A few smoking questions

[pacanis]

I've been reading up on the brisket smoking threads in preparation for using up these briskets I got with my front quarter. Maybe not the easiest piece of meat to start with, but oh well

A pretty common denominator is to not use too much smoke for the length of time it is going to take. How do I do that? Less chips for the whole cooking time, same amount of chips but not for the whole 9-12 hours? Maybe pull the chips after a few hours?
Which leads me to ask, how do you know how many wood chips to use in the first place? How much smoke am I looking for to surround the meat? Can I feed in wood chips like you do charcoal, putting them on top of old chips, or should I remove the spent chips?

And, If I lift the lid to mop the meat or check the temp, which is my bigger concern; losing the smoke or losing the heat?

And And, I read 9-12 hours for a 6 lb brisket. I just weighed mine (in its frozen state) and it weighs 2.75 lbs. The shape is like a slab of bacon and it does not appear to have a fattier side to face upward. Any input on how that will affect the cooking/smoking time? Will it cut it in half? Will I need to mop it more because there's not much fat on a particular side?

Thanks for your help

[suziquzie]

I can't help much but will be watching with interest....
Did you make your trash can smoker?
DH is still paranoid about the zinc, even after showing him the links you posted.
:(
And he's not one to worry... about anything!
He'll come around.

[pacanis]

I'll probably get over to the hardware store today and pick up the stuff, Suzi. If I don't have to send away for a hotplate, I hope to give this a try this weekend.

lol, just looked. Lego!

[suziquzie]

LOL, I love legos!

Oh, and not to get off topic, smoked meat!!!!

[bowlingshirt]

You don't need to remove the chips after they're spent...you can keep adding them as you go. What type of chips are you using???

[Jeekinz]

You can use mesquite (if you like mesquite) since you will be thinly slicing the meat, you only get a little sliver of bark on the edges.

Lee has a great brisket method.

[pacanis]

I've got two kinds of chips already, hickory and mesquite. The local hardware store started carrying many more that I saw, including apple and cherry, so I can pick up other flavors of smoke.
Using my grill and a foil pouch to play around already, I prefer the taste of hickory, which I read somewhere goes better with beef, and mesquite is geared more towards pork, so that is how I used them.

Thanks for the tip on adding the chips BS. I wasn't sure if leaving spent chips in would give off a funny flavor. There's one question answered

[kitchenelf]

I have used both chips and chunks. I couldn't even tell the time I used chips that I had used anything. I get much better smoked results with chunks. I initially add about 4 or 5 chunks and then no more. With the size of the brisket you have though, I'd say 2 good-sized chunks will be plenty. The smoke will penetrate all it needs to within those first few hours. I did, ONE TIME ONLY, add more chunks as I went. It produced a bitterness that was not pleasant to eat!

I much prefer hickory over mesquite - with anything. Just not a mesquite fan, I guess. And you don't need to pull the chips - they will be basically gone/used up. I can't impress enough the lack of flavor they produce though.

And no, it won't take as long. You'll just have to go by temp.

[pacanis]

Thanks KE. I think I have the chips now, I'll see if they have the chunks here in a few minutes when I head over. So two chunks would be plenty then, thanks. If they don't have them I'll see if I can find some online for a size comparison on how many chips to use....
Hey, maybe I can Google 2 chunks = ? chips

You wouldn't say my time would be cut in half though.... would you?

[pacanis]

Well, I got an answer anyway. This will help, too.
The zen of wood