Newbie Question about cook time

Hi there, I have a 14" Weber smoker and am going to smoke a 10lb brisket. Because the smoker is small, we are going to cut the brisket in half and put each half on different grates (top and bottom). Because of the two levels, am I still treating this as one 10lb piece of meat in terms of cook time - approx 12-15 hours? Also, the two halves are really different in thickness. one is pretty thin and the other is about x3 as thick. I assume the thinner one will need less cook time...

If it's a packer, I would avoid cutting it in half. With a packer, IMHO the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. Put a foil wrapped brick under it if necessary. On my 18" WSM I wedge it between the handles. I've never had a brisket take more than 9 or 10 hours for a 14-pounder.

The problem I see is if you cut the piece in half you have 2-5# pieces and that will not cook the same as one piece of ten pounds. I would wedge it between the handled and stick a box grater under if it needs more support. The brick will take some time to get up to temperature. But that’s just my opinion.

V_Rocco said:

If it's a packer, I would avoid cutting it in half.

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Or if halving it is absolutely necessary, separate it into the flat and the point and allow more cooking time for the point.

V_Rocco said:

If it's a packer, I would avoid cutting it in half. With a packer, IMHO the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. Put a foil wrapped brick under it if necessary. On my 18" WSM I wedge it between the handles. I've never had a brisket take more than 9 or 10 hours for a 14-pounder.

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I wish I was able to get smaller packers to experiment with here in central PA. Everyone I've talked to can only get 20+ pounders and they charge the same price as they do for a trimmed flat. And I just can't see spending that much $$$ when there is so much fat that is going to be wasted.

This gets kind of complicated. To start, cook time is generally determined by thickness of the meat, not by it's weight. So cutting a packer in half wouldn't reduce the time. That said, as you noted, one piece would be noticeably thicker than the other. But, a packer brisket is a special case due to the differing characteristics of the two primary muscles, the point and the flat. The flat is denser and doesn't have much intramuscular fat (marbling). This leads to it needing a longer cook time than the point. The point, being less dense and heavily marbled will finish quicker, but it won't be harmed by cooking it even longer. So, when cooking a full packer, you ignore the temp and feel of the point, and instead, base the cook time of the whole packer on when the flat is tender at it's thickest part.

Long story short, your cook time really won't change unless you have a noticeable difference in chamber temps between your two racks.

Dave makes several good points. I've cooked large packers before on the 14 and it can work if you prop it up like others have said. I've gone as far as a 30-40º angle to make this work. Also, I like the fat on the brisket as I feel it protects it from the heat source. A fully trimmed brisket flat is something I would avoid at all costs.