First Ever Smoke - Brisket in an MES30

[stede]

Hey Folks - 

Just threw my first smoke on my first smoker on - got a brisket just shy of 8 lbs that I bought trimmed as sort of a dry run to see if I would be able to pull this off again at Christmas.  I've been reading a lot of the information on here, and I feel about as prepared as I'll ever be without getting my hands dirty.  

It's low-30s outside in here in Central NC tonight, and I figure at 225, I'm going to take roughly 12+ hours before it's ready to pull.  I did a dry rub about 30-45 minutes before putting it on of dark brown sugar, kosher salt, fresh ground black pepper and a bit of good chili powder (spice island) I had laying around.  Got the AMAZEN smoker maze filled with hickory pellets I nuked awhile and sifted and left lit for the full 10 minutes the instructions recommend.  I tossed some cherry chips in the MES30 tray at the start.  I got my RF probe in the thickest part of what I'm pretty sure is the flat.

I plan to check the smoke in a couple hours, then camp out just inside on the couch.  Plan is to finish in time to pull it, wrap it, and rest it for a few hours.  Going real lazy for this one - no flipping, no peeking (except to make sure my AMAZEN hasn't gone out), no mopping.  Got the fat side up and the water pan is dry.  Just gonna let this bad boy do its thing on the middle rack til it passes the probe test and get a baseline for future experiments.

Being new to all this I think the only thing I wasn't so sure of was what kind of brisky I started out with - it was trimmed, but I wasn't real sure if I got a whole one or just a really big flat - if you guys can tell me what I got and which part is which, I'd be most appreciative.  Any other advice is much appreciated, as well - looking forward to learning and experimenting

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• stede
• Dec 20, 2016

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• stede
• Dec 20, 2016

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• stede
• Dec 20, 2016

 

[stede]

So 2 hours in, and my probe powered down, so I went down to turn it back on and check on things.  I knew the cabinet thermometer reads about 20 - 25 degrees hotter than truth from the potato test I did yesterday, but instead of reading the 250 I set it at, it read 300 - which had me worried.

The internal temp is reading 118, so at 300, I wasn't worried about losing a bit of heat in the cabinet - so I peeked.

The entire smoker maze was smoldering.  Not sure how it happened - I definitely didn't have any pellets crossing compartments, but who knows.  I'll check it again in a couple more hours and see if there's still smoke flowing.  If not, I may feed it the old fashioned way for a few more hours and be done with the smoke.  Wish I knew what happened - could be that I had the maze too close to the element, but there really only seems to be one place to put it on an MES30 if you're gonna keep it below the water pan.

Up to 121 as I finish typing.  We'll see how it goes.

 

[stede]

Hit the stall within the last hour or so around 169. Temps in the cabinet have stabilized but the Smoker Maze is burned out. Added some chips the old fashioned way a couple times now and left the loader in all the way this last time. Probably my last time adding chips as I'm rounding the corner into finishing my 6th hour.

Time for a little more shut-eye. Will check back in a couple more hours to see how the stall is going.

 

[SmokinAl]

Sounds like everything is going good!

From the looks of your photo's, you have about 1/2 of a full brisket.

It appears that you have the end with the point on it.

So you have 2 muscles separated with a layer of fat.

Al

 

[stede]

Alarm just went off that IT hit 190. A lot sooner than I was planning for. I may be looking at brisket for an early lunch. Since Brisky & I were running way early, i grabbed the instant read and gave Brisky a few pokes. The probe went in pretty easy.

The one thing I've learned on the forums is that the biggest mistake I can make is to pull the Birsket early. I'm going to leave it where it is for another hour or until IT hits 200 - whichever comes first - then check it again. If it seems ready then, I'm gonna pull it, foil it, wrap it, and throw it in the ice chest for a few hours to rest.

 

[stede]

Meant to say it earlier - thanks for the advice on the cut, Al - demystified everything a bit for me.

Well I just pulled it at an IT of 200 after 8.5 hours in the smoker. Most of it was at 225 - 230, but that flare up I had with the smoker maze probably put me at 270-280 for a couple hours early on.

Proof is gonna be in the eatin, though - gonna give it a few hours then slice. No pictures yet - it was 27 degrees outside when I pulled so I did my best to not dally.

 

[stede]

Success!

Brisket came out great - I spent so much time focusing on the cook that the only thing I remembered about the carving was to cut across the grain.  Well, I did that, but my knife was either not-so-good or the Brisket was just that tender.  Tasting confirm it was a combination of both.  The only downside is that this got carved up out at 10am on a weekday, so it's all in containers in the fridge now - 

Would love to hear some good ideas for reheating brisket properly (will be scouring the forums soon enough if no responses)

For next time, I think the only thing I'd change is to make a bigger one 

I just gotta say that these forums and all the info you guys have posted has been a tremendous help - I mean to say, "I love you, man!" 

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• stede
• Dec 21, 2016

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• stede
• Dec 21, 2016

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• stede
• Dec 21, 2016