good. Will be doing one of these every smoke now.

mark

 

[bbq bubba]

Looks O.K. Mark, pretty thin brisket, will cook faster, looks a little lite on the smoke maybe, i've done briskets that didn't stall so keep an eye on it and good luck!

 

[cheech]

Looks great keep it up.

 

[photohap]

that looks great mark.. Can't wait to see the finished results..

 

[smokin for life]

Dang that looks good, just keep your eye on the temp. It's all about the temp. Bro. Good luck.

 

[wmarkw]

A rain storm came through here and I had to quickly unplug the ECB and move everything inside. My maverick probe said I was around 165* and I have been at that temp for a while now so this could be the plateau. I was planning on finishing the brisket off in the oven once I got to 170* (wrap, etc.) but I put it in a little earlier.

I had to readjust my probe to fit around the tin foil and the new reading listed right at 170* So that was a relief. However once I got the brisket wrapped and in the oven I lost alomst 9* in temp and still dropping?? I'm over the 8 hour mark currently and was hoping to eat this tonight for dinner. This has been fun but frustrating at the same time.

 

[pigcicles]

That's the great thing about brisket. You just never know what's gonna happen. Have patience and it will reward you and your family with some wunnerful stuff. Hang in there, it's coming!

Be sure to thank your beautiful bride for the help with that plastic wrap... do the dishes!

Keep Smokin

 

[chris_harper]

i hate saran (plastic) wrap. but we have to use it. briskets are fun to smoke. you never know what to expect. the one i smoked yesterday, my wife kept asking, "how much longer?". i kept telling her, "i dunno". it's done when it's done.

 

[pigcicles]

My wife hates when I say that - just about to get her broke from asking.

 

[wmarkw]

Here are the end results. Total cook time was around 11 hours. Overall I'll score myself a solid B. The bark wasn't a good as I wanted and not sure if that is because of the electric smoker or not. But I know when you wrap in foil the bark goes soft but it really wasn't present when I wrapped. We were able to eat this last night as the temp slowly rose to *195 and I took the brisket out of the oven and let it rest for an hour. The meat was juicy and delicious and there were smoke rings present although it may be hard to see in the photos. But the wife loved it so that was good enough for me. I'm looking fwd to my next one but I have plenty of leftovers for sammies this week. Thanks for you help and posts. Mark

 

[jts70]

Sounds like you did a fine job! Glad it worked out for you.

 

[smokin for life]

Sure looks good Mark, and there's so much there. I'm sure ya'll didn't eat all of it, and I'm really hungry mmmmmmmm. All joking aside really nice job.

 

[crownovercoke]

Congrats on the brisket!! The more you experiance the more you will learn!!! Keep on smokin!

 

[squeezy]

Great first effort sir! ... and they will be even better with experience!

When momma is happy ... everyone is happy!

Nice pix too!

 

[naplesroo]

Congrats Mark on your first brisket. I just had my first successful brisket myself because I researched this site and followed the excellent advice from these experienced smokers. I purchased mine also from Costco and it was almost a 5lb brisket. Turned out awesome. Had a great meal, a couple of days of sammies and then took the left overs to the beach for the 4th and fireworks. Oh, life and smokin is a beautiful thing.

Keep up the good work.

Mark from Florida

 

[Dutch]

Way to go Mark! Good results for your first time. Don't fret about the temps dropping. Every brisket that I have smoked has always dropped in temp when it came out of the plateau.

 

[devolutionist]

Thanks for the details - I'm doing my first brisket this weekend and am doing my homework now... currently debating whether or not I should do an overnighter like Jeff Phillips has in his "Brisket How-To" off the main SMF page. I don't sleep a whole lot in the first place

so that shouldn't be so bad. I'll be picking up my cut tomorrow and will either start it Friday night or maybe early AM on Saturday.

Thanks again for the road map and the pics!