Ed Greenberg

Smoke ‘em if you got ‘em!

Today, we start smoking. No, I haven’t taken leave of my senses. Tobacco can kill, and illegal drugs are… well… illegal. What we’re going to smoke is…  Brisket!

When we entered Texas, we started seeing places selling barbecued brisket.  In Texas, food cooked over an open fire is called “grilled.”  The term “Barbecue” is reseved for slow cooked, smoked food. There may be additional nuances.

I really loved the brisket. Soft in the middle, charred with a “bark” on the outside. Served with hot barbecue sauce. Yummy. I bemoaned that I could not do this myself, but could not imagine that I could ever carry a suitable smoker with me. Then, a friend told me that he smokes brisket in a Weber Kettle Grill. I realized that my portable fireplace was a really good equivalent.

So I’ve adapted the instructions in the article linked above, and started a fire. When the coals burn down, I’ll add some soaked Mesquite, then place the rubbed brisket on the other end of the smoker, over a pan of water, to catch the drippings. There will be more photos, as the day goes on. Tonight, we eat.

When the fire has burned down to coals, we’ll add the wood chips, place the meat and cover.

More as we proceed.

OK, so now it’s almost 11:30. The brisket has been in the “smoker” since about 9. I started it about 8:30, but I wasn’t happy with the fire, so I uncovered it almost immediately, took about 1/2 hour to make some adjustments, and covered it about 9.

My advisors, Jon and Art, advise me that it’s pretty hard to keep the temperature regulated. After a few hours, I’m getting the hang of it. With this rig, it’s mostly done with the lower vent. I have an electronic thermometer that beeps when it gets too high, but I have to go out and look to see if it’s getting too low. If I close the vent, the temp lowers. If I open the vent, it rises.

I keep going out there and trying not to take the cover off. I’ve added more wet wood a few times, and added a few coals when it got down to 200 deg.

At 11:15, I decided to pull the cover and turn the brisket 180 degrees to the fire, as recommended at the smoker site. This is what we have so far:

3:00 PM: The brisket has a nice black/brown coating over much of it’s outside. I cut a small piece off the end. It has a nice pink smoke-ring around it. Jonathan says that this is hard to achieve, so in the words of the LolCats, “I’m doin’ it right.” I shared the “pitmaster’s test piece” with Roseann, and we both agree that it’s going to be good.  I put some foil wrapped potatoes into the fire.

4:16 PM: Well, we’ve been smoking all day. I’ve tried to stay out of there, and am no longer feeding it coals or wood. Temp is about 250. Can’t get it lower, even with the vents all closed. The brisket is cooked through, so now it can only get softer. A good thing.

So here we are at 4 PM. I think it looks great. This is the “up” side, and I’m going to turn it, to see what the down side looks like.

This side looks nice as well. We’ll let this live face up for now, and see how it changes.

If you look at the extreme top of the photo, you can see a hint of the foil wrapped potatoes.

The Challah is about 50% baked. When it’s done, we’ll clear and set the table and set up the Shabbos candles. See you after dinner :)

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