another first brisket


 
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Rick Moore

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Seems to have been a common theme this weekend - first briskets! Alas, it turned out ok, but I learned a lot! It was overdone, a little on the dry side and the slices didn't hold together well. But I have what I feel is the explanation - so the next cook will be much better!

I put the brisket on at 12:30 last night - a 5.25# flat. I started the WSM using MM with Kingsford briquettes (25 lit coals) and hickory wood and filled up the water pan with hot water. At 2:00 am, I couldn't stay awake any longer. Temp was steady at about 235 and had been so fo about an hour. When I checked it this morning at 8:00, the temp had gone up to 300* - you guessed it, my water pan was empty. So who knows if it actually got hotter than that or not.

Two things have come to light due to this misfortune - #1, I'm getting the Brinkman water pan!!! Stupid, stupid, stupid. #2 - I ordered the Maverick ET-73 today - if I'm going to do overnight cooks, this thing has got to be the only way to go...

Anyway, as always, thanks for the input prior to my cook and I look forward to posting with better results next time!
 
Rick,

At the risk of starting a (or another) long discussion, I think sand in the water pan would have served you well here!

Good Luck!!!
 
Rick
The temperature may not have been stable enough after only 1.5 hours. Read Chris' recipe again. He talks about this same problem....starting a midnight cook at midnight. Next time, think about starting earlier so you know the temp. is stable before you fall asleep.

Also, the last thing I do before I go to bed is the refill the water pan, no matter what.

Hope this helps.

Peter
 
Rick, the water pan being empty was my problem this morning too. I do have the Brinkmann pan, I thought it would go until around 7:00. I should have checked it before going to bed. You'll love the ET-73, it's even got an audible alarm to let you know when a limit has been reached.
 
Pat - I have used water almost exclusively since I bought the WSM several years ago - after finding this site and reading all the debates on sand vs. water, I tried sand for the last 4 or 5 cooks. Personally, even though the sand is failsafe from the standpoint of not having to keep an eye on it, I did not like it. I didn't feel it gave me as good of control over the temp - maybe it takes a while to really learn the sand vs. water operation of the WSM, but with sand it always seemed to run hot. So I lean towards the thought that since the sand will continually rise in temp (given a hot fire), the water will never get above 212 (or so) and will therefore act as a better heat sink. Of course, this is my $0.02 and I hope I didn't start the long discussion you were hoping to avoid /infopop/emoticons/icon_biggrin.gif just wanted to share my reasoning for water.

Bob - WOW! The Brinkman water pan dried up?! I was thinking I had read where people had 10-12 hour cooks without this problem...oh well, I guess it is still much better than the little pan that came with the WSM...
 
My weber water pan dried up several times on my first overnight cook. It was freezing cold out and worse, terribly terribly windy, so my temps were out of control. Gave that poor maverick a workout beeping it's head off at me until i finally closed all the vents (ok, i kept the top one open a wee bit, but not much). Brisket turned out fantastic somehow! But it was a big 8.5 lb one with tons o'fat, so maybe it was forgiving.

On my second cook, I installed the brinkman pan for water and used my silver bullet jacket to block the wind (the weather was nearly the same, maybe a tad warmer but still freezing). This meant no maverick (it doesn't like to live under the cover) and even after my whopping 16 hours of cooking I still had PLENTY o'water left! Result was fantastic pork butt and ribs. Yum.

So the brinkman will help you out for sure, but do mind the weather conditions, too, and adjust accordingly if possible.
 
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