First Brisket

Mornin' retsoon.

You should be able to hold at 200� most of the time,keeping in mind that you will probably have to bump up the temp.at some point, if you plan to take the internal above about 185�.

You can always add a little more wood after a few hours,keeping in mind that it won't accept any more smoke after about 140�.

You also don't want to oversmoke the bark to bitterness.

If I'm just doing one in my smokette,I use the center rack,fat side up and I usually don't turn it.

You might want to have your beans in earlier,if that is when you are producing your heavier smoke.

Although I like my beans on the bottom rack,be aware as Stuart points out that brisket can put out a lot of liquid that could overflow and more fat than you intended.

Hope this helps some.

Why and when, Tom, would someone "bump up" the temp? Smokette is an oven, and I wouldn't just walk up to mine and decide arbitrarily to "bump up" the temp. What makes you decide to do that? Like someone on this board sez: It's done when it's done. What is the advantage of temp bumping?

It's not really an "advantage" but just another method.

An 11 pound brisket will be done well before the 20 hours he wants to cook this so he's trying to figure out how to extend the cook time to fit the available schedule, something we can do in a CS, but many smokers can't do it (well, they can, just not as easily). If he cooks a brisket at 200 or so, it'll be done before the 20 hours as well as it won't reach the desired finishing temp.

It's very common in smoke circles to use a lower temp for longer periods and then turn the temp up to finish it off.

Briskets need lots of time for the Collagen to break down.

I actually smoke a lot of my "larger" briskets this way. Typically 12 pounds and up. You don't have to. It's just another method.

Smokin'

Doin' the Bump! Sounds more like something for a butt!

All kidding aside, being able to predictably extend the cooking time to 20 to 24 hours without degrading the product would allow you to serve food that hasn't been cooked ahead and re-heated. Sounds like a great advantage when time to the table is critical and you don't want to get up at o-dark thirty to start the cook.

The Bump is used by a lot of competitors to inlarge the smokering, it will continue to form until the meat reaches 140� internal.
So if you can put the meat on cold and keep the pit temps down your smokering should be larger.
A 200� is on the low side of temps for BBQ, I prefer 225� range because the real deal about brisket is to get into the 155 to 170� internal range and let it stay there for a while, the heavy work breaking down of collagen is being done at this time. As the collagen breaks down the cells release moisture, the tricks to create the ballance of the break down and keeping the surface at the right temp to keep it moist. If you use to much heat in the bump you can end up with a dry brisket.
A good brisket will normally be in the 188 to 200� internal range when done. By cooking at 200� pit temp it will take to long to reach those temps and you can have the drying effect. This where foil comes into play, can help you keep them moist but it effects the texture by creating a stewing situation.
By knowing what's going on, at what internal temp, you can use the pit temps to gain the results your working for.
Jim

Great points Jim.

I didn't mention the smoke ring effect/theory because you don't get one in a CS. but I'm glad you pointed it out, there are a lot of Non-CS'ers that visit here and we try to help them too.

Smokin'

Thanks all, I guess I should push too much on my first try. 20 hours wasn't a set time more of a guess. I may just aim to get it done at 10 am wrap it in foil, towel and place it in a cooler until about 5 or so when I can get back. If I don't have to do too much checking on a piece of meat like this I can cook it overnight at 225 thinking that 15-16 hours will be right. It is a gamble but I think probably a better one then drying out the first brisket.

Well, after all that good advice I ended up cooking it for almost 20 hours. I started at 200 for 12+ hours then bumped it up to 225 to finish it. I had opened it to take beans out after the first 3+ hours, then opened it to put them back after 12+. Everything came out great. My wife took the meat out at 189 and wrapped it in foil for about 3 hours or so until we could eat it. The flat was just a little bit dry but quite yummy none the less. We doctored up the beans and washed it all down with some homemade Brown Ale.
Our friends who thought we were crazy to spend that kind of money on a smoker have now eaten over 3 days in 3 weeks. THEY ARE ALL JEALOUS! Next I think I will try telling them to bring me meat a couple days in advance and I will smoke it for them.

Congrats.,retsoon.

Just keep it a mystery about how hard the work is.

Retsoon
The lenght of the cook could be the reason for the dry flat. Try this: start at 200� for the first 4 hours, then bump the temp to
225 to 235�, the higher temp would be my choice. The brisket will more than likely done in aprox 16 hours and not as dry.
Your internal temp will finish higher 195 to 200� because of the higher cooker temp.
Ain't this fun!!
Jim

I just cooked my third brisket in the CS over the weekend, and this was the best yet. I also started with a 11# whole brisket. I used Pendery's Yosemite Sam rub on it (for several hours before putting it in the CS). I used about 3+ oz of hickory, and I cooked at 200 for 11 hours, at which point the meat temp was around 174 (and not moving). I bumped the temp up to 225, and 3 hours later I heard the Polder beeping and noticed the internal meat temp was 201. I held it for several hours at 140. The very outside parts were a little dry, but inside was moist and tender with decent bark all around. So far, we've only been eating from the flat since this is my first time cooking a whole brisket. My wife screamed in horror when she saw the thing before I put it in the CS, but she nodded approvingly when she tasted the result. I could use a little help figuring out how to slice and serve the thing since the flat is all I'm used to.

Steve I'll start a new post in your honor.

Smokin'