My first brisky, and a butt to boot

[kansasqueball]

So, with the old MES I couldn't fit a whole brisky into the dang thing.  I did a flat twice, and neither time was too satisfied with the results.  I talked about this with both of my brothers who are both old smoking pros, and they both concurred that flats rarely turn out as nice as packers.  Now that I've got this bad boy GOSM there is plenty of room for a whole packer.  I picked an eight pounder up on sale at the Price Chopper for 2.99/lb.  Since I've got room in the smoker I'm also doing a six and a half pound Boston Butt.  On pork I usually use Jeff's rub, and I found a interesting rub recipe for brisket that I was going to use, but time was short, so I'm using a commercial rub on both.  They both got Arthur Bryant's rub for beef and pork on them over a nice layer of mustard and Worcestershire sauce.  Here they are rubbed, and ready for smoke:

They went into the smoker at 1:30.  I know, it's going to be a late night.  I'll post more Qview as the smoke progresses.

QueBall

BTW, I'm having trouble posting pics from Photobucket.  Anybody else?  

 

[kansasqueball]

After reading some other posts it seems that after smoking I'm going to need to separate the flat from the point.  Ummm... how do I do this?

Thanks

 

[kansasqueball]

Coming up on twelve hours, and things are looking good, but something strange happened.  For the first time in my experience of smoking meats I hit a negative plateau.  I love the plateau, and I get nervous in the early stages of smoking a piece of meat until the plateau hits.  I understand that magical things are happening to the meat when the temperature stalls out.  The collagen and other connective tissues are absorbing heat, breaking down, and the meat is getting nice and tender.  I love and welcome this phase of the smoking process.

However, this brisket hit a plateau at about four hours at 160 degrees.  At five hours it had actually dropped down to 149 degrees, and dropped further to 143 degrees at six hours.  Weird, huh?  From there the temperature started to climb again.  Nine hours and fifteen minutes into the smoke the brisket was at 166 degrees and the pork butt was at 162 degrees.  I foiled both at this point, and will continue until they hit 195 when they will be wrapped in towels and stashed in a cooler for several hours.  Up until foiling I was spritzing both every hour with a mixture of 1/2 cup apple juice, 1/2 cup Kikkoman Teriyaki, 1 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce, 1 Tbsp sugar, and 1 tsp apple cider vinegar.

If I can figure it out I plan on separating the point from the flat.  I'll slice the point for sammies, and make the point into burnt ends.  The pork will get pulled for Carolina style sammies.  

I'll post pics when I pull the meat from the smoker.

QueBall

 

[mballi3011]

Man oh Man thats one heck of a stall. I don't like them but sometimes it's good like you said to help break down the connective tissues. But I will be looking forward the Qview and the slicing pics.