A birthday smoke. Questions.


 
S

Steve St

TVWBB Member
We celebrate Sunday a sister in law and nephew's birthdays. Meat will be a 12lb. brisket and a pork loin around 6lbs. Feed starts at 7:00 pm.

Original plan was to stuff the loin but got nixed do to differing taste among guest. I have a rub for the brisket that we like but am unsure on the loin. Saw that someone had used Tones Chipolte Rub and that sounded good but had to ask here. Wife thinks since we are doing brisket with BBQ sauce the loin should lean to a BBQ result in order to go with the sides. So, any suggestions on the loin rub and/or sauce?

Planning the cook is always difficult for me due to timing things. Plan now is to start the brisket on the wsm at around 11pm Saturday night figuring 1.5 hr/lb. with smoker temp between 225 and 250. Pull at 190 to 200 degrees wrap and hold in a cooler till time to slice.

Loin is another story. Confused by this. Originally planned to put the loin on the wsm at about 2pm and cook to 145 degrees. Figured about 4.5hrs but reading seems to recommend higher temp for loin. Around 300. Should I plan to use the offset smoker for the loin and go for higher temp? What temp and a guess at how long? Don't want to dry it out.

Any suggestions or guidance appreciated.
Steve
 
Your brisket plans sound good. I do a lot of pork loins, here is one of my methods: http://tvwbb.com/eve/forums/a/...80069052/m/288108056

Any pork rub is good whether it is for butts, ribs, etc.....

You can sear over direct coals by putting the top grate directly over the cc ring if you want at the end. If you do I would carry to 115-125 then sear to 130-150.

I would do the loin while the brisket is resting. The loin only needs to rest for 10-30 min under a foil tent.

Good luck!
 
Thanks! Hadn't even thought of doing the loin while the brisket rested. To far "out of the box" for me
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The link was very helpful. Loin looked great. May even copy your rub.
Steve
 
The birthday meal was a success but not without it's share of problems.
For the first time I tried using the wsm without water. Minion method for lighting. Filled ring about 3/4 full with a low spot in the middle. Added 12 lit to the center and left it to stabilize(30 Minutes).
For a while everything seemed fine. Temp at 239 and holding but at around the 1.5hr mark temps began spiking. Hit 278 before I knew it and took about an 1.5hrs to slowly get it back to 235. Made a large adjustment by closing all vents and waited for temp to reach 270 showing a downward trend. Opened one vent to maybe 15% and waited. Seemed like forever but gradually temp fell to 240. Didn't want to overshoot so I opened another vent to ~15%. By the time I checked again(20 to 30 minutes) temp had spiked to 280. This continued for most of the 15 hrs.. Low of 198 and a high of over 300. As a last resort, after a spike to over 300, I added water to the pan and was able to get the temp and spikes under control.
Lots of reading here and I know that "no water" can be done I just need help and experience getting there.
Suggestions for a newbie?
Brisket had a great flavor but was dry. Loin turned out excellent. It must have liked the high heat.
Steve
 
Congrats Steve. Was your brisket dry, flaky and tender or dry tough and tender?

I run the pan dry all the time and here is what I do for low n slow (less than 275).

I fill the ring with lump and leave a depression like you did and add 1/8-1/4 chimney lit. Assemble and leave all vents open. When I get to 200 I close the bottoms to 10-20% and it settles right in. I don't worry unless it goes over 300, in that case just shut them off until 250 then open half of what you had them at in the beginning.
 
Glenn W
Thanks for the reply.
Brisket was dry and probably bordering on flakey. Able to cut slices without falling apart. Not tough but chewy.
Will try the "no water" again but on a shorter cook to see what it takes following your advice.
Thanks again.
Steve
 
Sounds like it was not done, if over done it will be hard to slice without falling all to pieces. Brisket is one of the hardest to get right. Keep trying though!
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