All-night brisket

[oldpro1946]

I have a MES40 smoker and wish to smoke a brisket.  It seems that this will be an all-night smoke.  I don't want to stay up all night but I want it to have good smoke flavor.  How do you keep the smoke going, my thought is, you don't.  Any tips.  Any problem letting the MES be unattended all night with this smoke or any other.  Thanks.

 

[hmcm]

Hi oldpro1946,

When I do a brisket, I get it in the smoker at about 4AM and keep the smoke going for about 6 hours.  There's no getting around that with the MES.  It is usually ready to pull out by 4PM.  Then wrap it in a couple of towels and place in an ice chest for an hour or two to let things settle.  The internal temp will dictate the cook time but my experience has been about 12 hours on average for a whole brisket.  Good luck!

 

[timberjet]

Most folks with that smoker eventually get a amazen products smoke generator that burns pellets. It is a pretty cheap addition to your bbq arsenal and will burn for 11 hours at a time. The other thing you want is a digital wireless temp probe setup like the maverick ones or igrill ones. That way you can monitor your smoker temp from your nightstand. You can set max and min temp on it so if something weird is going on an alarm goes off. Hope this helps. timber

 

[oldpro1946]

I'll look into the smoke generator but I don't have enough time for that, unfortunately.  I do have a Maverick ET-732 that I've used with my old smoker.  What I may do is set the alrm for around 3am and get up then to smoke the brisket.

 

[daricksta]

Brisket smoke time depends on the size and weight of the brisket. I've got a small family so I never buy anything larger than a 5 lb. brisket. In my MES 30 with the AMNPS I can cook it up in about 6 hours. I've never thrown mine in a cooler or an ice chest because typically it's done just in time for dinner. In fact, I never let anything cool down and rest after I finish smoking. The only thing I smoke that doesn't get eaten right away is cold smoked cheese, which are vacuum sealed immediately and age for at least 3 weeks in the fridge before I unseal the bag and start munching away.

 

[bregent]

When I do a full packer, I usually only have it smoking for 3 hours.

I don't have a MES, I use a vertical gas smoker. I use two full pans of chips, or chips and chunks. Each pan smokes for about 90 minutes. This gives me plenty of smoke flavor in the end. If you had an AMNPS handy, great. But since not, don't worry about getting more than 3 hours of good smoke for the cook. 

 

[oldpro1946]

I haven't smoked a whole packer because my old smoker couldn't hold one.  Only have done a flat and have had bad luck, very dry.  Now I am getting a MES40 delivered on Monday and want to try a whole packer but I'm afraid of messing up.  Do you get your flat so that it's not dry?  Any tips on smoking just a flat or tips for the whole packer?  Thanks.

 

[brianlamb41]

I use the Masterbuilt Cold Smoker kit.  It's electric, just like the MES, and it's what I use to smoke brisket or pulled porks overnight.