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You need to go by internal temp. rather than time per pound.  Buy a good remote read thermometer. and smoke it until the temp reads 190 degrees.  Once you hit 190 to 195 degrees, You have to by feel.  Take a toothpick, and probe the brisket.  When the toothpick goes into the briskets and it feels like warm butter, it is basically done.  If you want really good brisket, wrap it the brisket up, and place it in a warm ice chest for a couple of hours. 

The founder of  this site was champion cook.  He said:  Good BBQ is done when it is done" .  This doesn't have anything to do with 1.5 hours/pound. 

 

 

What Mike said. To elaborate, wrapping in double heavy foil, then an old towel, then in the (at least room temp) cooler - what has been referred to as FTC (foil, towel, cooler) can keep it getting tender as it rests and hot enough to serve for a couple of hours at least. BTW, just for planning whether you'll be able to go to bed, at 225 degrees I'd plan on at least 24 hours. The "stall" where it sits at 165 or so for a long time, will take several hours so don't get discouraged or tempted to turn the heat up. PS - make sure you put your probe on the fattest part of the flat, not the point. Sorry if I'm telling you stuff you already know. If your question was specific to what to do with prime brisket, as opposed to choice or CAB, I'd probably look for slighty less overall time.

Curious about the timing (as it relates to when to wake up) for a smokette/sm0025. 

Doing an 18lb brisket for Sunday before Memorial Day (or as much of it as will fit).  Never done a whole packer brisket before, and I know I've had slow/delayed cooks when I really load up with tons of ribs.  If I'm serving at 3pm on Sunday, should be safe pre-heating the smokette and putting the brisket in at 1pm on Saturday (allowing for foil time in the cooler)? 

Also, do y'all foil prior to 190?  Any thoughts on mustard and brown sugar/rubs or something more simple? 

Thanks,

Bud

There are many ways to do brisket and they turn out great Brisket.  Just look at Franklin BBQ in Texas.  They use a simple salt and pepper rub.  Many say this is the best brisket in Texas.  This is just the way I do mine.  I trim the fat cap down to about 1/4" and remove as much "Hard fat" as possible.  I use a rub I mix up called Wild Willy's; https://www.foodwine.com/food/...egg0697/wildrub.html .  I use raw or turbinado sugar, but brown sugar would work.  I have used Mustard to act like glue, and can't really taste it in the finished product.  I have read that you can use Worcestershire Sauce or even Olive oil work also.  I simply put a really good coating of the rub on and let the salt start drawing the moisture to the surface of the brisket.  I do the trimming and dry rub the day before I plan to smoke the brisket.  I want the rub on at least over night.  The next day I put the cold brisket in a cold smoker and then start the smoker.  I cook my briskets fat side up.  I use several different temp setting through the cook.  I use 185 to 200 degrees to start out.  I want to get as much smoke on the brisket as I can before the internal temp of the brisket hits 140 degrees.  Once the brisket comes up to 140 degrees, I bump the smoker temp to 250 to 275 degrees until bed time.  I drop the temp back to 225 degrees, and go to sleep.  Early the next morning, I bump the smoker temp to 275 degrees.  I do not wrap my brisket in foil or "Peach" butcher paper through the cook.  When the brisket hits 185 to 190 degrees I start probing it with a skewer.  When the skewer goes into the brisket like it is warm butter, the brisket is done.  then put it in one of the cheap disposable pans.  and into a warm cooler with the drain hole open.  When I have to wrap I use the butcher paper over the top of the pan.  I don't want the bark that develops on the outside to get soggy.  As far as timing, I plan on a minimum of 8 hours with the rub on, 20 hours in the smoker, and 4 hours in the cooler before slicing time.  I have 009, 045, and 066, and have cooked packer briskets in all of them.  You might have to put a bend in the brisket, and scrunch them up, but they will fit.12 6 18 6   

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I don't know that charcoal is approved in the Cookshack smokers.  When I first started smoking some 30 plus years ago, I went from an upright Brinkman to my SMO 009.  I was still in the more smoke for the longest time mode.  Every thing I did started to taste the same.  Chicken and pork tasted the same as beef.  I finally realized that this smelled just like creosote.  The SMO smokers are very tight, and very moist.  2 to 8 oz. of wood is usually plenty of smoke.  Some people say that they cook fish and chicken in a well seasoned smoker and don't add wood.  Most of the people that have replied to you have learned over the years that in the SMO smokers, the meat will take smoke until it reaches 140-150 degrees internal temp, and after this the smoke starts building up on the outside and starts tasting like creosote.  This is why I said: I try to get as much smoke on the meat before it reaches 140 degrees IT, and why some of us start the cook with cold meat in a cold smoker.

 

Jay:  everyone says they know it is good BBQ by the size of the "smoke ring".  They never talk about how or why meat develops the pink ring.  When you smoke on free flowing smokers for hours, The meat starts picking up Sodium Nitrite from the smoke and develops "the Smoke ring".  Some of the old guys on the forum said that if you had to show a smoke ring, just add a very little "Pink curing salt" to your rub.  I think I can say that the "pink ring" has nothing to do with good BBQ.

 

Mike, Absolutely agree. By the way, your little tutorial earlier on brisket was spot on - thanks for reminding me of some points I'd forgotten. I haven't done brisket in a while - it's about time. I just wish I could find a whole packer locally. No local markets carry them, including BJ's, Sam's, and Costco, just thin flats. On line is just too much $$$.

Your point about "smoke before 140 degrees" is also one a lot of people don't understand. Heavy smoke after that temp has ruined a lot of meat, in my opinion.

 

 

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