Brisket Help

[lukewarm]

Hi All - My first post. I have had my smokenator 1000 for a couple of weeks now and I have cooked a pork butt, some chickens and some brisket.
With the brisket, I rubbed it with some Cajun spice and some salt and left overnight in the fridge. I put in the Weber at 10 am with some Mesquite chunks and smoked with steam for 7.5 to 8 hours at about 110 ^oC.
The problem is, I have never seen this done first-hand before. The meat was a little dry and although tasty, I was wondering if you could give me some advice on making it juicier and fall apart easily.
Do you baste or mop the brisket while it is cooking?
What do you eat it with? Boiled veggies or baked veggies?

[ksu1971]

I have never done a brisket yet but this guy has done tons of them and has a lot of good advice. Check out his writeup on brisket here amazingribs.com/recipes/beef/texas_brisket.html. He talks about mops/injections etc. Good luck

[lukewarm]

thanks ksu. I am going to do some reading.
Cheers

[flbuckeye]

I just did my first brisket and I used the AR recipe referenced above. I injected with beef broth. Smoked for 6 hours until it reached 150 then applied the Texas Crutch. Got it to 203 and put in a faux cambro for 2 more hours. Turned out very nice. Moist and had a great flavor

[craig]

I'm going to try a Brisket as soon as this weekend. The brisket I have readily available is 6-7pounds, I imagine after removing the fat cap it will be roughly a pound less. What kind of cooking time am I looking at?
Thanks

[ncsmoker]

Hi Craig figure on 1.5 hours per pound. Do not worry to much about the fat cap, the general rule is leave 1/8 to 1/4 inch on the beast. Here is another good set of instructions for doing a brisket. I do everything but the injection though I may try it next time. bbq.about.com/od/brisket/ss/aa092708a.htm?nl=1

I have posted my last briskets down in S-view. I dry rub my brisket the night before with a good rub recipe that has salt in it and wrap it tight with plastic wrap. Pull it out a couple hours before you put it on the smoker. I then smoke at 250-265. This is the upper end of low and slow, but it pushes through the stall which you will hit when the meat reaches 155-160 faster. I like smoking my brisket in oak it is a milder wood that is used in Texas. I don't like mesquite as I find it to strong. I also find 6hrs is a good amount of time to smoke a brisket of your size.

If you have any more questions please ask.

Tom

[ncsmoker]

Hi Craig did you do your brisket? How did it turn out? Been out of town for Christmas vacation with my folks and brother and sister and there kids.

Regards, Tom

[motownphill]

Well first and foremost congrats on the flavor, that's the hardest part in my opinion. I read the whole post and you never said that you wrapped the brisket??. Admittedly I'm not an expert ,however I have found that if I don't wrap my ribs,pot roast. Etc.. they will end up very dry on the outside. My suggestion is double foil wrap that bad boy and maybe just maybe if your getting a real dry product put a few ounces of beef broth in with it. I think that more than likely this will make all the diffrence. Now I've yet to use the smokenator myself and I know it keeps a nice humid environment, so I'm not sure if the wrapping is a normal procedure for people using this attachment. I think if you kept that pan filled with water and this still happened. Then might as well try the wrap procedure and I would also get a array bottle of vinegar and water and spritz it whenever I take the lid off to fill the water pan. Goof luck to ya, keep us posted how the ne,t one comes out.