Help! Four boneless shoulders and a brisket flat.

[Jim W.]

After not smoking anything for a few months, and only having smoked one brisket in my life, I headed off to Costco today.

Anyhow I came home with the only sort of brisket in the case- a 4.5 pound well trimmed flat.

And four boneless pork shoulders at about 8 pounds each. I've cooked plenty of these before.

My plan was to put the pork on tonight in about two hours. The big question is what to do with the brisket? Put it on in the morning for the final 5 hours of the pork's cook? Stack one of the butts directly on top and put it in tonight?

If I don't hear from any of you experts I'll wait and put it in tomorrow morning and plan to smoke it about 4-5 hours then foil it till tender.

 

[Jim W.]

AHA!

Just had a great idea. Wait until tomorrow morning to cook. Put the butts and brisket in at the same time. The brisket should be done in plenty of time for an early dinner. The butts will get pulled for later.

I plan to put the brisket on the bottom rack with one butt. The other three butts will be on the top rack to "baste" the brisket below.

If anyone happens to see this and comment I would appreciate any suggestions.

 

[Shawn W]

If you cook at like 225F and put on at 8am it could be midnight before those butts are ready.

If you go more like 275F top grate you'd be done faster ... like in the ballpark of 12 hours.

Assuming dinner at 5pm, faced with that I'd probably put the butts on at midnight, take them off by noon, oven finish if necessary and high heat that little bald flat.

Get the flat wrapped in foil at 150F - 160F, then start checking for tender, give it a rest.

 

[Jim W.]

Shawn,

Thanks for the reply. I get up at 5:00 and was hoping to have the meat on by 6:00. Smoker is all set up and ready to light.

Only the Brisket will be eaten tomorrow. The pork is for the later and to pass out to neighbors. I was figuring about 12 hours then foil it till tender.

Do you think the brisket would do well on the bottom rack under the butts with a 240F lid temp to get smoke penetration and to start building a bark? I'm no purist so I don't mind foiling or putting it in the oven to finish if that's what it takes.

 

[Shawn W]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Do you think the brisket would do well on the bottom rack under the butts with a 240F lid temp to get smoke penetration and to start building a bark? </div></BLOCKQUOTE>
It should be fine, if you can monitor temp with a polder or maverick remote I'd suggest removing by 3pm or 150F whichever comes first.

Then in foil in the oven 250F to 325F depending on how much more it needs to get tender. If it's close go lower, if it's still real tough go higher. This should give you at least a 30 minute rest in foil and be able to have it served by 6pm.