Smoking my first brisket - advise needed on wood?

Question

Hello all,

I'm smoking my first brisket today and I have wood smoker with the firebox on the side and the vertical meat rack. I'm using wood chunks to smoke with but it seems like these wood chunks are burning up like crazy and I keep having to add more and more. At this point I feel like I'm going to end up using 3 to 4 bags of wood chunks to get this brisket smoked. Is this normal or is there a better? Should I try to find some wood logs?

Any advise?

Answer 1

cut off the air larger pieces will last longer. It is better to learn on small pieces of meat.

Answer 2

Sounds like the smoking is well underway. After the first 3-4 hours the meat pores will close and the smoke is not absorbed any longer. After this you are wasting smoke. Enough smoke on the outside could give a bitter sort of taste. Ditch the wood.

At this point you just need enough heat to keep it cooking slowly, about 215 degrees give or take 10-15 should do the trick. Control the heat with your damper. A fast cooked brisket will challenge a Pit Bulls jaws.

Use charcoal, you don't need the smoke any more. Just make sure if you need lighter fluid that you start the fire outside the box until the fluid has burned off. I would just use the burning wood to light the charcoal. just throw it in.

Keep it moist using a baste or mop or water pan and cook until tender.

Answer 3

Soak your chips in water, this will make them smoke more and take longer to burn. Some put the wet chips in aluminum foil.

You can use any kind of fruit tree limbs, each has it's own different flavor.

Pecan, pear, cherry and many others you can buy prepackaged. I like pecan smoke.

You may also use oak limbs, they can be found free at any oak tree!

Answer 4

you can soak them the day before, but you can just keep adding them and it will give your brisket a good smoked taste.