First cook on Weber One Touch Premium

[bbqbob]

Really pleased with first attempt at smoked brisket today but think there was a fair few errors, any input would be appreciated. firstly my butcher cut the brisket off the bone whilst i was there ended up with 2.3kg for £18.00 brisket was 28 day or more matured, not sure if that will improve end flavour or not.

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i marinated overnight with mustard, worcestershire sauce, paprika, cumin, chilli, brown sugar, onion powder, and garlic powder.
Brisket went on the bbq at 8.30am first issue was temperature it rose within a minute or so to 300f wasnt sure how to try and bring this down so just left bottom vents open and closed top vent by half, temperature eventually came down to 225f mopped about every hour, when meat reached 75 celsius (after 4 hours) i foiled it for 2 hours until it reached internal temp of 94 celsius at around 6 hours, then rested for 30 mins.
It tasted great and was still full of juices when sliced but cant help thinking fat should have been trimmed more to give more uniform shape, plus i dont think i used enough hickory wood chips, they seemed to burn really fast.

[bbqbob]

sorry meant to add i used the minion method and had charcoal briquettes on either side of bbq

[JEC]

Don't be disappointed, for a first go it looks OK, brisket is a difficult cut to crack.

[Swindon_Ed]

A couple of pointers would to bank all of your coals onto one side of the BBQ and put your meat on the opposite side as this will allow you to cook at a lower temperature and you can also all foil pans with water to keep the heat down and add some moisture to the BBQ.

Secondly it looks like you've sliced your brisket with the grain which would make it quite stringy, it's best to slice across the grain as this will make it nicer to eat.

Finally are you soaking your wood chips? if you're not, try soaking them in water for an hour or two ahead of cooking as this will make them burn slower.

[bbqbob]

Ok will try both those pointers next weekend, I'm glad you mentioned the grain, I had read about it on here but still got it wrong

[Riverrat]

When I am using wood chips I wrap them up in foil and punch a few small holes in the foil and place on top of the coals - chips then smoulder (can't flame) and the smoke ( the bit we want ) escapes through the holes. I have tried the soaking thing but prefer the foil packets.

Edited to add - The Brisket looks good enough to eat so it passes the test!!!

[bbqbob]

Cheers it certainly tasted good, will give the foil wrap a go . I definitely would have liked more of a smoke ring

[RobinC]

Don't worry too much about the smoke ring. Smoke ring doesn't necessarily correlate with smokey flavour.

[bbqbob]

Well 2nd smoke is underway and it's a lovely morning so far, beef ribs this time, took into account all the advice from previous posts which was much much appreciated. However I think I made an error with the charcoal. This time I banked briquettes to one side using a chimney full of unlit followed by half a chimney of lit charcoal, think it may be too much as temp soared again to almost 400f I put a second water tray over the coals and it seems to have brought temp down 280f.

[thebarbecuemaster]

hi bbq bob
i am sorry your brisket didnt turn out the way you wanted but it still looks good here

,I think that the best way to cook brisket and ribs is with the weber smoker using the pan of water and the minon method like you did , even as a beginner i never had a bad batch of ribs or brisket using that smoker . Prior to smoking I always soaked overnight the hickory or pecan chunks of wood on the coals. the weber smoker is designed to keep the temperature around 225 f with use of the vents on the bottom and top/

i also think this can be done with your grill but it is more diffcult by keeping the coals to one side putting a dish with water in the side with no coals but has to be watched more closely as grills are designed to heat up over 300f for quick cooking.
best wishes