Sherman, Texas

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gaftech

Newbie
Original poster
May 16, 2009
6
10
Hey all, I've been lurking around here for a couple of weeks now in anticipation of smoking my first brisket. I've smoked a couple of chickens which turned out okay, but when the brisket at Krogers went on sale for 0.99/lb back around July 4th, my wife and I couldn't resist. She bought a 7-lb and a 10-lb and I'm smoking the 7-lb as I write this.

I must say that there is a whole LOT of info here just on brisket alone and I do appreciate all the assistance, (whether you realize you assisted or not). Sometimes I became overwhelmed at all the different styles, rubs, sauces, whether to foil or not, temps, fat cutting, etc. I have to tell you, I was nervous...still am, but finally I just had to put the meat to the grill and get started, and so far, so good.

As for myself, I'm retired Navy and work as a maintenance technician at a state-of-the-art roofing manufacturer. My wife and I have one daughter, married this last March at a cost that prevents me from building the woodshop I've dreamed of having for too many years I'd rather not mention.
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But such is life. My daughter is happy and she has married a class guy and her happiness supercedes mine. It'll just take a little longer to get the shop than I originally planned on!

Anyway, time to go check the temps on my smoker, a New Braunfels...no idea what model...bought the last one Wally-world had about 5 or 6 years ago. Side firebox with an added charcoal basket and baffle.

I know this may be a bit lengthy, but I just checked the meat and holy cow! Internal temps were already at 190 and 210! Double checked with 2 other thermometers and they slid into the meat really easy, read the same temps. So I've wrapped it in foil and put it in the oven at 225. I'll keep it there for at least a couple hours...any suggestions?

Oh yeah, that's after almost 5 hours of smoking. My tendency would be to second guess myself and not trust the readings, but if there's anything I've learned here, it's that one must trust their instincts and if they're wrong, they're wrong...live and learn.

Of course that follows into many other facets of life, but that's not what we're here for.

One last thing...I'm all for the Army, they're the backbone of our armed forces and God bless them all.

But come on, couldn't you include the Navy?
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Welcome gaftech.
Glad you are doing your first brisket, hope it comes out great.
If the temp has already hit 205, or 210 as you said then turn the oven off because you don't need to cook it any longer.
Just wrap in the foil and a towel or two and let sit either in a cooler or the oven, turned off.
Don't need to cook, the meat needs to rest a bit, sort of steam itself and reabsorb and redistribute the juices throughout.
 
Sorry, not right now. It's wrapped up in foil and in the oven. As soon as it gets out though, I'll take some pics, although it may take me a while to figure out exactly how to post the pics. Can you steer me toward some directions?
 
Thanks, I just turned off the oevn and will let it rest. As my wife and I talked about it, it kinda makes sense that a small brisket like this would take significantly less time than say a 10-lb brisket or larger. This was actually 6.6 lbs and I trimmed off an unknown weight of hard fat, so I would estimate it to be probably around 6.4 or 6.3 lbs, plenty for the 2 of us.
 
gaf, go and sign up at http://photobucket.com/

Then once you sign up upload your pictures, make sure the size is 800x600.
Once you are done uploading and back to your photoalbum where the pics are stored you can hover over the picture.
When you do a drop down list with 4 links will show up. You want to left click to highlight the IMG Code link, then right click and copy the link.

Simply paste the link in your post and the pic will show up here.

*oops, irishteabear beat me to it while I was typing this.
Happy smokes, and good luck.
 
Welcome to SMF glad you joined us. Have fun and happy smoking
 
Thanks very much, that is truly an inspiring sight and brings a tear to my eye!
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Thanks for joining us at SMF, and for the nice introduction. It's gonna be a great summer.
 
6.5 lbs, a basic Stubbs rub, for about 5 hours on the smoker. I then took the temps and discovered that the dang thing was done! Well, almost. 200 at one end and 190 at the other, so I put it in the disposable aluminum pan I had underneath it to catch the juices, added some apple juice, wrapped the whole thing in foil and put it in the oven with no heat on (on the very good advice of a fellow smoker). I had two thermometers in it...one at each end...and let it rest until we were ready to eat. That equated to about another 3 hours in the oven and it was still about 135 at both ends when we sliced it up.

Very tender and juicy, much to my surprise, because I was expecting to fail my first time out. But thanks to the amazing amount of info in these forums and the incredible people willing to share their knowledge, I was able to produce a good, tender, almost fall off the fork, brisket.

Thanks everyone! Enjoy the pics and by all means, if you see something out of the ordinary, let me know!








Great tips on how to post a pic, by the way.

From beautiful (& hot) Sherman, Texas, I'm outta here!
 
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