Prepping for Sunday Briskett Smoke

[dganor]

I am just getting ready for my first briskette smoke tomorrow. I purchased a 5.8 lb flat. Looks like a good layer of fat cap and overall nice piece of meat...it should be for $28! Anyway, I have made some novice mods to my Charbroil H20 smoker in an attempt to improve air flow for fuel. I'll attach some pics to take a look at my fuel plan of attack. I'll have the unlit on either side and then toss on the lit on the open areas on either side overlapping just a bit so that the unlit catches. Lots of wimpy peices of unlit there....probably just means I'll have to refuel a little sooner than I would like. So my thoughts are to toss a couple chunks of hickory on both sides when I get the smoker up to temp. The briskett's already wrapped, but check in on this post tomorrow and I'll keep track of my progress with pics. Lots of pressure, I have to feed my wifes family and my mom. We'll see.........

I'll check back in tomorrow. Plan on lighting up the fuel at about 6am in hopes of having the briskett done by 4 and letting it rest for 2 hours.


Well, I can't figure out how to get the Qview going, any help would be appreciated!

 

[deadeye126]

go to new members forum and its explained gl on your brisket i just picked up 2 flats and smoking tomorrow if it aint raining.that expensive brisket there i just paid $2.49 a pound

 

[dganor]

Hope this works....

 

[fireguy]

look fwd to seeing pics tommarow, sounds great.

 

[gt2003]

Lookin good! Looking forward to the q-view . Can't wait until tomorrow!

 

[jerseyhunter]

Good luck to you. I'm doing my first now. Made my first fatty this morning also. Just some eggs,mushrooms and cheese. There addictive. No Qveiw yet as my reader went. Like others said expen$ive briskett you got there. I got mine on sale a few weeks ago for $1.99 lb so I picked up a few tyo practice on. On sale this week for $2.49 I'll probably get some more. So far it's been about 8-9 hours and I'm almost ready to foil at 170, Then I'll finish it up inside as it's gonna rain. Once again good luck.

 

[waysideranch]

Thats an interesting smoking/cooking machine. Please post q-view.

 

[dganor]

Put the briskette on at 7am. Holding a consistent temp of about 230*. I got little ambitious with the hickory chunks. There was quite a bit of smoke, but I took 3 of the for chunks out and there it looks like a good amount of smoke (I hope I didn't oversmoke it that first hour???). It's 8:20 and the briskett is at about 119*. I plan on spritzing with apple juice every hour. I'll try and get some Qview going a little later.

 

[richtee]

Eh...an hour won't kill it. Keep it TBS, and if you smell smoke, you are smoking! Good luck...we got your back!

 

[chargrilled]

Wouldnt worry about over smoking it, just get the "right" smoke to it

At what temp are you going to foil it? or are you foiling it?

Progress pics!!! That is what I am going to do today, progress pics.

Good luck, i am sure things will turn out great, NO PRESSURE this is BBQ!

 

[dganor]

Richtee, I am trying to take your advice from a previous post, "smoke it, don't choke it". I am about 2.5 hours in, just added some more fuel and we're at about 132*. I'm liking the progress so far. I think it's these chunks that have me messed up. I am more accustomed to the chips. But we'll get it right. It seems 1 chunk provides the right amount of smoke. I'll get some pics up in a bit when I "spritz" again.

Chargrilled, I am planning on foiling and pulling off at about 180-185*. I'll wrap it and let it sit for a couple hours. I am going to slice, not pull. What's your plan of attack?

 

[pineywoods]

Sounds good keep it thin and blue and it'll be good looking forward to the progress via qview

 

[dganor]

Here we are at just a couple minutes after the 2 hour mark. Sitting pretty at 145*. Waiting for that plateau........

 

[travcoman45]

Lookin good!

 

[dganor]

So, here we are on Monday and I have had a chance to reflect on my first briskett smoke yesterday. All in all, I would say it was a minor success. My family really seemed to enjoy it. I didn;t think it was quite as juicy as I would have hoped, but that could have been due to a few factors including not enough fat and a little bit of imrpov toward the end. I was sitting right at 150* internal for over 3 hours. For the first hour or two of the plateu my temp in the smoker increased to just over 300* as well which I found weird. By this time it was 4:30 and I wanted to let the briskett sit for at least an hour before serving. So, I did probably exactly what you are not supposed to. I pulled it from the smoker and put it in the oven at about 350*. It didn;t take long for it to come to temp at 177* to be wrapped (not sure if the oven really affected things or not????). Has a decent smoke ring. It was more of a thin dark red than some of the thicker, paler (sp?) pinkish rings I have seen in Qview. I will say that I just had some for lunch and it was almost better than yesterday. All I did was microwave it at the office for about 1 minute and throw it on a bun. I really thought I was choking the meat with the smoke, but next time I would definitely use more. So, not to unhappy with the results, but I'll definitely improve from here!

 

[teeotee]

Sounds like a pretty good first attempt. The way i understand it is getting through the plateau is probably the key. As i've read on here, that is when all the connective tissue etc is absorbing the heat and breaking down.

I've done a few briskets in the past (pre smf days) and had similar results. Taste was good, just didn't have the right tenderness i was looking for.

Still sounds like the process was working better for you. I'm sure you learnt lots and still had some good eats !!