Masterbuilt Electric Smoker- Good results!

[Pocketpair62]

I received one of these as a Christmas gift last year. I attempted to smoke a brisket, ribs and sausage. As it turns out the Brisket was dry, tough and had no bark and the same for the ribs.

I decided to follow the recipes and methods here and give it another shot.

This time around my brisket had a great bark, was just a touch dry several things I did wrong like not using the crutch or starting early enough but it was still a very good brisket. Next time around I will get it right. A couple of things I will mention are I used a prime brisket about 16.5 pounds and I had to split the point from the flat.

I used a 50/50 mixture of apple cider vinegar and apple juice to spray on about every 1 to 1.5 hours. I kept adding hickory chips for the first 3.5 hours and the smoke was just right. I kept the water pan emptied as well.

I noticed the stall seemed to hit around 170 deg. f and then after several hours the internal temp. stated climbing again. As I mentioned I ran out of time so I pulled the brisket at 185-190 deg.

Maybe if I had left it in until 203 it would have been juicier and I also did not have time to wrap it and hold it a faux cambro which may have also helped.

I did SLC ribs a couple of days later and they had much more bark and are good. However they fall apart. I cooked them a little too long. Still very good just cooked too long. I did not use the crutch here either. I added the wood chips for the first 1.5 hours and the smoke was just right. I also kept the water pan emptied.

Overall I am encouraged that I can make decent smoked meats by using the recipes and methods here. If anyone has any tips or suggestions on what I can do to improve I would love to hear them.

[Huskee]

Welcome to The Pit Pocketpair62! Nice having you here. Congrats on the new cooker too.

First, to have a great brisket one huge factor is to buy a good brisket to start with. We always recommend USDA Choice (or the equivalent if you're not in the US), or Prime if you can find it. Second, yeah often it needs to be taken to the 200-205 range first, then wrap it tightly in foil and hold in a faux cambro (cooler) wrapped in towels for an hour or three. This renders the fats and collagens and will add to what we consider the 'juiciness' of the brisket. Sometimes though, if the cook progresses slow enough, much of that rendering happens and it will be what we call "probe tender" (where a thermometer probe slides in & out like butter) before the 200ish mark. Also, spritzing has pros and cons. It can make a smokier bark, some say it adds a noticeable flavor boost, but it can prolong cooking since it cools the meat (like making it sweat) and could slowly rinse your rub off, this could end up defeating the intended purpose. Some folks are die hard spritzers and some are die hard never-spritzers. Personally I'm the latter. Ribs and brisket- it's a trial and error adventure on the timing for both. But it's a fun journey!

Hope this helps a little.

Since this is your first post, please check out our homework assignment post for new members, it contains a few how-tos and please-dos.

Also, it's very important that you add the domain AmazingRibs.com to your email safe list in case you are ever drawn as our monthly Gold Medal Giveaway winner!

Hope to hear & see more from you!

[Pocketpair62]

Thanks to all and Huskee do you use the Texas crutch or just wait until you hit the 200ish mark then wrap and place in a cooler?

[Pocketpair62]

Thanks to all and Huskee do you use the Texas crutch or just wait until you hit the 200ish mark then wrap and place in a cooler?

[Huskee]

Pocketpair62 I wrap mine but not until about 180 or a little higher, past the stall. I don't go unwrapped all the way on brisket.

[DWCowles]

Welcome Pocketpair62

[Breadhead]

Welcome to the Pit Pocketpair62 ...