brisket, rib eyes, and fatties

[chris_harper]

Today I smoked 2 8oz ribeyes. Smoked them to 180° internal. Man that was the best steak I ever ate. Didnâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]t need a knife, they cut with a fork. Put worcestershire sauce, onion powder, cayenne pepper, and chili powder on them. They were juicy, and had a good flavor. I used mesquite wood and apple wood chips.

On the brisket, I rubbed it with yellow mustard, and sprinkled cayenne pepper, garlic powder, onion powder, black pepper, and turbinado sugar on it. My mop was apple juice, garlic powder, onion powder, and turbinado sugar. I used mesquite wood.
The fatties- a JD sage and a JD hot. No rub needed on those.

I have a problem with brisket it seems. I put it in the smoker at 3:45pm. I made sure my temp stayed 220-225°; it hit 170° at 8pm, I foiled it then, and it hit 195° at 9:30pm. Can someone tell me why my briskets cook so fast? This one was 9.25lbs, a packer cut. I have it resting right now (11:00pm).

I wrote this last night, as the brisket rested. I sliced the flat and pulled the point this morning. Then I made me a couple of sammiches out of the pulled, putting some of the juice on them. It tasted real good. Tender, juicy, nice smoke ring. No pics, sorry, camera is dead. Gotta fix the camera situation soon.

 

[zardnok]

That does sound like a really fast cook on a brisket. Your sig says you have a homemade rig from 55 gallon drum with side firebox. Where is the thermometer that measures 220-225 located? How close is it to the firebox? How close is the brisket to the firebox? Did you spin the brisket while cooking it? What type of exhaust do you have on your smoke chamber? Do you have any sort of diffuser/baffle between the firebox and the smoke chamber?

It sounds to me like you have a higher temp at the rack than you do at the thermometer. I know in my rig that my bottom rack can be up to 50-75 degrees hotter than my top rack depending on how hot the fire is and how much meat I have inside. I usually do my briskets on my second rack up and try to toss some ribs or pork on the top two racks. The bottom rack I use for fatties, chickens, and/or a cast iron pot full of beans.

I have done briskets on my bottom rack before and it knocks 2 or 3 hours off the cook time, but they are not as good.

 

[chris_harper]

i have a thermometer on each end of the oven door, about two inches above the rack. the right side thermometer will read 225°, the left one will read 200°; firebox is on right side. the brisket is on the right side, as i can maintain more even heat on that side. i do not spin my brisket, i put it in and leave it in one spot until i foil it or put it in an aluminum roasting pan. the smokestack is 4" diameter, cut in just under the rack (out of the end, opposite the firebox). the smokestack is completely open, no damper. i have a deflector plate where the heat/smoke enters the cooking chamber. i am enclosing a pic of the opening to the chamber from the firebox, before i added the plate. i only have the one rack in the chamber to cook on. i checked my thermometers, and both of those read 214° in boiling water. my wired meat probe thermometer read 210° in the boiling water, and my cheapy dial thermometer read 216° in the samw water. maybe i should put the brisket in the middle next time. i will measure the temp straight on the rack the next i fire it up- this week, i have a 12lb turkey thawing right now.