Thank you

[goofy Yno]

Hi,
I'm a newbie who just bought a cheepo charcoal off set grill. I'm doing a crash course as I am planning on smoking a brisket for a gathering in three week. I have been "eating up" the information on this board. Thank you.

My first attempt was smoking a salmon, which ended up tasting great, despite my temperature fluctuations. Trying to stay low, 175 early and up to 225 later worked for the most part (except when i let the fire go out :(. Oh well. I was playing with charcoal and apple wood chunks.

My next test will be my practice Brisket. we shall see....

 

[Nefarious]

Hi,
I'm a newbie who just bought a cheepo charcoal off set grill. I'm doing a crash course as I am planning on smoking a brisket for a gathering in three week. I have been "eating up" the information on this board. Thank you.

My first attempt was smoking a salmon, which ended up tasting great, despite my temperature fluctuations. Trying to stay low, 175 early and up to 225 later worked for the most part (except when i let the fire go out :(. Oh well. I was playing with charcoal and apple wood chunks.

My next test will be my practice Brisket. we shall see....

More pictures please.

 

[DRKsmoking]

Welcome from Nova Scotia

This is the right place to learn, tell and show, and yes have some fun also

David

 

[negolien]

Welcome and yes keeping temp on regular grills is a skill. BEst of luck and welcome aboard

 

[sandyut]

Welcome to SMF. You may want to get a few more cooks in before the brisket. are thinking a full packer or??

 

[goofy Yno]

It's a small 4 lber.
Ideally I would, But I've committed to having. Besides, I'm a diver right in sorta guy.

 

[tallbm]

Hi,
I'm a newbie who just bought a cheepo charcoal off set grill. I'm doing a crash course as I am planning on smoking a brisket for a gathering in three week. I have been "eating up" the information on this board. Thank you.

My first attempt was smoking a salmon, which ended up tasting great, despite my temperature fluctuations. Trying to stay low, 175 early and up to 225 later worked for the most part (except when i let the fire go out :(. Oh well. I was playing with charcoal and apple wood chunks.

My next test will be my practice Brisket. we shall see....

Hi there and welcome!
A good way to practice for brisket is to do a Pork Butt/Shoulder.

• This will educate you on how your smoker behaves on a long smoke. Pork butts and briskets don't care what temp you smoke them at as long as you aren't burning them
• You will also learn what your process(es) may need to do such a long smoke.
• You will gain some much needed experience on how to time such a long smoke. At a steady 275F with a never wrapped hunk of meat I get like 1hr, 5-10min per pound before it may be ready and tenderness testing tells me when it is ready. Other temps
• You will get to practice tenderness testing for readiness on a pork butt just like a brisket.
• This means you will also get to see how your BBQ thermometer prove reports temps back to you and how you may or may not have nailed the best place to put the probe on the pork butt
• You will get to rest a large piece of meat and see how well it holds temps for hours (I tightly double wrap in foil and then tightly wrap in 3 bath towels and set on the table; 4hrs later I unwrap and pull/cut and it is steaming hot!) - this part for me was a "see it to believe it" experience that was true but I needed to see it to believe it haha
• Finally, pork butts are waaaaaaay less expensive than briskets. Try to get a 10lb or anything 8lbs or heavier. Having a vac sealer is good so you can vac seal up so much meat and practice on another one.

If you do all of this with a pork but you gain a ton of experience on the same things you would do for a brisket WITHOUT forking out big bucks.
Once you nail the pork butt (3 attempts or so?) you can run a test brisket.

Briskets have all of the above to deal with and more because you have to trim a brisket and then hope you get the probe placed well in the thickest yet center most portion of the FLAT muscle (never the Point).

Plus trimming a brisket matters. Not so much removing fat but removing good thin meat from it so it doesnt burn up and what is left cooks evenly. You repurpose the good meat. Basically if you cut the "deckel" fat out by 75% or more then that is honestly the only fat trimming that "needs" to be done with a brisket. Too much fat left on is rarely an issue but too much cut away is definitely an issue so you can always just let it roll with what it has BUT losing good thin meat is horrible.

So to sum it up. I highly highly suggest practicing with 2-3 pork butts and then all you have to focus on learning about are the quirks specific to a brisket because you will know how a long smoke on a big chunk of meat goes with your setup and what you need to do to increase success :)

I hope this info helps :D

 

[gmc2003]

Welcome aboard happy to have ya join the fun. Be careful sometimes smaller briskets are harder to cook then the larger ones(especially flats).

Chris

 

[912smoker]

Welcome to SMF from SE Ga !

Keith

 

[bauchjw]

Welcome from Virginia! Looking forward to seeing how things go!