Sean Strugnell
New member
Just got my new 22" WSM last week - early father's day/birthday present from the family (ok - I bought it for myself and told the family it was their gift to me). Before the WSM, I had been smoking on a Weber kettle using the firebrick method, and have had great success doing ribs and even a pork butt.
Anyways, I decided to take a shot at a brisket this weekend. It was a 10 lbs packer and I prepped it with a homemade rub with garlic salt, ground pepper, and chiles I bought from a local Mexican food shop. Started up the WSM using the minion method (used lump) and a full water pan and quickly realized I did not know how to keep the temp stable. After farting around with vents for about an hour and a half, I threw the packer on at 02:40 AM (yikes). The WSM Cooked at 230 to 260 (according to the lid therm as well as a maverick smoker probe on the grate) through the nite. I only managed a couple of 2 hour cat naps from 04:30 to 09:00, but more on that later. I also threw on a butt on the bottom rack (no sense wasting fuel, right?). After doing lots of research on briskets on this and other sites, i expected it to be done around 2 pm, and i planned to foil it in a cooler and hold it over for dinner. Well, i started checking for doneness using a meat probe at around noon (I left a maverick meat probe in the slab throughout the cook and it was reading reading 183) but the meat still gave a lot of resistance at the three locations i tried. Checked it again every hour, on the hour until about 8 pm, but aside from a few small locations near the thickest part where the flat overlaps the point, the meat was nowhere near the "like butter" resistance to the probe. I know i know, "it is done when it is done", but this cook time seemed excessive. Anyways, I wanted to avoid foiling it because I prefer dry bark, but I was getting impatient, so I foiled it, added some cran/apple juice, and put it in the oven at 300. After over an hour in the oven, the probe started going in with the right resistance in about 2/3 of the slab. As I mentioned earlier, I was only working with about three hours sleep, so I decided to call it a night. I let it rest in the foil in a cooler for about an hour, then separated the point from the flat and tried a few bites. I wasn't really hungry, as we ended up eating pulled pork for dinner at about 7pm (luckily the butt was cooked perfectly by late afternoon, so dinner wasn't a total wash out) but the meat wasn't all that great - it was kind of dry and not very tender. I probably could have cooked for longer so that the entire slab was probe tender, but I ran out of patience. We reheated the flat for dinner tonight, and the consensus was the same - a little dry and not as tender as some BBQ joints in town serve brisket.
Although this was my first big smoke session with the WSM, I am a little discouraged. As I mentioned, I figured that the brisket should have been ready after 10 to 12 hours, with maybe 14 hours tops, but 17 hours, and it still wasn't tender?!?! Has anyone else had a similar experience with brisket? Do you think I just got a bad slab?
Anyways, I decided to take a shot at a brisket this weekend. It was a 10 lbs packer and I prepped it with a homemade rub with garlic salt, ground pepper, and chiles I bought from a local Mexican food shop. Started up the WSM using the minion method (used lump) and a full water pan and quickly realized I did not know how to keep the temp stable. After farting around with vents for about an hour and a half, I threw the packer on at 02:40 AM (yikes). The WSM Cooked at 230 to 260 (according to the lid therm as well as a maverick smoker probe on the grate) through the nite. I only managed a couple of 2 hour cat naps from 04:30 to 09:00, but more on that later. I also threw on a butt on the bottom rack (no sense wasting fuel, right?). After doing lots of research on briskets on this and other sites, i expected it to be done around 2 pm, and i planned to foil it in a cooler and hold it over for dinner. Well, i started checking for doneness using a meat probe at around noon (I left a maverick meat probe in the slab throughout the cook and it was reading reading 183) but the meat still gave a lot of resistance at the three locations i tried. Checked it again every hour, on the hour until about 8 pm, but aside from a few small locations near the thickest part where the flat overlaps the point, the meat was nowhere near the "like butter" resistance to the probe. I know i know, "it is done when it is done", but this cook time seemed excessive. Anyways, I wanted to avoid foiling it because I prefer dry bark, but I was getting impatient, so I foiled it, added some cran/apple juice, and put it in the oven at 300. After over an hour in the oven, the probe started going in with the right resistance in about 2/3 of the slab. As I mentioned earlier, I was only working with about three hours sleep, so I decided to call it a night. I let it rest in the foil in a cooler for about an hour, then separated the point from the flat and tried a few bites. I wasn't really hungry, as we ended up eating pulled pork for dinner at about 7pm (luckily the butt was cooked perfectly by late afternoon, so dinner wasn't a total wash out) but the meat wasn't all that great - it was kind of dry and not very tender. I probably could have cooked for longer so that the entire slab was probe tender, but I ran out of patience. We reheated the flat for dinner tonight, and the consensus was the same - a little dry and not as tender as some BBQ joints in town serve brisket.
Although this was my first big smoke session with the WSM, I am a little discouraged. As I mentioned, I figured that the brisket should have been ready after 10 to 12 hours, with maybe 14 hours tops, but 17 hours, and it still wasn't tender?!?! Has anyone else had a similar experience with brisket? Do you think I just got a bad slab?