Newbie...Couple questions from the virgin smoker

[Rudyfo]

Just purchased a digit 4 rack system...we love it! I have also found this forum to be very helpful! We did a 6 pound pork loin and it was delicious!!!. I have a couple question for someone to answer if they could:

1. Want to do a brisket this weekend....does anyone have any good recipes or suggestions for doing one. I had heard brisket is a little difficult to do? I have been using 1.5 hours per pound at approximately 210. Should I do the same for the brisket?

2. I live in Des Moines, Iowa Where can I find a "bubba puck". Do I need to order it online? If so, where?

3. When people refer to cleaning their smokers after every use,  what exactly do you clean? Do you do anything with the puck feeder?

4. Have read on several posts that I should have an internal/wireless thermometer meat probe to monitor the meat. What is the best brand and where can I find one at.

Thanks to everyone!!! Great site with very useful info!!!!

[Uncle Pigfat]

for the pucks go to yard and pool. 

as for probes, check out the maverick, but all mine are just cheapies I've acquired here and there.  As long as they're accurate, they won't steer you wrong.

I only clean my racks, the 'v' drip tray, and the bowl.  The puck ramp on the smoke generator gets cleaned off with a grill brush when stuff starts to accumulate.

[Uncle Pigfat]

Smoke and stuff has puck savers cheaper than yard and pool.  I couldn't remember the website when I made my first post.  A chunk of aluminum is a chunk of aluminum so you can't go wrong with cheap.

[hal4uk]

Welcome Rudyfo!

I don't even have to smoke a brisket - I can just look at it and it will morph into shoe leather.
We got LOTS of folks that will steer ya right..  They'll be along soon...   ;)

[RossP]

Welcome Rudyfo, one of the Brisket Boys will be along shortly.
I have never done brisket. Enjoy the show.

Ross

[HawkeyeSmokes]

Welcome to the forum Rudyfo!

For your first brisket, try this one

It's from WesTexaSmoker and works great!

[Wildcat]

210 should be fine for the brisket. Personally I coat with olive oil, add sea salt, pepper, sometimes garlic and onion, apply 4 hours of smoke and continue cooking until done. Some folks apply yellow mustard and add all kinds of different rubs, but I like my brisket to be more basic.

[EZ Smoker]

As for me, I keep brisket very, very simple.  I put the rub on (I use a sugar-based rub because the wife likes the bark it gives us) and let it sit several hours in the fridge.  Then I put it in a preheated smoker at 225* until it reaches an IT of 180-190, then FTC (That is wrap in Foil, wrap in Towel for extra insulation, then put it in a preheated Cooler).  I think the FTC is important for a brisket, as it allows your meat to keep breaking down the collagen [which is important to tender, juicy brisket] without risking overcooking it.   It also gives you some cushion as to when it will be ready.   You can safely FTC for several hours.

I use a packer cut and I don't separate the flat from the point.

Here's another good plan for how to do a brisket:
http://www.susanminor.org/forums/showthread.php?532-Brisket-Pachanga

[DTAggie]

Welcome Rudy.  Being in Texas brisket is what my family loves.  They have told me the best rub is a simple kosher salt and fresh ground black pepper.  I do add Grub Rub which lists as ingredients:  Sugar, salt, pepper, papain - which is a tenderizer.  Since you probably have no Grub Rub, try salt, pepper, sugar (i prefer brown or turbinado) and maybe a little tenderizer.  I do not let my rub sit over night if the tenderizer is in there.

Preheat the Bradley with the smoke generator on as high as it will go.  I place the meat in the smoker cold and leave temp set to high until it get backs up above 210* and preferably to 225* for me.  I prefer more smoke and there have been may discussions on here about how long to add smoke and at what temp the meat no longer absorbs smoke.  With the temp drop I personally think you can 6 hours of smoke and it absorbs it all.  I have used Hickory, Mesquite, Oak and Pecan.  Alone and in combos.  Lately my favorite has been Pecan all alone but heck, they are all dang good.

Brisket is not hard in my opinion.  Just take it to 185* IT and then FTC a few hours until eating time.  I have a 190* IT then FTC and it is not as juicy as 185*.  I have FTC up to 5 hours and it is still piping hot.  I use a cheap Polder probe that reads IT and CT.  I have no PID so my OBS requires a bit more attention.  That being said.  I have put one at 9 PM hoping to stay awake until smoke ended to change water pan and empty pucks but fell asleep and it went all night and still was great.

I do suggest you use a foil pan for water on long smokes and not the bowl.  Cleaning is basic.  V-tray and racks.  If you see pealing inside cabinet just wipe off with a paper twoell.  Wipe around inside of vent every once in a while

and....LEAVE vent WIDE open.

Dang I ramble. 

[Caneyscud]

Welcome to the fun Rudy.

If you've read about brisket on this forum - or any other forum for that matters, you quickly find out there are gadzillions of ideas of how to do brisket.  Which makes sense - sorta - since as far as I have figgered out - brisket is just a hunk of meat.  After that, partiality and bias kicks in.  You can ask, but I wouldn't, "Which brisket recipe is best?".  That is one of the classic rhetorical questions of all time.  Sorta like asking someone what the best car is or the best ice cream or God forbid - "Do beans belong in chili", etc... ad infinitum.  There are a lot of truth, deep truths in this world, but asking someone the question what the best brisket is - is only going to get opinions - lots of opinions.  So then you have to sample everybody's opinions and try to rate them.  By that time you are all confused, you don't know which way to turn - everybody's opinion sounds so delicious.  So then you think - I'll be smarter than everybody else - I'll pick and choose the parts and pieces of several opinions - combine them into one recipe/technique and make the bestest dadgummed brisket this world has every seen.  You plan, you scheme, buy the latest and greatest gadgets, toys, upgrades, buy that rare spice from timbuktu Thailand that all the foodies say you haven't lived until you try it, etc....you smoke with one of the almost innumberable possible combinations of pucks (20 minutes of this one, 40 minutes of this type, hour of this topped off with 40 min of this one) - all the while staring at the thermometers, fretting that the temps are vacillating between 185 and 240!   Then, the thump you hear is your hopeful anticipation, your big brisket dream falling, hitting and splatting on the cold hard concrete floor of reality.  That prize brisket did not turn out how you thought it would.  Why??  A myriad of reasons that one could point fingers at, but they culminate in 2 things - failure in following a tried and true method/technique and experience.  

Suggestion?

Think back - have you had brisket you thought was awesome?  Think about what you tasted.  Find a recipe/technique that seems to have those flavors and outcomes such as a hearty bark, etc......   Your first smoke should be that recipe/technique.  Follow it as exactly as you can.  Don't worry about PID's, two elements, temperature swings, puck combinations, etc....  Pay very close attention to tenderness tests and temps to take that baby out at the correct time.   After a proper rest, cut into that baby, and taste it, test it, savor it.  If it is what you and your family likes - do it again may be twice.  By that time you will know what you like about it and what you might like to change - then change to your hearts desire, BUT keep in mind your goal.  i.e.  -  You are not, let me repeat, you will NOT, get that tasty, Brisket Belt Brisket, that you had in Lockhart, et al, with complicated rubs, brines, marinades, foil, apple juice, etc....  Typically all they contain is a packer brisket, salt, pepper, post oak smoke, love, and the smokey-sweat-soot-under-the-fingernail experience of a pitmaster that knows what he is doing.   If you had and enjoyed brisket elsewhere, such as Kansas City, some competition, etc.... you will NOT get that brisket by following the Brisket Belt way.  

Brisket is more than just meat - it is an experience.  Yes, taste and tenderness is important, but I have almost as much pleasure cooking brisket as I have in eating brisket!  I grew up and learned to barbecue in the Brisket Belt.  It's been a part of my life for quite a while.  It's been sort of a fascinating trip down the Route 66 of brisket but without a discernible end in sight.  The goal is the "Perfect Brisket".  However, it always seems that the last one I did was the best - yet - there is always something I think I can do better!  Continuing the dream, continuing the quest - the search for The Perfect Brisket!

BTW - the 1.5 hours per pound for cook time is generally with the cabinet temp at 225.  210 will likely lengthen that.  

[hal4uk]

Another excellent dissertation from CaneyScud!

And therein, I believe, is the key to my failures with brisket.  CS suggests (and this is a good idea for cooking anything) to emulate that great brisket you had somewhere.  Problem is, I never had any that really blew me a away.  I've never had the "Aha!" moment.  If i did have some amazing brisket, that would set me on a quest to reproduce it.

That said, the best one (tasted best to me) that I have done was when Squirt came over and helped me do it - and he made a braising liquid that was from a CaneyScud recipe.  The juices from the beef mixed with it while cooking, and that "liquid gold" was extremely delicious.  Pour that over the sliced brisket -- and yes, it was very good, but the meat by itself still just wasn't blowing me away.  Seemed like, with that "liquid gold", a chuck roast would have been equally as good (?)

I know I'm missing something.  Maybe I'll figure it out someday.

[TestRocket]

"Do beans belong in chili"

Sorry Caneyscud but I kind of want to know if for you it's a yes or no?  ???  ;D

For fun we did a chili cook off at work 3-4 months ago and it went both ways for the five contestants. I'll tell you which way won after I see your opinion.    ;D

[Caneyscud]

Uhhh,  I think I hear a few moans from a few hundred forum members because you asked me that question.  You'll probably get a PM or two asking you not to do that again!  ;D

Here is a link to a post on the subject!  http://forum.bradleysmoker.com/index.php?topic=10312.msg111603#msg111603

I confess, I have made more than one post on chili - here is another.  http://forum.bradleysmoker.com/index.php?topic=8990.0

P.S. --  I love beans particularly pintos and cranberry beans ---- but--------------- ;D ;D ;D ;D

Chili cook-offs are fun.  It is amazing the variety of really good chilis that can be produced by dedicated or semi-dedicated chiliheads!

[hal4uk]

That's it!!!  I knew it!... The beans in my chili are vexing my briskets!!!

[TestRocket]

Nice dodge Caneyscud!

I came in fifth of five (with beans). There were two judges and it turned out not to be blind. I named my chili "Bama bowl of red" and the judges were Auburn grads (I didn't know in advance). I made two gallons and the other four made that amount or less. Every drop of mine was eaten (maybe 30-35) and I had more then 10-12 tell me I would win. Yea! If I had of called it a bowl of war chicken (eagle) and not been decked out in crimson...? Anyway, it was fun and I learned a lesson about showing your true colors to early!