First smoke ever... brisket!

[Quaffer]

Got the #1 right before the 4th of July, seasoned it the day after, and got busy for the weekend.  Left the option for what to smoke first to the wife and she picked brisket.  I was so impressed I ran with it.  Picked up a trimmed 6.5# brisket from my butchery and put a maple sugar based rub on it overnight.  Started smoking on Sunday morning around 7am at 225 degrees.  Around noon, pulled it and put it in foil with some apple juice and Worcestershire sauce (Texas Crutch) and resumed.  Kept it going until about 5pm when internal temp reach ~195 and rewrapped it in foil and a towel and put in in a cooler to rest for a couple hours.  Sliced and served at 7pm for some friends and family to rave reviews.  It's easily one of my best cooks ever.  Looking forward to knocking out some teriyaki smoked salmon next weekend.

Best investment ever.

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[swthorpe]

Sounds like a great maiden voyage!  Rave reviews are a beautiful thing!

Cheers, and many happy smokes!

[Spresso]

Good going!
Especially that you got done in time,
 unlike my first smoke....

[afratki]

Brisket is one of the tougher meats to smoke and you're ballsy picking it as your first but you pulled it off!

Kudos and my hat's off to you sir. 

I'm planning to smoke a brisket this weekend (my first one wasn't very successful). Did you serve yours with any dipping or BBQ sauce?

[UWFSAE]

Outstanding, Quaffer ... glad your maiden smoke was a success.  Be sure to post pics if you have any. 

[es1025]

Great job! Welcome to the club. Our machines are pretty much effortless.  i think we spend more time on what meat to buy, and what rub to put on then the cooking process. 

[DivotMaker]

Way to go, Quaffer!  Go big or go home, I always say!  If you're gonna test drive a Lamborghini, why take it through the school zones at 25 mph?  lol.  I like the way you think!  By choosing one of the hardest meats to smoke - and get tender results, you've gained the confidence in our sweet little #1!  It's smooth sailing from here! 

You'll find, with the #1, you'll have to cut the brisket in two to do a full 10 or 11 lb packer.  No worries, though.  Put the larger half on the bottom, and the thinner "flat" cut on the top, and they'll come out great.  You picked a good method (Texas crutch).  Lots of good brisket rubs on here, so be adventurous! 

Welcome to the club, and enjoy your new friend!

[Quaffer]

Thanks all!  First thing I thought when I began researching how to cook brisket was uh-oh.  But then I figured there's so much advice out there that if I stick close to what those before me have done, it's going to turn out ok.  So glad I did.  Here's how it turned out...



Something I just noticed on the recipe link from the website is smoked meatloaf.  That's in my future after next week's salmon cook.  Have a GREAT day all!

[swthorpe]

Oh I  know that was yummy...thanks for sharing   

[DivotMaker]

Looks delicious!  I posted pics of my first brisket, and got some great advice about the importance of a really good-quality carving knife (if you look at my pics at smokinitforums.com/index.php?topic=752.0 under "beef," you'll see our slices kind of look alike).  Actually, yours look better.  I know it doesn't effect the taste, and I carved mine when we were starving, but Joe recommended this knife:

http://smokinitforums.com/index.php?topic=792.0

It's really good, and reasonably priced.  I now own one, and can make really beautiful, even slices.  Check it out if you want to take your "presentation" to the level of your smoker!    I now take pride in presenting some really good-looking slices to my guests.

Great first cook - bet it tasted fantastic!

[Bigumdaddyo]

Looks great!! Half of my first brisket looked something like that. I do not want to talk about the other half! Congratulations on a successful first smokin-it.