first of all i'd like to say thanks for all the free help i've received from this forum. cookshack users are great. i had the cs for 2 weeks before i could find time to use it. i know that's hard to beleive. my first smoke was a 11.14 lb brisket. i bought it at 8.30 am on sunday, took it home, unpacked it, trimmed a little fat off, spread yellow mustard on it, and sprinkled canadian steak seasoning on it. at 9.30am i put it in the smoker at 225 degrees. then i went to work. came home at 3pm and the meat temp was 156 degrees. i was thinking about having some friends over to test my first brisket that night so i turned up the heat to 250 degrees. at 10.20 pm the meat temp as measured with the probe stuck into the side of the flat angled toward the center was 190 degrees. i was starving so i turned off the cooker and brought the brisket inside the house and loosely wrapped in foil for about 30 minutes.
it tasted great but i almost think i overcooked it. it wasn't dry but when i sliced the flat pencil thick i couldn't even pick up a slice from one end without the weight of the slice breaking the slice in half. it was that tender. now i'm not sure i was even cutting across the grain. i didn't mark grain before i put it in the cs and could not tell how the grain was laid out after i got it out. i just cut it perpendicular to the long side of the flat. was that the most probable across the grain cut?
anyway it did taste great but it didn't have that great texas bbq joint (the green mesquite) feel to it. did i cut into too fast? not much juice ran out of it when i cut it. i used 4 oz of hickory and one kingsford charcoal briquet. thanks for all the help. i think i'm going to try a pork butt next.
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