This was the first brisket I've ever done. I have always been wanting to do one, but have always shy'd away from them because of all the talk about how tough they can be to get them to come out good. Well my son bought one the other day and wanted me to smoke it, so I figured since I have no financial interest in this piece of meat, it won;t matter if it doesn't turn out.
Well. figuring that it would take a long time to smoke and I wanted to be sure it would be done by the time everyone got off work, I got up in the wee hours of the morning to get it started.
Got up at dark o'clock (3:30 am), got the smoker started by 4:00 am and it was ready for the meat by 5:00 am. Oh, and I had some pork loin that I decided I might as well smoke at the same time, so I threw that on also.
I was smoking at 250 degrees with pecan and a few scraps of hickory and apple that I had left over from other smokes. After only about three and a half hours, the internal temps on the brisket and the pork were both at 170. So, I put them in some roaster pans covered with foil. The brisket had beef broth and a package of onion soup mix in the pan and the pork had apple juice and some apple chunks with a little sugar and cinnamon.
Here's a photo of the pork in it's juice with the apple chunks. I didn't take one of the brisket.
This is where I messed up on the pork. I didn't think about it being so lean, so, of course it got a little dry. I should have taken it out instead of putting it back in the smoker.
Now, remember that I started very early expecting a long smoke. It is now 10:30 am, 5 1/2 hours after the meat went on. The brisket is at 205 degrees and ready to come off. I put them both in coolers to hold until people were supposed to arrive at 5:30. They were done WAY ahead of when I expected. If I had known that they would be done that soon, I would have stayed in bed another six hours.
So, here is how my first brisket came out. Absolutely tender and juicey.
Now for the really sad part.
I didn't get any of the brisket except for the scraps that I was sampling while I was slicing it. By the time I got a chance to make my plate up, it was already gone. Everybody went totally nuts over it.
Guess next time I'll do two of them.
Well. figuring that it would take a long time to smoke and I wanted to be sure it would be done by the time everyone got off work, I got up in the wee hours of the morning to get it started.
Got up at dark o'clock (3:30 am), got the smoker started by 4:00 am and it was ready for the meat by 5:00 am. Oh, and I had some pork loin that I decided I might as well smoke at the same time, so I threw that on also.
I was smoking at 250 degrees with pecan and a few scraps of hickory and apple that I had left over from other smokes. After only about three and a half hours, the internal temps on the brisket and the pork were both at 170. So, I put them in some roaster pans covered with foil. The brisket had beef broth and a package of onion soup mix in the pan and the pork had apple juice and some apple chunks with a little sugar and cinnamon.
Here's a photo of the pork in it's juice with the apple chunks. I didn't take one of the brisket.
This is where I messed up on the pork. I didn't think about it being so lean, so, of course it got a little dry. I should have taken it out instead of putting it back in the smoker.
Now, remember that I started very early expecting a long smoke. It is now 10:30 am, 5 1/2 hours after the meat went on. The brisket is at 205 degrees and ready to come off. I put them both in coolers to hold until people were supposed to arrive at 5:30. They were done WAY ahead of when I expected. If I had known that they would be done that soon, I would have stayed in bed another six hours.
So, here is how my first brisket came out. Absolutely tender and juicey.
Now for the really sad part.
I didn't get any of the brisket except for the scraps that I was sampling while I was slicing it. By the time I got a chance to make my plate up, it was already gone. Everybody went totally nuts over it.
Guess next time I'll do two of them.
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