It was probably in the low 40s last night, no wind to speak of. I've started the drum on 30° mornings. The low temps (at least in the 30s) don't bother the drum much and neither does the wind.
Don't know if I can take that kind of pressure.
It probably would have cooked faster if I hadn't slept through the ET-73's low temp alarm for probably 45 minutes. By the time I discovered it the temp was down to 178°.
The brisket's all done. Here it is after resting and after I separated the flat from the point.
At least that's what I thought I did.
If someone could take a look and confirm if that's what I did or if I just tore the brisket apart.
I think I was following the fat seam but it was kind of hard to tell.
The point was really tender and was starting to fall apart so the burnt ends part had to be somewhat modified.
Not a whole lot of cubed pieces but the shredded stuff will work I guess. I put a little rub on it and put it back on the smoker. Mixed in some sauce and stirred it once in awhile. Sorta like burnt ends I guess or maybe just shredded BBQ beef.
Here is the flat sliced.
Not quite as tender and juicy as the other one I did when I foiled but pretty darn tasty all the same.
As far as the charcoal test goes, when I put the foil pan with the point back on I had a hard time getting up to 300°. So I took the grate off and the charcoal basket out and there was a ton of ash mixed throughout the briquettes. I shook the heck out of it to get riid of the ash and put everything back in the drum with the intakes all open. Within a half hour, the ET-73 was reading 380° at just a little off center grate. I think they only go to 400° so I got the probe out of there. The Teltru was reading about 325°.
I shut the valve and with it running on just two open intakes, it is still there. So after maintaining smoking temps for over 16 hours, there is still enough charcoal left to cook chickens or tri tips or whatever These drums are CRAZY versatile. It will be interesting to see how long the fuel holds out at this temp.
Thanks for looking.
Dave