I tried a brisket, for my second magic trick, in my 008 with great results.

It was a 5.6 lb flat. Lathered it with yellow mustard and used my own dry rub mix, from the fridge into the smoker. Used only 1 chunk of hickory (2 oz.). Set oven temp for 225.

Starting meat temp was 47. Took it up to 190. It took 10 hrs 18 min to get there. Almost 2 hrs a pound. This seems longer than a lot of the posts I've seen, but maybe that's just my unit. The ribs I did as my first smoke also seemed to take a little longer than other posts.

Results were definitely a "A" (can alway think of tweaks). The 2 oz of wood provided more than enough smoke flavor. The meat was moist, tender and very sliceable, in fact you could cut it with a fork. Hopefully I can get my picture of the finished product posted.

I think the success I have had with the first two smokes is due to fighting all of the impulses I have to try to control things. Put the meat in, with my trusty remote thermometer, set the temp and "its done when its done."

I decided on this one to just pop it in, with the minimum wood recommendation, and wait to open the door until it hit my target temp. Its too easy! The hard part is leaving it alone and let it to its thing.

The only thing I would change is to do the overnight cook. I started at around 8:30am so by 7pm we had little patience for resting the meat, etc. I think some resting and holding would improve it.

I also felt like I needed an authentic thin red sauce to serve it with, like I used to have with brisket in Texas. Gotta search the forums for something like that. Finally, I'll have to figure out how to get my wife to clean the smoker for me.

Andy: I am glad to hear of your good results. I just ordered a black smokette at the home show in Kansas City last weekend. I'm expecting my smoker any day. Wanted to pass on to you what my salesperson showed me at the show. Makes cleaning a breeze. Take aluminum foil and line the bottom of the unit, making a drain hole for the drippings to escape. Next, make a "tent" or cover for the smoke/wood box out of foil. This he says will save a lot of cleaning later on. Hope this helps.

Thanks,

I already have the foiling trick down. Was just doing a little joke on the clean up end.

When you get yours, just realize that the heating element does not maintain a constant temperature, but goes through heating/burning cycles. The oven temp can swing significantly because of this. But it is "normal."

So far, my major problem is overthinking and worrying.

I agree Andy....

I don't even bother checking the cooking temp...if I saw the swings I'd just panic and try to 'micro-manage' it. As the guy on TV says, I 'set it and forget it' and let CS do its thing.

I've had great results with ribs, brisket, butt and now rib roast. It's almost idiot proof...

arkansasQer

I've had excellent results with my last brisket by injecting it with beef broth. I got the TIP off of this web site. I'm smoking another brisket in about two weeks...thinly sliced and added to a cool crisp salad, and one or several galsses of Merlot..!!!!

dan

Baltimore, Throw some crumbly blue cheese on that salad, yee haw!

Cool, Smokin' was able to post my pic of the brisket.

Well, the weather here has been windy, wet and just plain miserable!! I still had an overnight smoke to do in preparation for this upcoming weekend 4/9 at the lake house. Not wanting to let mother nature get the best of me, I pulled the wife's van out of the garage as a contingency if the weather doesn't improve. Saturday night came and it got worse, thunder, lightening, rain....and more rain.

So, I took out my pork shoulder and my brisket which was already rubbed down and fired up the SMokin Tex in the garage. I left the garage door open about 3 inches and my back sliding glass door about 3 inches, w/ the ceiling fan on.

Set all my temps and alarms on all the probes and went to bed.

The brisket hit the 195 mark first, then the pork. Wrapped them both and let them set. After which, I had to throw them in the freezer (after pulling my pork) no pun intended. I'll find out this coming Saturday how they turned out. My brisket selection wasn't very good this time. I should have wrapped and added some more beef stock after 3 or 4 hours??

Yea RaiderBill, that sounds great!!!! good idea.