I would do mesquite for chicken.

_________________
You know me like that.

I do mine this way as well but after I take it off @202 degrees I wrap in a towel and put in a cooler for a minimum of 2 hours,can stay up to 6 if its a small enough cooler prefect every time!

I've been taking off at 195, but I don't think 202 would hurt and yeah, 2 hours....that's gonna be real nice. I tend to run out of time....last round the brisket had been going over 17 hours. It was time to eat!.



Chester.....This is all going to be about personal taste. Mrs. BigW72 and I do NOT like overpowering smoke. We like APPLE the best. Mesquite and Hickory are just a bit too much.

_________________

most restaurants that tout long hour smokes like 12-16 hours are only because what are they going to do come in at 1 in the morning to put the meat on? no they do it after close and then pull them in the morning. Its totally unnecessary for home smokers but makes sense for restaurant convenience. most smoking i do is for dinner time, i can put a butt or brisket on at 7 and has it done by 4-4:30ish.

I wrap briskets in butcher paper, and butts i just leave. I take briskets to 203 and butts to 200.

i'll stick them in a cooler if i have to wait to serve, but if we are an hour or 2 away i just set it on the cutting board stick a probe into it and start cuttign/pulling when it drops down to 160.

A buddy came by with some butts this morning. I had ribs.

Treated the butts the same as the ribs...salt, mustard, rub...

They went on just before 10:30am @ 250°.

Wrapped the ribs at 3 hours with butter, brown sugar and honey. Same treatment for butts at 150°.

Sauce and rub on ribs for about an hour unwrapped. They turned out great.

Butt #1 hit 202° at around 10pm. Shredded it and poured some of the drippings over it. Delicious.

Butt #2 came off about 10:30. Awesome.

#1 and #2 were middle rack.

#3 and #4 moved from the bottom rack to middle. Still not done.


Edit: 1:30am. All pulled and put in fridge. Definitely could have taken the last two off an hour earlier...even though temp never quite made it all the way to 200.

_________________

Taking off at 195 works fine for me, but that sitting wrapped in a cooler for 90-120 min is key. Not sure the temp goes up from that....I wouldn't even worry about it at that point.

_________________

Yeah, I could have gotten a couple hours more sleep had I done that.

Do you wrap for the stall or just when it hits 195?

_________________

MANY claim to wrap at the stall in the 160's....I like to keep unwrapped until 195. Gives better bark, but the smoke takes longer.
I'll also add Aluminum foil better wrapping material than butcher paper, but that's me.

_________________

We smoked it for about 2.5 hours...then foil wrapped at 150. The bark was wet but delicious.

Next time I'll do one of each and pull at 195 for an hour or two.

All those juices in the foil were great to dump over the shredded meat.

_________________

The ribs were about as good as I've ever made.

Really love this smoker. It's very steady and forgiving.

_________________

Apologies if you mentioned this elsewhere or earlier in the thread and I missed it....what kind of smoker?

I'm completely sold on the Weber Smokey Mountain. Considering it has no electronic regulation....just air, charcoal, block of wood, and water bin.....it's surprisingly stable if you show a bit of patience. I can get up to 8 hours or more on a single load of charcoal, so even my 17 hour brisket session....I only added coals once.

_________________

i use butcher paper because foil steams the bark almost every time but paper allows for a little air movement and i can keep my bark for the most part. foil is easier to "use" thats for sure.

The other day i did a pork but I pulled the skin off the top and dunked it in the deep fryer (we were doing fries) then cut it up into little pieces and mixed it in with the meat. probably one of the best things i've ever done that i own't get a ton of opportunity to do all the time.

https://youtu.be/MkZGRNEBYzc

I haven't figured out how to minimize charcoal use yet. I probably went through 30lbs of charcoal over 15 hours...it probably had another hour or two of burn left when I took the butts off.

I think I need to close the firebox spinner vents down some.

The damper works like magic though. You can manipulate the heat with barely a touch.

_________________

Trying my first brisket today. 14lbs trimmed.

Big Bad Beef Rub Recipe
https://amazingribs.com/tested-recipes/ ... rub-recipe

6 butts with Memphis dust

2 lbs pork belly burnt ends Memphis Dust

3 racks spare ribs Memphis Dust


Got the butts and brisket on by 5:30am at 225-250. Will wrap with butcher paper at 165°.

After wrapping im going to put on the ribs and belly then add more hickory chips.

I planned about 12 hours of cooking...the brisket is already over 150.

_________________

More bark if you wait to wrap....I prefer the better bark, but I know competition and all that says you wrap at 165.

I think I'm putting one on Tuesday night for Wednesday dinner.

_________________

Took it off at 203° and put in a cooler for 90 minutes. The point was near perfect, the flat was dry and tough. Frustrating.

_________________

I've never had that problem, but the other thing I don't do much of is trimming....I want all that fat burning up and breaking down in the smoker.

_________________

Im going to have to give it another shot in the next few weeks.

_________________

Looks like it's moved to a Friday night activity.
1 15lb brisket and 3 racks of ree-ibs!

_________________

I gotta say, that sweet Famous Dave's sauce frim costco, no hfcs, is the bomb. I just had some warmed up leftover brisket with some of that sauce...wow.

I think I'll try another brisket next week.

_________________

Here's something to try if you want -

Next time when you take it off to wrap, cut the point off and separate it. You should be able to just slide the knife through the fat layer. It comes off pretty easily.

Continue with the flat to finish. Season the now open spot where the point was.

You can then take the point and season the underside and make some sweet burnt end chunks or however you like it. I still wrap it but take it out to get the nice bark at the end.

Another tip - when you are seasoning the raw meat, find the grain and cut the corner a bit, enough to see it, maybe an inch or so, so that it is easier to figure out where to start cutting across the grain on the finished product. It's hard to find the grain sometimes with the finished product.

Good luck.

_________________
You know me like that.

Where do you get your brisket from? A butcher or just a supermarket? Do you get prime or choice...or is grade not a factor for you?

_________________

Mine was Sam's Club Prime...it's $2.78/lb right now. Maybe it's not really prime.

_________________

Do you use lump charcoal or briquettes? How fully do you load the charcoal chamber?

_________________

8 hours on a single load of charcoal?

I use hardwood charcoal...this time it was Cowboy something or other.

We started with about 12 lbs and added a hot chimney full about every 2 hours. Used about 35lbs over 12 hours. My smoker is pretty big, it can hold at least 16 racks of ribs...it's firebox is 18" x 36".

_________________

I got my first one from a butcher. Now I just get them from Costco, not Prime. I like the way they turn out.

I don't think smoking Prime, unless you are doing a competition, is necessarily worth it. Besides, you can usually find a Choice cut with decent marbling if you are looking. Costco usually has about 12 at a time. Might have to be a bit more patient with the cooking time vs. Prime. But, what else do you have to do....

_________________
You know me like that.

I just click here:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V-sYWaOrLdI

Cool, thanks for the info.

_________________

Kingsford briquettes.....keep it simple. I load that up chimney style in the bottom of my smokey mountain and can get over 8 hours in one load....but you have to be very disciplined in not opening the lid.

Brisket I've always gotten from Sam's club, but this weekend I'm trying a butcher from Mundelein.

_________________

Golden Jet,

Next time try this for doneness.

203 is a general rule of thumb but not hard and fast. I'll be honest once i get to 190, i pull the probes. I go off feel anymore on briskets, jiggle bump and probing. don't probe the point, it will always be tender and go in like butter, probe about 3-4" from the flat end. when your probe slides in like you just poked a stick of butter, you are done. I've had them do that at 193...i've had them not do that until 210. Some I've just not had it do it at all and the whole thing went into chili.

also, a fully wrapped in towel brisket tossed in a cooler will continue to cook, sometimes up to 5 degrees more. If you are just waiting a few hours just keep it wrapped and set it on the counter. i don't slice until it drops down to at least 165. but i prefer 150. it will take almost 2 hours for it to drop down to 150 depending on the size of the brisket.