First Brisket done...need some advice on fire control
 

Well, I knocked out my first brisket last week, a small 6 pounder. My biggest problem has been maintaining my temps throughout my cooks. I tend to fall off into the mid 100's, or end up with spiking temps. I have been trying to stick to mostly a bed of coals to start and wood chunks throughout the cook. Anyone have suggestions on the following:

#1: Bed of coals to start - half chimney, whole, or what?
#2: Wood chunks..what size? (Using mostly mesquite or hickory)
#3: Add how much wood how often?

Phil, you live in the N Texas area, so you know how the temps here are, warm even this time of year, so you advice would definately be helpful. I have promised the family a full 12 - 14 pound brisket this Monday, so I gotta deliver.

Anyway, back to my first brisket, I had to run a quick 1 hour errand that turned into 4 hours, so I lost most of my heat. Upon returning, I decided to go slow and low and left it around 140 - 150 for the rest of the day (12 hours) and then pulled if from the smoke, foiled it, and slid it in the oven at about 130 - 135 overnight. Considering I thought of this as a rescue attempt after losing all my heat, it turned out pretty good. Good smoke ring and good taste. But with a larger piece of meat and house full of hungry relatives waiting on me, I can't risk the same thing for this Monday.

Anyway, I hope everyone is having a great weekend...and Happy Holidays to all.

I usually start with a whole chimney. Dump it and light another one off, while I let some wood heat up on the firebox lid. dump the second chimney and add the wood slowly until I'm up to temp. Mesquite will burn hot and fast so go easy with it, making small additions and adjustments. Falling temps? have the fuel high enough off the bottom of the firebox to get air and not let the coals drown in ash? If I'm feeling lazy I'll burn some bigger sticks. I've been able to get the heat and clean smoke without the attention I'd give it using smaller chunks.

that works for me, but as always your mileae may vary.

Stacy,

I'm sorry, I don't remember what kind of cooker you have.

Starting off with warm/hot water in the waterpan and not having to heat it up along with the smoke chamber should help get you up to temp quicker.

A tip I learned from Bill, (yes our resident wiseass does give useful tips ocassionally :twisted: ) One you are at temp, keep 8 to 12 briquettes in the firebox but on the outside edge of the fire, these will "back light". drag them into the center as they turn white and continue the process. you will have a consistent coalbed, and generally consistent temps. I actually prefer this method over the potential of using a charcoal box, but it does require attention every 45 minutes or so.

Others will add more info I'm sure, but I thought these might be 2 quick fixes for you. Good luck, you know we're here for you brother!

i always start with a near full chimney and a few chunks of wood. Use this to get up to temp and start preheating some wood on top of the firebox. Afte the inital load of carcoal, i try to stay woith all wood after that but keep adding a few pieces of lump occasionally to maintain a coal bed. As coal bed disappears and im down to just burning lofgs, if i cant get a log to break apart to form coals, i will add lit lump from a chimney.. enough to re-establish a coalbed.

If your using wood chunks, fist size chunks work well and i add them 2 or 3 at a time. With decent coal bed, split logs also work, about 7 inchs long and no thicker than a beer can. I actually prefer them slightly thinner so i will split it once further. You will need to tend every 30-45 miniutes on a bandera or brinkman offset.

If i ran into what you did and lost all my heat.. i most likely would have just picked up where i left off and started over with a full chimney of charcoal and continued on the regular way.


by the way.. when did I move from NY to N. Texas? Do I like my new place? Do I have a pool? its gonna be a hell of a commute to work though. :)

Texas is Big, Poobah. NY is just a county in Deep North East Texas.

:-)

Thanks guys, that gives me an idea to start with. I'm using a Bnadera (I'm official, finally!), and I have mod'd a piece of expanded metal to raise my coal bed, so I know ash isn't a problem. My first run, I had too much heat and my temps spiked. Last time, I kept only throwing in one fist sized chunk at a time...I'll have to definately increase that. I'll plan my cook tonight and get up bright and early tomorrow to start the process. You guys are great! I'll post some updates and picks....wish me luck.

Sorry, Phil, was thinking of someone else..give it time, one day NY just be North Texas one day :lol:

My intention was to point out that we can cook in late Decemeber in mid 60's degree weather....jsut rubbing it in for you northerners. 8)

Good thing Texas has had massive cattle herds for ever droping their BS, otherwise you would'nt have anything to stand on. :lol: :lol: :lol:

UPDATE:
Things have been moved to Tuesday...too much trouble to get the wood and meat I want late on a Sunday...so much for procrastinating. :lol:

My thoughts are to do a couple of Boston Butts AND a Brisket (AND the requisite brats and fatties, but those are just extra niblin's). I was thinking of smokin' the butts on Monday and foiling them overnight to pull on Tuesday and then doing the brisket on Tuesday. BUT, that puts me at 2 days of cooking and twice the wood. Can I cook everything tomorrow and foil them both? Will brisket still be good sitting from late Monday night till 6 or 7 PM Tuesday? I wanted to get a jump on things due to my last couple of trys taking ALOT longer than expected...any suggestions?

WEATHER UPDATE:
Highs have been increased to the 70's. Isn't Christmas coming up some time???? Shouldn't there be more cold white stuff falling? :lol: :lol: :lol:

I cook butts and briskets together all the time. Rub them up ahead of time, then wrap in plastic and let set out on the counter for a couple of hours before you plan to put in the cooker. If you have brown sugar in your rub, it will caramelize some, just hit them again with some more rub before putting in the cooker. The warming up of the meat at room temp helps speed up the cooking time.

Depending on what time you finish cooking, you might get some sleep before the meat will need some attending. I would say if you wrap the butts and brisket in towels and put in a dry cooler, you should be OK for about 5 hours or so, maybe longer. Leave a probe in a butt.
I don't think I'd let the temp of the meat get much lower than 140* before I was pulling or slicing. My opinion, others may disagree.

I read where you've got the coals up off the floor. Did you add a baffle? If not, make one from aluminum foil and put over the firebox opening, inside the smoke chamber. This deflects the heat down and keeps the heat from going up the right side wall and out the stack.

OK, gotta question. The smallest Hirsch's had was a 14 pounder (brisket, got a 6# Boston Butt as well), so now I have a dilemma. We're looking at eating 'round 7 PM tomorrow, and I don't want to be up overnight tending a fire. Is there anyway to avoid having to get up at 4 am to start the fire? Can I start it in the oven overnight and then move it to the smoke, or is it better to cut it in half and do 2 smaller ones? Is that blasphemy? ;)

Dunno, I never have tried it. I would think it would serve you better to start right after work and smoke until 2AM or 3AM in the morning, then move to the oven to finish and/or hold. If the smoker is at temp and you put the meat in at 7PM, that would be 7 to 8 hrs of smoke, and you'll probably be at an internal temp somewhere around 145*-155* range. You've still got to go through the collegen breakdown period.

There's been discussion that meat stops taking smoke at 160*, dunno if it's fact or fiction. starting in the oven and moving to the smoker later might prohibit the meat from taking the smoke.

I've never really seen it change my cooking time much by separating a brisket. You still have a 14 lb mass of meat. I have separated some pork butts in halves and shaved an hour or so off.

I did 2 12# packers and an 8# butt a couple of weeks ago for customer orders. It was a 17 hour cook, the weather was not my friend.

Good luck, keep us posted!

If you're doing pork and a brisket I'd recommend you let that Butt cook overtop the beef. I let a few racks of baby backs drizzle hot pork fat onto a cooking brisket and it was farking AWESOME.

Nice recovery on that first brisket, by the way!

Good luck and Merry Christmas, bro.

Dam i just had a pork sammich and i hungry again.Baby Backs are my favorite. :roll:

Turn up the gas...sorry could not resist.

OK, I am going to rename this thread:
The Brisket Saga:
OK, it was on again off again...now it's on again. Too many "family" in town and my wife has surgery Wed morning..so alot of conflicts going on. (And those who know how I came to the board and can read my name will surmize that this is a tough time of year for us anyway. Emotions are skewed...but I digress...)
Got the Boston Butt rubbed down in a moded version of the Down South Rub for pulled prk sammiches (I screwed it up and did my best to recover, but was short on spices...so I made do with what I had)
I'm gonna slice the brisket in half to make it easier to handle and for airflow issues. 8 am, both briskets will go on with the butts. I'll take the brisket to 160 then finish it off in the oven (sorry, gotta take shortcuts on this one)...I'll take the butt to 190 and then cooler it till we're ready to eat. Bratts will be in the kitchen in beer and onions...then finished off on the grill....did I miss anything?

Thanks for the advice guys, I couldn't have planned this without the advice of the brethren...now let's see how I pull it off...pics and stories to come...