Time to Commit

[oldsmokerdude]

So I've had the new smoker for a month or so. Been getting to know her with some small cooks: couple chuckies, chicken breast, pork steak. This weekend I thought it was time to commit and go all in, put this baby to the test.

Pork butt seasoned with Jeff's rub.

Brisket seasoned with SPOG

Ready to start their journey to pure deliciousness

Nine hours later the pork is ready.

Another three hours and the brisket is ready.
(sorry, no picture here, took a picture of my thumb. But trust me, it looked delicious.)

Add in some home made sourdough bread.

Darn fine meal. And have enough meat left over to freeze and use for quite a while.

Evaluation:
The pork was amazing. Nuff said.
The brisket a little dry. I accidentally put it in the smoker fat cap down. Some folks say it doesn't matter, but I can't help but think if the fat cap was up it would have been juicier. Also, I didn't pan and foil it at all, left it out the entire time which may have contributed to dryness, but again, lots of folk say you don't need to do that.
Bread was awesome even though the loaves were a bit deformed.
Smoker performed admirable. Nice TBS throughout the smoke. Used Pit Boss Competition pellets. Not as much smoke flavor as I would have liked, going to try some Lumberjack pellets for the next smoke based on the good reviews I've seen here.

Thanks for looking.

 

[banderson7474]

What IT did you get to with the brisket? How did you rest it and for how long?

 

[oldsmokerdude]

Internal temp was 205 and I let it rest for about two hours. I checked it at 197 and at 203 and thought it was not quite finished based on sticking a thermometer in various places. I pulled at 205 thinking I didn't want to over cook it. Maybe could have gone to 207?

 

[banderson7474]

Hmmm one would think it's done at 205. I still haven't done the perfect brisket. I personally would take it off around 200 but I know how frustrating it is waiting that long and then it doesn't come out as expected.

 

[Will Smoke]

a Champion, green eyes....

 

[chilerelleno]

Everything looks delicious, nice cook.
Briskets can be finicky, dry can be overcome with Au ju, BBQ sauce or making chile.
Very nice.

 

[SmokinAl]

Boy that butt sure looks good.
As far as the brisket goes, it sounds like it could have stayed on the smoker a little longer.
I've had to take some to 210 before they got probe tender.
Al

 

[tallbm]

Nice work!
Yeah keep practicing on that brisket. I can tell you from experience that getting the IT on a brisket can really be tricky. I use 3 probes and try to get the in the center and thickets portion of the flat.
I've had 3 probes in a brisket before where 1 was reading 212F, another 208F, and one reading 201F. When the lowest one hit 204F guess what happened... it probed tender all over. Again probing a brisket and what the IT of a brisket does is simply crazy lol.

 

[HalfSmoked]

Great looking pork shoulder. Briskets are very temperamental at best. Going to try my luck with one on the 4th a 19 lb one for sure I'm in for a long smoke. Nothing like home made bread Enjoy them sammies.

Warren

 

[chilerelleno]

Brisket is indeed all about how it probes, IT is just the indicator on when to start probing and how often.
I probe at 190, 195 and 200, then about every 2'-3' after that.
And I'm only really concerned about the thickest majority of the flat.

 

[oldsmokerdude]

Thanks everyone for your replies. Guess I'll just have to try again (darn) once I eat all this. I really appreciate the feedback.

 

[browneyesvictim]

Darn fine looking fixings there dude!