First time brisket smoke advice needed

hey, yount -

quick answer: slather with mustard, apply rub, barbecue at 240-250 with your fvorite smoking wood untl it reaches desired internla temperature, rest, slice, apply finishing sauce if desired, and enjoy!

for a more detailed answer, i'd recommend going to this site:

http://www.eaglequest.com/~bbq/

and hitting this link:

http://www.eaglequest.com/~bbq/faq2-w97.zip

which will allow you to download a safe word document version of the BBQFAQ in word format. you can download it to your desktop and read it at your leisure for a lot of good fundamentals of barbecue, and also some great recipes.

specifically for your question, there is a very nice section on brisket on the beef section; just follow the table of contents.

good luck!

I just did my first one yesterday, so learn from my mistakes. First, make sure it's trimmed properly. I didn't, and inserted my probe into fat. I think on my next smoke, I'm going to seperate the point and flat before it goes in, because by the time mine was done, the flat was a little dry, but the point was nice and moist. Second, make sure you're at your temps and expect it to take awhile. I think my temps were lower then what my grill probe was saying, so all-in-all, it took me 22 hrs to hit 190, and that was finishing in the oven. Third, have fun!

You can check out my post too as there is some great advice and some good links to trimming on the third page.

If you read the sticky that is posted here in the beef section and follow what it says you will have a happy crowd. I just finished my second brisket today using the same method and I couldn't be happier with it. I didn't foil mine this time and the bark was a bit more noticeable. I use a MES. Beer-B-que's rub recipe is the way to go if you ask me.
Have fun and enjoy.
Let us know how it turns out

Here is the link to the sticky that I followed
http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/for...ad.php?t=50979

GAD - a suggestion: the point is full of fat inside, so it is easy to stick your probe into fat. might try probing the flat next time instead, and when the flat is done just right, the point should be, too. the point is bigger and thicker, but will cook "faster" (in relation to its size)because of the fat content, and as a result both the point and the leaner fat should be done at the same time, all things considered.

every piece of meat is different, but this was my experience. the point (forgive the pun) that i am trying to make is that people have been cooking whole briskets for a long time, separating them when they are finished, rather than before starting. give it a try and see how she goes!

I can relate to this. I did my first one last week. I did not trim which I do NOT think was my downfall. Being my first one I tried to keep as many variables out of it as possible so basically I went with the keep it simple approach. I applied rub the night before and let rest in fridge overnight. Took it out in the morning to come to room temp. Started fire in the smoker and made other preperations. Slathered the brisket with a slather recipe I found here and then added more rub.
I did not seperate the point and the flat but I think I will do this next time.
I put it on the smoker at about 240 to 250 with the point closest to the firebox (I have a snp) and the flat towards the exhaust. I did not spritz or mop for the first couple of hours. I did not flip turn or rotate. After 3 hours I would spritz everytime I needed to add wood which was once every hour to hour and a half.
Everything was going fine. Temps were climbing steadily. Remarkably fast at first. Thought I hit the plateau at about 142 but then it climbed to like 151 and sat there.
After 13 hours it never got past 153. I finally pulled it thinking it had to be done. It was. Overdone. The flavor was fantastic but the flat was dry and a little tough.

All I can determine as to what went wrong is the temp probe was stuck in a fatty portion of the point. I stuck the probe into the point and angled it sharply towards the flat thinking I stopped in the thickest portion of the flat. I think the fat insulated the probe from a proper reading.
For my first brisket it was a little disappointing. That's the thing with brisket. You get so much time and effort involved that if it dosen't come out right it's a bitter dissapointment.

So next time I will seperate the point from the flat to eliminate this issue and also have a quick read pen thermometer to back up my regular Maverick probe reading.

Also I did not foil nor did I have plans to foil. I missed the mark on my first one but not by much so I am still encouraged.
Follow the advice you will get from others on this board and you will be fine. Best of luck and hope it turns out for you but if it dosen't don't get discouraged you will learn from it. I did.

I pulled the probe out of the point during the process and it jumped from 152 to 159 in the point. That was at around 1:31 p.m. From there, it only got up to 161 when I threw it into the oven around 5 p.m. I'm thinking if I would have just let it rest at that time, the flat might have been a little juicier, but probably not since it was in the oven for about an hr. But like I said in previous posts, it was a good learning experience, so everything should be a lot better next time! Also, I used my injection to mop everything as well. The injection had butter and would start to solidify in my squirt bottle. Plus I think that might have been part of the reason my bark didn't really form on the outside....it was too "lubed" for lack of better words

Anyway, sorry to hijack the thread....once again, have a blast! You can't go wrong when your smoking! If you do think something went wrong, just tell everyone it's a once of a kind limited addition

>>>I pulled the probe out of the point during the process and it jumped from 151 to 159 in the point. That was at around 1:31 p.m. From there, it only got up to 161 when I threw it into the oven around 4 p.m.<<<

yep, that sounds about par for the course with a brisket. i am no expert by any means, but the point, being fattier, is more insulated and can rise to higher temperatures faster and take those temperatures longer. my guess (and it is purely a guess) is that pulling the brisket of the fire when the flat was around 185, give or take, would have given you the result you wanted. not a hundred percent sure, but that's how i would have done it.

that damned stall can take a very long time ~ hours! i've actually seen internal temperautres go DOWN during the stall. it wasn't long after this that i decided to simply let me meat cook and only start probing it when it started looking "just about" done.

enjoy!

Oops, haha, I meant I put the probe in the flat. The thing that just blows my mind is that I threw it in around 7:30 pm. Thursday night (14 lb packer), so when I threw it into the oven at 4 p.m., it had been in for 20.5 hrs and only hit 161 before it went into the oven foiled Hehe, thats probably why the flat was a little "overdone" in some parts.

could have been much worse. my theory is that 95% of the "failures" are still better than any Q you would pay for!

Agreed! We're still eating it up today and I have 2 bags thrown in the freezer for one of those days you need some Q but don't have time.

that's looking excellent, yount ~ i think you're off to a great start!

Lookin real good! I just finished a brisket sammy, but I think I'm starting to get hungry again!

Looks good Yount! Hopefully the recipes that I sent you will come in handy, they have worked for me. I try to push on the flat before I probe it to try and find a firmer area that the probe can go. In the point I placed the probe in the meatier area to try and minimalize a bad temp read. The point seemed to be about 5-8 degrees ahead of the flat.

Great job and it will always get better with everyone.