by jonhobbs » 04 Oct 2015, 19:09
OK, so it didn't go great, but not because it was too small I think.
The problem was that I had allowed 5-6 hours based on the weight and put it on 225F. Guests arrived at 2pm and by 3pm it was still a very long way off temperature. So I read a few articles about the temp stalling and the advice was to wrap in foil or to increase the temperature, so I turned up the temp but half an hour later it wasn't going up much higher. So, basically I kept turning it up until it was as high as the smoker would go and STILL it wasn't getting there, so about an hour and a half earlier we just had to eat and I knew beef was safe to eat at the temperature it had got to, which was 82C/179F.
It was cooked, not pink in the middle at all, but it was tough, very tough. The teaste and seasoning was fantastic but the fat was stringy and did I mention it was tough?
I can only assume that if I had have had a couple more hours and had left it at 225F and got it all the way to 200F that it would have been juicier and would have fallen apart the way brisket is supposed to, but I simply didn't have time. Next time I'll start it much earlier.