Competion brisket

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antone04

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Hello guys, I'm new to the forum and had a question. When I cook a brisket, I cook on my backyard offset smoker at 250 for about 12-15 hours depending on the size of the brisket. I'm cooking in my first comp this Friday and plan on cooking four briskets in a larger offset smoker, the smoker can hold about 8 briskets, any suggestions on if I need to crank up the heat because I'm gonna have four briskets on the pit?
 
A few questions first.

Have you practiced cooking more than one brisket on your BY smoker? Have you cooked on the larger smoker before? Will there be anything else on the larger smoker besides the 4 briskets?
 
cooking 4 along with all the other meats? Amount of time that Pit temp will recover changes, however temp to cook at does not change vrs volumn....also the amount of wood used to maintain temp will, you have more mass to heat up..if you go in with cold meats your ambient temps will fall quicker, think about a mixxed drink, 1 ice cube or 4? Maintain your desired pit temp and when its done its done..so the bottom line is, if the recovery time lags so will your rise of internal meat temps.
 
Yes, 4 is a bit much; we cook 2 - from different sources - each comp
And temp is temp 250 is 250 unless your pit is hotter or colder depending on location . . . . .
 
antone04 said:
Hello guys, I'm new to the forum and had a question. When I cook a brisket, I cook on my backyard offset smoker at 250 for about 12-15 hours depending on the size of the brisket. I'm cooking in my first comp this Friday and plan on cooking four briskets in a larger offset smoker, the smoker can hold about 8 briskets, any suggestions on if I need to crank up the heat because I'm gonna have four briskets on the pit?
Click to expand...

To re-word what others above are saying/asking; why 4 briskets? Most competitions requiring brisket are 1 turn-in blind. For these types of contests, most competitors cook 1 or 2 briskets. Me, I always do 2, but I have a Lang 84 and capacity has never been an issue and we love eating leftovers...

If your smoker has good heat circulation around the briskets, cooking them at your established temperatures should be fine and you shouldn't need to either increase the temperature nor change your cook times/schedule.

Best of luck!
 
Get 2 briskets, one is always better than the other in more than one way.
 
I took a class from this guy once and what he said makes since. Cook only one of each category (except ribs 2). This way you won't be second guessing yourself on your turn ins. Also you'll learn to perfect what you do, not to mention saving $$$.....
 
Podge said:
Get 2 briskets, one is always better than the other in more than one way.
Click to expand...
This. Brisket is a heartbreaker, because there is so much variability in the meat. You can go minimal on the other meats, and we do, but we still do two briskets.

I can't see four, though, just the time to process/slice/evaluate four would be pushing the timeline to get an entry assembled and not have it end up looking just as rushed as it was.
 
What she said! I still just cook one, but it's bit me on the butt before (just look for BBQr's Delight score at the AR open last year -- start at the bottom). Still I can't decide between two for turn in. My palate is shot by then.
 
Don't over think it. Just cook what you want. Everyone will tell you their hero stories of what they cook and how they can cook 6 chicken thighs and one rack of ribs and they win all the time. Cook four briskets of you have the room and effort. I cook one because I am lazy. There are plenty of comps I wish I had 4. There is nothing wrong with 4 or 2 or 1. Whatever makes you comfortable. I use to cook four pork butts to get the box I wanted.
 
I would search the forum, as this is a topic that was been talked about...a LOT. :blah:
 
We cook on an off-set RF cooker (30x60 chamber size), and the only struggles we find with temperature is when we pack that baby full she struggles to maintain the higher temsp we like to run at. For a competition (KCBS) we cook 2 briskets, 2 butts, 4 slabs of ribs, and a sampling of chicken. If we happen to overlap our times with our big meats, having all of this on there at once does make our temp struggle to say higher, but placement to ensure we're not blocking flow helps to resolve that issue. I would make sure you have some extra fuel so you can feed it more often if you find you're having issues.

With that being said, I do agree that 4 briskets may be a bit of overkill depending on the type of competition you're doing.
 
Candy Sue said:
What she said! I still just cook one, but it's bit me on the butt before (just look for BBQr's Delight score at the AR open last year -- start at the bottom). Still I can't decide between two for turn in. My palate is shot by then.
Click to expand...

So are a lot of the judges!:wink:
 
Alexa RnQ said:
This. Brisket is a heartbreaker, because there is so much variability in the meat. You can go minimal on the other meats, and we do, but we still do two briskets.

I can't see four, though, just the time to process/slice/evaluate four would be pushing the timeline to get an entry assembled and not have it end up looking just as rushed as it was.
Click to expand...

I'm not much of a cook, but I figure that after one slice of each brisket, a cook should know which brisket to concentrate on...but me, I don't have room for 4 briskets on the smoker, so I'll keep cooking two like ya all do!:thumb:
 
Burnt at Both Endz said:
I'm not much of a cook, but I figure that after one slice of each brisket, a cook should know which brisket to concentrate on...but me, I don't have room for 4 briskets on the smoker, so I'll keep cooking two like ya all do!:thumb:
Click to expand...

This. I only cook one due to limited bandwidth, but I know if it sucks after one slice!
 
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