Need advice on this weekend's smoke... Brisket & Butt at the same time.


 
A

Anthony M

New member
I am planning to smoke a brisket and shoulder this weekend at the same time. It will be my first brisket on my new 22" wsm. I am planning on them both being on the top grate (if it will fit) so I can catch the drippings for some No.5 sauce. Should I just use a drip pan for this or is there a better method?

I am planning to use (minion) Kingsford blue, Hickory and Apple chunks. I have mesquite too but im not sure if this is too much for the pork.

Any suggestions on cooking this brisket and shoulder combo?
 
Anthony,

What temps are you going to cook at? Water in the pan? How much does the shoulder and the brisket weigh each?

I would cook at 250ish. Not sure I would not mix both drippings for the sauce (pick one). I would do the brisket on the top rack in a alum pan on a elevated rack point down. When the brisket is ready/tender separate the point rerub it where it was attached and put on the bottom rack for 2hrs or so, then if the shoulder is still cooking move to the top rack or if ready foil both to rest for 1-4hrs.
 
I planned on 225-250 deg.

Full water pan.

The brisket is ~9lbs and the shoulder ~7.

I had planned on using separate drip trays under each if they will both fit on the top grate.
 
I forgot one word (not) in the above post. If you can fit both on the top, fine. Other wise I would do as my above post. Don't get worried about temps. 225-300 is bbq'n in my book. At 250 dome or vent temp your looking at 1.25-1.5hrs per lb on both.
 
Anthony, both will fit on the top grate with a little room to spare, and I wouldn't worry w/ the drip pans. If you give enough time for the cook that they have a couple hours or more to rest in the foil, there should be ample drippings when you unwrap.

If you want to though, you could wrap in foil while cooking after the meat's internal temp reaches 160 or so. No need for a long rest, and you'll get even more drippings in the foil that way, as well as speeding up the cook. (If cooking during the day for supper, I'd suggest the latter method.)

As for smoke, hickory/apple is a great combo for both beef and pork, and I'd suggest mixing your wood chunks in w/ the charcoal as opposed to putting it all on top.
 
Lemme change the topic a little bit, I have only smoked twice on this thing and both times were good (2nd I messed up a little w/not knowing the temperature probe was touching the bacon on an ABT. Things got a little too hot before I realized it). I used the minion method both times and both times there was no thin blue smoke... White smoke was just billowing out for a good 45 min to an hour... Should I wait for the smoke to thin out a bit before putting the meat on or just follow the minion method exactly.
 
Don't be too concerned about blue smoke. You're not gonna get the huge contrast in color like w/ a stickburner. However, just a wisp is optimal, and it's accomplished by a few things: seasoned wood, not adding wood mid cook, burying wood, using less wood, letting charcoal smoke clean up before putting meat on, and I probably forgot something. Also, use robust wood like hickory and red oak judiciously, and I like to mix w/ milder woods like apple, cherry, or peach. More for buttes and briskets, less for ribs, very little for poultry. HTH
 
Anthony, difference of opinion as in most BBQ. Some like to put the meat on as the temp rises, longer exposure to smoke. Some wait till smoker temp has stabelized, perhaps more temp stability. In the end with a long smoke I really don't think that the outcome will be very different either way.

Good smokin'

Mark
 
Anthony, maybe I'm a little more awake now.

If the smoke was billowing out as you say for that long, I'm guessing the problem was too much wood smoldering all at once. (Did you put chunks on top of the lit charcoal?)

Is it that big of a concern? Is it subjective and personal preference? Well, I'll give you that it's a LOT harder to ruin your bbq in a wsm than w/ a stickburner (no comparison), but you definately can w/ bad smoke, at least w/ ribs, poultry, and fish.

What's working for me is to bury the chunks in the coals w/ a couple just barely exposed to the lit you pour on top. I don't have to wait that long at all for my smoke to clear up after pouring the lit on. (I'm really more waiting on the temp to come up where I want it.)

You might do a search here as there was some discussion of this, but I think this technique accomplishes a couple of things. First of all, the buried wood seems to have a slower rate of burn. Second, someone here wrote something to the effect that in a fire burning down as w/ the MM, the smoke from the bottom of the "fire" (or the wood we're concerned w/) is "cleaned up" by the combustion of the coals above it. I probably stated that wrong, but it works for me. On my last smoke, my wsm turkey had the best smoke flavor of any I've ever done, and I used two good-sized chunks worth, one apple, one cherry, each split in two. That was probably more than I've ever used when smoking birds on my kettle (wood placed/replaced on top of coals), so it's not just the amount of wood used.
 
I usually bury 1 chunk of hickory and 2 chunks of apple, then 1 chunk of hickory and 2 chunks of apple on top of the lit coals. I use a full 22" ring worth of coal.
 
Originally posted by Anthony M:
I usually bury 1 chunk of hickory and 2 chunks of apple, then 1 chunk of hickory and 2 chunks of apple on top of the lit coals. I use a full 22" ring worth of coal.
Click to expand...

I know that's what a LOT of folks do, but all that on top is what causes the smoke to billow for so long.

Try burying it all with just a little wood exposed to get smoking, and see what ya think. You can't fit as much charcoal in the ring, but you can heap the lit coals up about as high as the wood you would normally put on top.
 
Basic set up: Fill ring approx 1/4 full, add 4-5 chunks of flavor wood fill ring rest of way add another 4-5 chunks of flavor wood. Dump a 1/2 full of FULLY lit charcoal on top - wait for 10-15 minutes then assemble the body with water in the pan. Watch the lid therm till it hits 200°, then damp it down to 3/4 closed on all 3 dampers - should settle out around 250°. During the pre-heat and stabalizing times (approx 30 minutes total), all your ignition smoke from the charcoal will have disipated and your wood will have gone through a lot of its white smoke phase.

Once smoker is up to temp and stable put your drip pans under your pieces of meat, but make sure you have some sort of liquid in those pans to start with, otherwise your drippings just boil away and form a burned residue on the bottom of the pans.

Once the meat reaches an internal temp of 165'ish, wrap it in a double layer of foil - this is a good time to pull your drippings pans out as well. Put the meat back in the smoker and let them ride to 200° on the brisket, and 210° on the pork butt. Pull them off of the smoker drain the considerable amount of juices out of the foil into your other drippings, close up the foil, and place them into a dry towel lined cooler to rest for 1-2 hrs. Fill the rest of the cooler with old towels or a pillow. The meat will stay piping hot, don't worry. The cooler is also a great way to hold one of the pieces of meat if it finishes before the other one.

While the meat is resting put your drippings into a couple of plastic containers and pop them into the freezer for about 30 min. The fat will set up on top and can easily be removed. Use the pork drippings to make a finishing sauce, and warm up the beef drippings to use as an ajus for the brisket.
 
I use a 22" and I always put the meat in right away.......no worries. I usually let me meat sit out for a while at room temperature so I'm not putting ice cold meat in the smoker.

I almost always bury some chunks to prolong the smoking effect.
 
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