Mama's Boys Talkin' Cookin'

You need to hit me up at some point with recipe/directions on smoking a brisket with an electronic smoker. I have yet to try it but I am ready to give it a shot.

 

Fried chicken is good, but greasy enough to where I feel semi-bad afterward. I can have me a steak and still go work a full day.

 

If you watch some of his other videos (like the ones on pulled pork and brisket...) it’s pretty obvious that Malcom is a guy you can trust on all things food related! He does some competition style ribs that will ruin you forever for any weak ass Calhoun’s type bullshit.

 

I went through the whole “electric smokers suck / not authentic” business, and was a “purist”, only using my Egg / charcoal. That is until I put some meat on, dialed it in at 205°, and went to bed - only to wake up to charred meat after it flashed and I wasn’t there to catch it. Or, the fire died way down (below 150°) for an unknown amount of time, so I just threw it out, to be safe.

For anyone who doesn’t care to know...
Another complication with brisket is not only in estimating the fat content (as someone correctly said earlier), but the odd-shaped size of the meat. A whole brisket has two parts - the point, which is thick, has more meat and less fat, and the flat, which is much thinner, has less meat but more fat...and the difference in thickness / fat content between the two can be significant, and must be accounted for in smoking. Cook the flat perfectly Medium, and the point will likely be very, very Rare. Cook the point to a medium, and you can light your next fire with the flat, because it’s going to be a charcoal briquette. And then you’ve got to pay attention to the position of the brisket in the smoker...because you want the fat of the flat to slowly roll down toward the point and be equally absorbed, and not simply drip off and more wind up in the drip pan, instead. But not too fast, as to roll off the flat before it is also saturated.

So, really, that’s the reason - perhaps the primary, amongst many - reasons you must cook a brisket low and slow, as it gives a much wider and more forgiving margin for error, and just produces a suitably superior end result. I’d be very leery of any brisket that was completed in less than 8 hours, at a minimum (unless it started in a sous vide, but that’s another thing, altogether), and for all of these reasons and more.

After trying to account for all of this, not wanting to sit and stare at my Egg for 18 hours, etc., I finally just bought a Masterbuilt Smoker (you can find them on Black Friday for $200 or so) and a stand, and started using that.

I usually get to our camper and put it in at 5pm or so, and it goes all night at 180° until 9am, then up to 195-200° until about noon. I take it off, wrap it in several layers of aluminum foil, wrap it in several more layers of towels, and pack it in a cooler to sit while we’re out on the water.

By the time we come back in at 5pm(ish), it’ll still have an internal temp of 180° or more, so it’s both well settled and safe to eat (leaving meat below 140° for more than 4 hours is unsafe per the FDA...maybe some risk it, and are just fine, but I don’t).

An electric smoker is just too easy, and damned hard to screw anything up too badly. And as far as adding chips / pellets, you really only need to do that for the first few hours (if even that long), because once your meat smokes to the point where the outside develops even a thin rind / crust, the smoke can’t appreciably continue to permeate the meat, at least insofar as it’s worth it. I’ll throw some chips in after the first few hours...but it’s only because I’m piddling, or because it smells good to do.

Insofar as “recipes”, I don’t usually do anything crazier than salt & pepper to taste. My only rule is that I won’t put anything on a brisket that I wouldn’t also put on a steak. Stick with those basics, and you’ll do great.

Smoking a brisket is just like anything else - be it climate change, accounting, data analysis, running electric lines, being a lawyer, practicing medicine, coaching football, etc. - it’s both easily simplistic from a high-end view, but grows far more complicated and nuanced than it first appears, upon subsequently closer looks.

I really enjoy it, but am entirely self-taught. I read and watch YouTube in an attempt to better understand it. And to be clear, my brisket wouldn’t likely win any awards or could even compete with those pros who cook several thousand in a year, every year, and who have forgotten more than I’ll ever know. I just enjoy it, but am damned sure no expert.

 

Tenny, have you ever tried to make pastrami out of a brisket? I haven’t tried it yet but as much as I love a Rueben, I’m gonna have to give it a go one of these weekends...

 

I use to think using an electric smoker was silly as well. Mine has a temperature probe and I can check it from my phone which is really convenient. Makes smoking meats a breeze and they turn out way better than I ever expected. I love mine.

 

I promise you if you tried my smoked wings you would change your mind about smoking chicken. I've got them dialed in.

 

In general, there is always some solution for properly smoking, BBQing, etc any widely consumed meat. And often there are multiple solutions. I am not a man of faith, but I believe in the power of the smoke. Exodus Chapter 3. The Lord tried to tell us.

 

Amen. Pretty well anything can be smoked and taste amazing, it just may take some time to dial it in and get that heavenly taste.

 

My electric smoker was great until it shorted out and tripped the breaker. About three days later I learned that it was also the same circuit my deep freezer is wired into.

So now I have a propane smoker.

 

No, sir. I’ve never even heard of that.

Will look into it.

Also, I got some Sweet P’s today - pork, wings, brisket, ribs, sides - and it is as excellent as many have said, if not better. Their brisket was incredibly good - easily the best I’ve had in Knoxville.

 

At least something good came out of today....

 

I've made venison pastrami.

You pretty much let it soak in whatever you want for 3 days and smoke it low for awhile

 

Best BBQ in knoxville and not really close.

 

If you’re ever in Atlanta B’s Cracklin Is the place to go for bbq. Good luck getting in though.

 

I’ve been trying to think if I can disagree with this and I don’t think I can.

 

That at a marina?

 

There’s one at the marina on Old Knoxville Highway and on Jackson Ave as well.

 

Yup

 

Only reason i don't go there more often is wait times unless timed perfect.