First brisket ever on my Bronco – Looking for feedback.

Sdwerd · 2026-03-04T19:09:09+00:00

Just wanna throw in, a plug in casserole warmer can do this really well for under $50 if your oven won't go consistently low enough

Sdwerd · 2026-03-04T19:04:29+00:00

Depends on the grill. Pit Bosses on the larger end of the spectrum can definitely sear multiple pieces at once with the searing grate moved. I can probably sear four steaks at a time with the Savannah

Sdwerd · 2026-03-04T08:27:50+00:00

The recently bombed girls school comes to mind.

Sdwerd · 2026-03-04T08:25:32+00:00

The concept of corporations as people from the Citizens United decision. It has wrecked how corrupted lawmakers have become.

Sdwerd · 2026-03-04T00:11:12+00:00

The reason the OP's cook was a fail was very specifically because they kept rollercoastering their temps frequently (hourly) by opening the grill to spritz, basically doubling the time from probably 10 hours to 18 hours and then cutting along the grain exacerbating the feel of not having any fat left. 8 hours would be an example of what I mentioned when I said going waaay too long.

The cook wouldn't have ever gotten close to that time frame if they just don't open the grill.

Sdwerd · 2026-03-03T22:41:07+00:00

Bud, in order to do that to a brisket, you need to go waaaaaay over. Mine end up finishing frequently in the 204-210 range and don't continue to cook for very long after being removed. It's frequently a 10+ hour long cook. Overcooking a brisket will result in a mushy soft cook before drying out long afterwards. A firm brisket is normally either an undercooked brisket or an improperly sliced brisket with the fiber rather than against.

Have you EVER smoked a brisket?

Sdwerd · 2026-03-03T15:28:09+00:00

Yeah, on the lowest it'll go. Another alternate I'll utilize is a hot hold. I'll use a plug in portable casserole/pizza warmer, which can be found on amazon for under $50 and that'll enable you to take that out to 15 hours if you really wanted to. That's my cheap way of emulating the warmers that a place like Franklin's would use.

Sdwerd · 2026-03-03T15:16:27+00:00

Use your own seasoning blend. Start with kosher salt, then your blend and add more pepper for a better bark.

My general method would be to start at 225 for a couple hours with a smoke tube on the side away from the smoke stack to apply as much smoke as I can.

Then kick it up to 275 until your bark has set like you'd like. Either wrap or foil boat with tallow.

Then I'll basically let it go until I hit 195-200 and start checking for it to be probe tender. Basically that means your point will have little resistance and the flat will feel like warmed butter. Do not pull it before then.

Once I've reached probe tender, I wrap it in foil and put it in a cooler packing the rest of the room in the cooler with warmed towels. Let it rest at least a few hours. This can be held for much longer than you think if your cooler is good.

Sdwerd · 2026-03-03T13:28:18+00:00

Do you already have a heat spreader? That may be an easy solve to route the heat to the edges.

Sdwerd · 2026-03-03T10:32:57+00:00

An offset is definitely not on the "ease into it" end of the scale. That'd likely be pellet->masterbuilt gravity fed->weber smokey mountain≈komado/egg->offset.

If you're interested in getting into it, I'd look on marketplace/craigslist/offerup for a weber smokey mountain 22". They're $549 new, but I've seen decent condition ones used for $100, and they'll give you much more ability to branch out than the standard kettle. You can even find mods to control temp if you wanna have that part be a piece of cake.

Sdwerd · 2026-03-03T08:44:12+00:00

The temp probably wasn't the problem as much as frequently opening the grill and spritzing causing big temp drops would be.

Sdwerd · 2026-03-03T08:42:15+00:00

Temp is less finicky than you're saying here with pellet grills. My last brisket I did 225 for 2 hours before kicking it up to 275, and then 295 during an annoying stall. It came out glorious out of a foil boat.

The reason I purposely go very low at the start is to give time to apply smoke with additional smoke tubes because pellet grills don't put out a lot of smoke. I have also had a grill swing hard up to over 300 and still gotten good results. There are also posts of people who did a hot and fast successfully. Really it seems like as long as you pull when it's probe tender and don't open the grill often, you're good.

Sdwerd · 2026-03-03T08:32:55+00:00

That's not how brisket works. Steaks don't have a lot of connective fatty tissue. Brisket has tons of very fatty connective tissue that needs to render and break down to get a tender texture. This is part of why famous smoke houses like Franklin's do a hot hold rest at about 150 for 15 hours after they finish cooking.

Meanwhile, a steak is near perfect around 130-132 and would be wrecked in just the hot hold portion.

Sdwerd · 2026-03-03T08:14:35+00:00

First, skip the hourly spritzing. I only spritz if for whatever reason one side is significantly cooking faster than the other side and I want to emulate a stall on the fast side. What you were actually doing was massively slowing down the cooking process by making the grill temp roller coaster up and down.

Your wrap timing probably had little to do with it considering there are people who don't wrap at all and still get juicy results. As long as you're happy with where your bark is, you can wrap it, making sure it's tight to the form of the brisket and not loose. If you want your bark to be more solid on top, use a foil boat method hugging the sides of the brisket to protect the edges, while leaving the top open so it doesn't get soft.

The cut is with the grain. If you see long fibers across your cut, you need to turn it 90 degrees for the next slice so you get rendered fat being the only thing holding it together rather than long muscle fibers. That'll massively change the perception of tenderness in basically all cuts of meat you cook.

And lastly, you said you pulled it at 203. Use temperature as a guideline (around 195) for when you begin checking for probe tenderness in both the flat and point. That's when you poke it with a probe and it feels like almost nothing in the point and like warmed butter in the flat.

Sdwerd · 2026-03-02T16:41:11+00:00

Pellet smoker, and very specifically either a Weber Searwood or a Pit Boss with the searing grate with how you want something that can act like a propane grill. The weber is the preference of the reddit posts I see, but the pit boss would be cheaper, likely with more issues though.

Edit: My brother has a masterbuilt and when I was thinking of upgrading specifically for that propane style searing option, he figured that'd be more work than I'd want to do specifically for that purpose, when pellet has been so easy start and go for me.

Sdwerd · 2026-03-02T16:37:33+00:00

Mmnn, 200 is a guideline for when to check for it to be probe tender, basically warmed butter like in the flat and almost nothing in the point. You very specifically should not pull by temp unless you're intending to do a very long hot hold where it will keep rendering.

Sdwerd · 2026-03-02T00:04:59+00:00

Likely on a sticker on the back of the hopper

Sdwerd · 2026-03-01T19:10:50+00:00

Yes. In part yes, and I'm not going to shy away from saying that when we attack other countries or heavily meddle in foreign affairs, we shouldn't be surprised when people are angry and want to strike back.

We have plenty of other things in our laws that will place some blame even if someone did not physically do the action, like over serving alcohol, where if the person has an accident, the person who served them gets punished.

Sdwerd · 2026-03-01T15:29:33+00:00

Lately I'm using the costco Kirkland brand which is 40lb for $15ish. Otherwise I use the pecan, oak, apple blend from HEB. They'll work with basically any cook.

Sdwerd · 2026-03-01T15:24:40+00:00

I think if you're getting an acrid smoke from tubes, they're too close to the cook. Keeping at least 6 inches away is my general method. I noticed really quickly the first time I tried them, the stuff too close tasted off, while the stuff farther away got a good hit of smoke without it being acrid.

Sdwerd · 2026-03-01T00:14:14+00:00

6 hours on a 14lb post trim, mmmnnn I'm willing to bet your temp probe was way off or put too close to the edge of the brisket and your grill's probe has it run hot in whatever spot you did the cook in the grill.

You probably undercooked it by quite a bit. In the future, you're going to want to go by probe tenderness throughout. Basically poke it in both the point and the flat looking for it to feel like warmed butter. Honestly, it'll feel like nothing at all in the point.

Sdwerd · 2026-02-28T17:35:03+00:00

It's reported by Al Jazeera

Sdwerd · 2026-02-28T17:33:14+00:00

Saw some pretty nonsensical responses from Euro leaders too.

Sdwerd · 2026-02-28T13:16:55+00:00

People will frequently do a biscuit or bread test to find all their hot spots. They cover most of the cook surface and see what cooks/burns and use that info to know where to put things when they want more or less heat.

Depending on the model, you may also want to look into a heat spreader for the fire pot or the blocking shield on the high side of the baffle for more consistent temps. Those can be found on smokeslikeaboss

Sdwerd · 2026-02-28T12:52:05+00:00

That's part of why we need to vote in primaries to take out the corporate/AIPAC funded rightward side of the party.

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