On third attempt, my brisket came out of the smokette a perfect 10! Put tender quick on for 1 hour - rinsed good and injected with cajun seasoning and put a good cajun rub on it - let set for a few hours and placed in the Smokette at 225 degrees and set for 190 internal with my trusty polder. To assure that the pink ring would be there, I also placed 4 lumps of charcoal in with the 4 ounces of pecan wood. The tender quick and charcoal did their job! A beautiful, juicy brisket with a 1/4" smoke ring. needless to say it was consumed in less than an hour and got rave reviews! Thanks forum for the tips on the charcoal and tender quick

That do sound good!

I did the Tenderquick thing on my last brisket, and seasoned with Famous Dave's Steak and Burger seasoning.

Turned out really good, too. Froze most of it though, in hopes that I could come up with some really killer concoction to add the chopped beef to.

The tender quick--could you elaborate on what you do and why? Does it tenderize the meat or is there some other reason. What if you left it on for over an hour?

As I understand it the Tender Quick and charcoal put the nitrites/nitrates on the brisket resulting in a nice pink ring - pink ring only for looks only - If you left the Tender Quick on too long it would probably make you a nice piece of corned beef! You might want to step in here Smokin and maybe give a more technical answer.

cajun, you're exactly right. Glad you had success, what wood did you use, what rub/spices and how did you serve it -- sauce on the side?

nj...in the south, especially anywhere near Texas, if it doesn't have a smoke ring they won't eat it. You ought to see their scrambled eggs. LOL.

But, the smoke ring is not cause by the smoke. It's actually a chemical reaction to nitrate/nitrites in the smoke from charcoal.

In a CS you won't get a smoke ring from just burning wood.

You can however create a Smoke ring for "looks" if you want.

1. Do the Tenderquick thing, but be careful, you are chemically curing the meat and it will alter the taste if you leave it on too long.

2. Add a chunk of charcoal to the firebox along with your regular wood.

3. Leave the "unsmoked" wood from a previous smoke in the firebox. If it's not totally burned through, just leave it in and it will actually help create the effect.

I'm a pecan wood freak! For this brisket I used pecan chips - sliced and served Cookshack's spicey barbeque sauce on the side. And yes Smokin, you are right - we have to have that pink ring down south!

I guess down South they would say " It don't mean a thing if it ain't got that ring !" Up here in the Northeast it's not something we really think about, so I'll probably keep it simple and save my tenderquick for when I make smokin's honey brine. Thanks for the info guys.