Last Sunday I embarked on a day long cook… Smoking a brisket. It’s a true commitment because smoking a brisket is at minimum 12 hours of cooking time. It all started the day before when I purchased a 9 pound brisket from my local butcher brought it home and put my special rub on it then place it into the fridge overnight.

Unfortunately I can’t tell you what’s in my special rub because then it wouldn’t be special :-)

In the morning, at the crack of dawn, I awoke and set up my smoker. I fill it with charcoal and cherrywood to give the brisket a slight sweet smoke.

Now the trick with smoking any type of meat over a long period is keeping the temperature stabilized… Since this is not gas or any consistent fuel source it’s a challenge. I use two probes, one that monitors grill temperature and one that monitors the temperature of the meat. They pair with an app on my phone so I can sit in air-conditioned comfort while the smoker does it’s thing In about three hours the smoker hits it’s stride with temperatures hovering around 229°.

I then leave to go see my Mom, my standard Saturday routine, and come back in a couple of hours only to find that the smoker temperature has spiked up to 270°. It was a sunny day and I’d forgotten that at roughly 11 o’clock the sun starts hitting the smoker which affects the temperature… So I immediately take action bringing the temperature down to hit the prime smoking temperature of 225° to 250°

When the internal temperature of the meat hits 170° I pull it from the smoker wrap it up in foil with some special ingredients and put it back on for the remainder of the cook. At the 12 hour mark the brisket temperature hit 200° so I pulled it from the smoker and stuffed it into a cooler and pack it with blankets to rest for at least an hour and a half.

When I’m ready to eat, I pull it out place it on the cutting board and take the first slice… That’s always the time I get a bit nervous, because I spent all day cooking and caring for it and wonder if it’s okay. This time I nailed it :-)