Newbie and need help

[RANGER185]

Hey everyone, been reading this forum for a while and love it. Bought my Bradley a couple of weeks ago. Am cooking a Brisket tonight and need to know how long @ 200-225. Brisket will weigh 12lbs. I know I will have to cut in half, which one on top? Thick or thin? Any info would be helpful. Thank You all for this great connection to the smoking process.

[bsolomon]

Ranger,

Without trying to be cute, the answer is, "cook it until it's done." One thing you will need to get used to is the idea of cooking to internal temperature, rather than worrying about the time it takes.  In the case of brisket you will want an internal temperature of somewhere between 185-205 degrees (lower end of the scale for slices and upper end of the scale for shredded).  If you haven't already invested a few dollars in a good dual-probe remote thermometer, I would highly recommend it.

All that being said, depending on ambient conditions, cabinet temperature, and how cold the meat is when you start, figure maybe 1 to 1-1/2 hours per lb., so 12 lbs. of brisket should cook in somewhere between 12 and 18 hours (and less if cut into two pieces).

If you can avoid cutting the brisket, you might cook it intact to help preserve the moisture content in the meat.  If you do decide to cook it in two pieces, I would put the thicker one on the bottom because it will get more heat closer to the heating element.  With any luck the two parts will cook in a similar amount of time.  I would probably try to monitor the internal temperature of both pieces to ensure that they are each cooked to the correct temperature.

Placing some cheap, fatty bacon in the uppermost rack is never a bad idea and will act as an automatic baster, and I would especially recomment this if you do cut the brisket into two pieces.

Good luck and let us know how it turns out.

[BigSmoker]

If you have a whole brisket seperate the point from the flat and smoke/cook the point on top of the flat.  Monitor the flat with a thermo and pull it when it's 185f.  Wrap in foil and store in an empty cooler wrapped with old towels for at least 1 hr.  Continue to cook the point untill it's 200+ then same procedure.  Slice the flat and chop the point[:p].  Happy Smokin'.

Jeff



Some say BBQ is in your blood, if thats true my blood must be BBQ sauce.

[JJC]

Welcome to the Forum, Ranger!  You've got great advice from BSolomon and Bigsmoker.  Let us know how things turn out!

John
Newton MA