first brisket

Hi Elijah. Welcome to the forums. I am smoking a brisket right now in my SM025. Been going for 12 hours and my internal temp is 187. I am shooting for 195 in the flat. Mine is a full packer brisket weighing in at 14 pounds.

It sounds like you might just have the point or the flat. I have not had very good success with just flats. The butchers around here trim all the fat off, and in my experience that's what you need to keep these moist.

You didn't mention what your smoker temp was. I am using 225. Maybe some others will chime in soon. I am just about ready to pull mine and will be making burnt ends. Check out our friends Smokin's Brisket 101. If you haven't already. Check back and I am sure you will get more responses.

http://www.cookshack.com/store...1-Series/Brisket-101

That's right, the smoker temp started at 225 up until 6 hours in when I checked and the temp was 150 then I bumped it up to 250 and checked 6 hours later and the brisket was at 155. Seems like an awfully low temp after 12 hours in the smoker. I'm not sure which part of the brisket it was either. Thanks for your response.

If it's a "used" smoker, the first thing to validate is the internal temp.

4 lb flat (too small for a real brisket would be typically done in the 6 to 10 hour range (depending on how many times you open the door).

Cook it to an internal temp of 195, regardless of how long. I'd bump the temp up to 250 to get her going so it gets past the stall.

Thanks for chiming in Smokin Okie. I'll be doing another this weekend and will leave it in longer.

Are you using a calibrated digital thermometer? Do you have a temp probe for your pit? I'd make sure everything is in working order before using it again.

So I smoked some raw sausages last night, hot Italian and red wine, for 3 hours at 200 degrees. When I used the thermometer to check temp at the 3 hour mark they were at 180 degrees so I pulled them and got them into cool water. Hmmmm... Tasty.... The smoker was cold when I started and the sausages were right out of the refrigerator. So I assume everything was/is working properly. I think what's not working is.... Me. I prolly just need to leave the brisket in there quite a bit longer. I'll try again pronto.

As to the questions, it is not a calibrated digital thermometer. Just a cheapie sunbeam thermometer. Where do I get a good thermometer from?

A simple single probe Polder or similar digital can be found at Walmart for under $20. If you find them on sale, grab two as the probes usually go south sooner or later.

Dual probe digitals, such as Maverick ET732's can be found on Amazon or Ebay for $50-75. These allow you to monitor smoker and meat temps at the same time.

If spending more than $25, look for a brand that sells replacement probes.

There's more info in the THERMOMETER section of the forum.

Good tips from the experienced cooks above.
The major one I like to point out is the stores sell that, usually, very lean piece of flat for nice grannys to have the family over for pot roast on Sunday.

She gets a couple pounds of potatoes,a large onion and about four carrots.Cook overnight in the crockpot and it is a nice after church pot roast,as it is falling to pieces removing it from the crockpot.Pour the gravy out into her gravy boat.

She'll have some nice brown and serve rolls and sweet tea.Maybe even her famous apple pie for dessert.

If she is lucky,she will even have some nice pot roast leftovers for Mon. night.

You'll ,of course,go get yourself a packer brisket and have the meal that cooker was designed for over a half century ago.No more frustrations.

Thanks folks. I just ordered the Maverick 732 off of amazon.com and will anxiously await its arrival before I do another brisket. What's nice is I'll be able to verify smoker temp and make sure my ducks are in a row. Thanks for all of the replies.

You can check you probes in ice water and boiling water to make sure they are working. Never immerse the probe or it will be worthless.

This isn't the sausage forum,but just a thought on raw sausages.Good sausage cooks tried to teach me,unless you like tough,rubbery,kinda tasteless sausages, you might take your new,calibrated instatherm and check them for around 156º.If they are covered and rest awhile,they should rise to 160º,or a couple more,depending how high a heat you were using.

Hope this helps a little.

^^^^^^ What he said on the sausages.

Elijah. If you haven't read Smokin's Brisket 101, you owe it to yourself to do so. Why learn the hard way when a pro can make it a lot easier for you. Here it is.

Once you've read Brisket 101, go to the movies here.

I'm at a loss as to why a 4 lb flat took so long to cook. You'll also get much better results with a full packer. They're big, but freezing and reheating works for future simple dinners.

Hope this all helps.

One thought about cooking time on large meats.This doesn't speak to the problems of the cooker.

If we think about using a crosscut meat saw to cut a 1/2 inch slice[maybe 3/4 lb] across a shoulder ,or packer,toss it in a preheated 350ºskillet for five mins,and then flip it for five more mins.It will be done,safe to eat,etc.The reason folks cook slo/lo is to render fat and break down collagen.

There is no straight line between time and weight.A piece of flat from a 16 yr old dairy bull[great lean pot roast] may take the same time to break down the collagen,no matter size or bite that has the collagen.
Cooks throw out cook times ,referring to 8 lb butts and 16 lb choice packers.
New cooks may take that 70 mins/lb cook time and multiply by the 2,3,4 lb piece of flat.They then have to keep opening the door,because they know it has to be done by now.

Hope this gives a little more perspective.

Thanks for all of the replies folks. And Tom that does make sense. Being a newbie I was looking at time/lb but now I'm getting a better understanding of it. I did 7 lbs of St Louis style ribs on Saturday and it took a good 6 hours at 225. So I can see it taking maybe even 20 hours on a tough brisket. My thermometer should be here Thursday so I can try another brisket this weekend.

Yep,just take notes and make small changes.

So my thermometer arrived yesterday and I just happened to have a small 4 lb chicken in the fridge. Decided to go ahead and give the Maverick it's first go while smoking the chicken. So I noticed some things, I noticed that when the temp on Smokette is set to 250, I fluctuate between 218 and 235. Is this normal? I pulled the chicken at 160 internal temp and crisped up the skin in the oven, it had started drizzling/raining otherwise I'd a used the grill. The chicken was not in a brine or anything. I used some sea salt and some blend thing that I got at Costco. The chicken was EXCELLENT! Very excited to try a brisket again now that I can see what's going on in the smoker

Yep,oven temp settings are averages,just like your house oven.Many find that the more full the oven cavity is and the less we open the door,the less the temp swings.

I assume you checked the new therm for accuracy?

You can set your cooker at the max and run it for a couple hrs and that should tell you about what your average temp at that setting is.

You might want to go down to the thermometer forum and read up on them.

If it still never reaches the set temp,call services and they'll help you.

It's normal. Kitchen oven temps don't show the swing, but put your therm in there, and you'll see some variations.

It's the nature of thermostats. On or off. Your home heating system works the same way. Heater is on till house temp comes up to where your thermostat is set. Then the heater is shut off till house temp drops to where the thermostat turns the system on again.

I guess I learned the hard way to LTSA: Leave That Sucker Alone... Put it in, fire her up and leave her alone !! I put my brisket in my SM150 at 225 for 12 hours, heck my SM150 has a beef preset that I use... Put it at about 8pm and go to bed. Don't even look in the smoker until the wife leaves for work about 8am... About that time my smoker goes into hold mode, then I check it with my quick read digital thermometer, usually it's at temp AND most important that probe slides in and out like a hot knife on warm butter... SO fall apart good I have to take the shelf out and carefully flip the brisket into a waiting pan. Trying to lift it off the shelf with a huge fork and tongs it only breaks up on me. Now THAT is some fine brisket...

Be patient and keep it simple, don't bury the beef flavor of the meat in a bunch of injections, just slap a nice rub on it, pick a couple ounces of hickory or red oak and fire her up !! I don't even bother with a probe or worrying what the temp is, I know if I leave it closed and let the smoker slow cook that brisket it'll be just fine.

Really