Re: First brisket in my new Smokette

Does look good, congrats on the first brisket. Good lookin' brisket for California

Glad to help with the photos, I edited your post to fix a couple of broken links.

Couple of questions, was this a full brisket? You didn't provide details of the cook, such as size of the brisket, time, temp, that would help the next newbie.

The reason I ask is that the cut meat in the one photo either 1) looks like it's from the deckle (the fatter piece usually on top) or it might have been cut with the grain (did you cut it cross grain?)

As far as I know, this was a full brisket. 11.2 lbs. The cut section that you see is the deckle(?), not the flat. Not sure how I cut it, with or across the grain. Pretty much, just cut it. I did read brisket 101, and was fortunate to follow some of it. Cooked at 225 for 12 hours. My polder read close to 310 in the oven for many hours, and the meat temp was all over the place for most of the cook. Not until about 10 hours into the cook did I get readings that appeared to make sense. Not sure if the polder is confused by all of the smoke / steam.....works perfect in my weber. Something I will have to pay closer attention to on the next cook.....in summary, I could not have cooked this long without this cooker. I have just begun.............

Thought it looked like the deckle.

To know how to cut the brisket, try this.

BEFORE you season it/put it in the smoker, look at the brisket and you'll see the grain. Take a knife and cut one of the corners off that would be 90degrees off from the grain. Don't cut with the grain or it can be very stringy.

When the brisket is all black, you'll see the cut corner and know how to cut.

Smokin Okie's tip is one I use when I do brisket and it works well. I find that the deckle usually runs at a different angle than the flat, but I still follow the cut from the flat. I have seen folks in 'cue joints here in Texas separate the deckle and flat before cutting. I think they usually chop the deckle for chopped beef sandwiches.