Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire KD's BBQ Midland, TX

I have a smoker and I make some pretty stellar BBQ brisket. As others have stated, it's not the sauce, but the wood you use in your smoker. You should also use a smoker with an offset fire box. I don't particularly like mesquite - tastes a bit like turpentine IMO. The key is to mix yer wood. I generally smoke a brisket for 1 hr./lb., so a 12 lb. brisket will be on the smoker for 12 hrs. (low and slow ~ 220°). I start by rinsing the brisket, patting it dry and then using a dry rub - none of this basting crap - cook the brisket fat-side up and it bastes itself. I then make the fire (do not use lighter fluid of any kind or it will ruin the flavor of the meat) with a mixture of hickory and white oak, but a bit heavier on the hickory. After about 3-4 hrs. or slightly more, when I think a good smoke ring has formed, I'll wrap the brisket in foil throwing in 1-2 quartered jalapenos - I do this because if I leave it unwrapped for any longer, the smoke flavor can become overpowering. After wrapping the brisket - I use straight white oak. Mixing white oak and hickory also limits the power of any one wood. White oak is more benign. Mesquite, pecan, hickory, apple wood, will impart a very strong flavor if it's not tempered with another wood. As an example, a Bud of mine once smoked a brisket for 14 hrs. using only pecan wood. I asked him how it was and he said he schidt pecan fire the entire next day. Since I have no desire to schidt pecan fire, I haven't attempted to recreate the feat.

I have also smoked unwrapped using straight white oak for ~12 hrs, with excellent results. And when I don't feel like tending a fire for 12 hrs., I'll sometimes throw it in the oven (in a large roasting pan), after 4 hrs. of smoking, to finish (at 220°).

I’m not a believer in fat up on brisket, it’s true with pork. I cook fat down to protect the bottom and if I wrap I use paper.

Since I use a smoker with an offset fire box, I haven't needed to protect the underside of the brisket, and at 220° it never gets over-charred.

I also agree with Cheesy regarding KC BBQ. I'm not a fan of wet BBQ - way too much sauce which has way too much sugar. Properly smoked meat doesn't need sauce or sugar to camouflage improperly smoked meat.

I do use BBQ sauce sparingly, but I use it as a 'garnish' on top of the meat, which limits sugar intake. Also, Stubbs original BBQ sauce is relatively low in sugar and is good.

And beer for worsching it all down is important...

This is the best smoker I’ve ever used. Holds temp stable easily at 250 on one side and 225 the other, that’s what we were shooting for. The midstream company I worked for at the time bought it and we duplicated it. Reverse flow.

taking a screen shot

Man while I enjoy getting my meat smoked by Sandbilly the burnt ends at Arthur Bryants are hard to beat....

Yes, some smoke still gets in and it doesn’t hold moisture as well as foil. I should have said that most of the the time I use paper. Some briskets seem to have a mind of their own, if I think it’s going to be dry I’ll use foil.

Yes butcher paper

Look my stalker. For anyone to smoke your meat you’d need to pull it outta your boyfriends ass. Bye kid.

Go find a cheap alternative and let us know how good it is.

I do all the time, a $8 beef fajita plate.