Last week was my birthday, I celebrated it as any american male would, by cooking large amounts of meat for others to enjoy! The cooking included slaving over my side box smoker for 10 hours smoking a 5 1/2 pound beef brisket that I procured from El Toro Gourmet Meats. I woke up at 7:30 AM on Friday, removed the brisket from the refrigerator, slathered it with mustard, rubbed it with seasonings, and prepared my smoker for an all day smokefest! This was my first attempt at brisket smoking and I wasn’t sure exactly what to expect. As with earlier smokes, I prepared the meat the day before it was to be enjoyed. The brisket turned out very good and was a complete success, with only a couple of slices left over.
Here is a picture of the brisket on the smoker. I cooked it in the pan the whole time and flipped it a couple of times during the smoke. I didn’t get a bunch of bark but it worked well. To the right is a pan with Dr. Pepper in it that I used to keep some moisture in the smoker and as a base for the pan drippings. I saved the drippings in the pan and skimmed off the fat. The next day I used the jiggly meat jello drippings in my slowcooker with the sliced up brisket and set it out to warm for 4 hours. The brisket turned out moist and juicy and I ended up with a number of compliments. Here are all the picture we took from the smoke.
I’m always looking for tips and advice when it comes to smoking meat so if anyone backyard smokers want to chime in, please give me suggestions! I’m working on making some improvements to my smoker soon attempting to contain the smoke better, but even without further changes I have been very happy with my smoker. Here is to more smoking in 2011!
