Need some advice with multiple briskets

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jeeplj

Fire Starter
Original poster
Dec 22, 2009
54
10
Lewisville, TX
This is in no way my first smoking rodeo, but this is my first time to smoke this much meat at one time. As of right now the plan is to smoke brisket for 200 people, 80 pounds plus.   So here is my list of questions:
  1. How much should I plan per adult / child? (there will also be sides as filler)
  2. Do I stick to the est of 1.5 hours per pound?
  3. This is a big smoker with the fire box on one end. Do I need to rotate the meat position so they will cook on the same time schedule?
  4. They will be in a cooler for several hours. If they get done way early, should plan to lower my temp for pulling them off the smoker? The briskets will be sliced. And if so how much?
I plan to serve them at noon. So I want all the briskets off the smoker my 8am, in time to be at the event.

Thanks
 
This is in no way my first smoking rodeo, but this is my first time to smoke this much meat at one time. As of right now the plan is to smoke brisket for 200 people, 80 pounds plus.   So here is my list of questions:

  1. How much should I plan per adult / child? (there will also be sides as filler). If sammies, 1/3 lb/person.
  2. Do I stick to the est of 1.5 hours per pound? Depends on individual smoker, loading, amount of trimming, etc, but 1.5 - 1.75 is about right w/o foiling.
  3. This is a big smoker with the fire box on one end. Do I need to rotate the meat position so they will cook on the same time schedule?
    If you're not familiar with this smoker's personality, I would rotat every 3-5 hours. ..allow extra time for heat loss with each smoke chamber opening. Have extra therms to monitor grate temps, also.
  4. They will be in a cooler for several hours. If they get done way early, should plan to lower my temp for pulling them off the smoker? The briskets will be sliced. And if so how much?
The more you put into the cooler, the longer it will stay hot. 80lbs should cook down to approx. 60-63lbs pre-trimmed, and with the proper cooler width/length it should fit in a 50-55 qt cooler(go bigger if you can for easier loading)...place in over-lap fashion so they lay as flat as possible.

I plan to serve them at noon. So I want all the briskets off the smoker my 8am, in time to be at the event.
4 hours is fine...a heavy loaded cooler could go 5-6 if needed.
Thanks

You're welcome, and good luck on the feed!

Sorry about the tough read on my answers/comments...using blackberry and it's difficult to change font colors with this small display...too much scrolling to make adjustments.


Eric
 
If you need more "cambro time" in the cooler, feel free to prime it by adding some boiling water to the cooler about 15-20 minutes before adding the meat.

When the time comes, drain it, and you have extra heat that the insulating mass of the cooler won't wick away the heat of the meat.

I've found this adds about two hours to the time. Heated foil-wrapped bricks will bump the time up even further.

If you're worried about melting the inside of the cooler, pour the water into a metal stock pot inside a roasting pan in the cooler. It still transfers the heat, but more slowly.
 
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