lean beef problem

[jsclow]

I have a mini WSM.  Yesterday I smoke my third brisket smoke.  I had 2 4ish lb briskets and decided to smoke them both.  Niether one had a lot of fat.  I thought I might try to help with the situation so Friday afternoon I injected a garlic/olive oil mix in and then rubbed them down.  I thought I would experiment a little so at 8.5 hours, when the top one reached about 165* I pulled it and stuck it in the oven at 400* until it reached about 200* (about an hour). The bottom one was at about 172* so I left it in another hour and pulled it at about 185*, stuck in the oven about 30 min to get it up to a finishing temp of a round 200* (that was a little higher than I wanted).  They both rested 2 hours.  After the first one had gone through it's rest period, I took it over to a friends house for them to eat.

They both were very tender. They were just still on the dry side.  Any tips/suggestions on getting those juices flowing?

 

[JckDanls 07]

Myself... I've never had much luck keeping moisture in If I don't wrap in foil at about 160` IT .... How did the mini work for ya.. have to clean out spent coals (ashes) and add new ?

 

[jsclow]

it works great.  I am having fun getting to know it.  regular chacoal is expensive here so I have been trying a cheap HiTop brand I found (it is half the price of the Kingsford) but it burns up too fast.  I am thinking it is worth the extra $$ to save the hassle and volume of adding more...had to clean/add twice on Sat.  I can get some local made lump coal cheap so I am going to try it soon.

Another issue I am having is a lot of the time there is NO wind (air flow) so it seems to affect maintaining the temp above 220*.  I have found if I keep it in the sun, it helps.