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
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