I did my first brisket on the Stumps XL Baby and it finished with mixed results. I had the smoker locked in at 225F with a DigiQ Qx2. Used Hickory and Apple as those were the two woods I had on hand.
The Point came out juicy and made almost perfect Burnt Ends. The Flat, not so much. I had a good smoke ring that actually covered the entire slice on both sections. I sliced the point off the flat, cubed it up, mixed the drippings with Bullseye KC and put back in the smoker for 2hrs. The Burnt Ends came out perfect for someone at my skill level. Tender, tasty and juicy. BE's are my friend..
The flat was a different story. It appeared that they were dry. Not tough, just dry. I wrapped at 150F and removed from the smoker at 195F. The Brisket was cooked whole. when I sliced it, nice smoke ring. Sliced against the grain, it was nice and tender. I noticed that it was dry. Almost like I should have pulled the brisket at 185-190F and let it rest until it reached 195F.
Not sure where I went wrong but I do know I'm damned close to getting Brisket dialed in.
On another front, I learned more things about the behavior of my smoker. I have a GF (Stumps). I was able to get it up to temp with an ambient outside temp of 0F. Cold as hell but with the help of a propane weed burner, I got the smoker lit and after an hour, it came to 225F. I smoked some cured Bacon and figured I'd put the brisket on as well just to save time and fuel.
After getting the top damper set, the smoker held 225F for over 12hrs. I used Lump and a Briquette minion setup. I then loaded the rest of my lump as I knew I was in for a long smoke. Smoke was thin and blue and smelling great. I then realized I was out of lump and only had some hickory pellets left as fuel. I put 1/2 a bag of hickory pellets into the chute on the GF and the results were spectacular!
I guesss the GF acted as a pellet smoker. Instead of having a machine fed pellets into the fire box, the Stumps let gravity do the work. The results were so good that I'm convinced Pellets needs to be part of my fuel mix. I put them in the chute instead of the smoke chamber as I need them to last longer. I also just put smaller Apple wood chunks in the chute as well. It produced my best Brisket yet. I shut down both dampers to preserve what I could of the unspent fuel mix.
Every smoke I try to learn something new. This smoke was a real eyeopener. Hopefully, this will help anyone out there learning how to use a GF smoker. It's entirely possible to pull off a 12-18hr smoke only using perhaps 10-12 pounds of fuel.
Next smoke will be apple for a pork belly I've got curing.
Any suggestions how to keep Brisket flats moist would be greatly appreciated.
The Point came out juicy and made almost perfect Burnt Ends. The Flat, not so much. I had a good smoke ring that actually covered the entire slice on both sections. I sliced the point off the flat, cubed it up, mixed the drippings with Bullseye KC and put back in the smoker for 2hrs. The Burnt Ends came out perfect for someone at my skill level. Tender, tasty and juicy. BE's are my friend..
The flat was a different story. It appeared that they were dry. Not tough, just dry. I wrapped at 150F and removed from the smoker at 195F. The Brisket was cooked whole. when I sliced it, nice smoke ring. Sliced against the grain, it was nice and tender. I noticed that it was dry. Almost like I should have pulled the brisket at 185-190F and let it rest until it reached 195F.
Not sure where I went wrong but I do know I'm damned close to getting Brisket dialed in.
On another front, I learned more things about the behavior of my smoker. I have a GF (Stumps). I was able to get it up to temp with an ambient outside temp of 0F. Cold as hell but with the help of a propane weed burner, I got the smoker lit and after an hour, it came to 225F. I smoked some cured Bacon and figured I'd put the brisket on as well just to save time and fuel.
After getting the top damper set, the smoker held 225F for over 12hrs. I used Lump and a Briquette minion setup. I then loaded the rest of my lump as I knew I was in for a long smoke. Smoke was thin and blue and smelling great. I then realized I was out of lump and only had some hickory pellets left as fuel. I put 1/2 a bag of hickory pellets into the chute on the GF and the results were spectacular!
I guesss the GF acted as a pellet smoker. Instead of having a machine fed pellets into the fire box, the Stumps let gravity do the work. The results were so good that I'm convinced Pellets needs to be part of my fuel mix. I put them in the chute instead of the smoke chamber as I need them to last longer. I also just put smaller Apple wood chunks in the chute as well. It produced my best Brisket yet. I shut down both dampers to preserve what I could of the unspent fuel mix.
Every smoke I try to learn something new. This smoke was a real eyeopener. Hopefully, this will help anyone out there learning how to use a GF smoker. It's entirely possible to pull off a 12-18hr smoke only using perhaps 10-12 pounds of fuel.
Next smoke will be apple for a pork belly I've got curing.
Any suggestions how to keep Brisket flats moist would be greatly appreciated.
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