My 'machine' lol is just a long BBQ grill, so I have more access to the coals and smoke as time goes along.
It's also a curse, because I never get the same results twice, but I am a tinkerer and I don't begrudge
a little maintenance. It hurts on overnight cooks, so i can't do that, maybe I could come up with a way,
but haven't yet. I build a fire, let it go to coals, cover with lump charcoal, and when that is almost ashed over,
I lay on either wood chunks or plain old tree branches. I get a lot of branch fall under my Pecan trees, so I do
one or the other based on availablility. If there is not too much draft in the cooker, the branches resist igniting
and give up the perfect amount of smoke. But like I said, some days it comes out perfect and some days I smell
that housefire smell and know I screwed up something, lol.
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I just fired up the chimney a few minutes ago in preparation for my first overnight smoke. All I can say is where have you been all my life chimney. Just think of all the countless time fluid and cussing it took to get the fire started the old way.

Going on tonight is 2 butts on the bottom rack and a brisket on the top. Butts are about 7-1/2 lbs each and the brisket is 6-1/2 lbs. Both are trimmed and all rubbed up. :-)
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So Cal checkin' in with 2 Tri Tips for a Sunday... After 1 hr:

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After 2 hrs:

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After 4 hrs:

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After 4.75 hrs:

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Final: 4.5 hrs cook time @ 225* - 235* cooking temp, final internal temp 150*, 1 can Mesquite chips for a little over 1 hr during the early smoke stage, Rub: Texas BBQ Original, medium done:

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This really turned into some tasty Tri Tip meat. Moist, tender, and pretty much melted in my mouth. Had a little Sweet Baby Ray's Honey BBQ sauce on the side for dipping from time to time. Looking forwards to next weekend now!

Just a tip of the hat again to Adam (T.G.) for his input on the fire bricks and suggestions in converting my Kenmore Gas Grill for smoking meat...


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WOW, all of that from a gas grill?
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:-)...Yes siree!


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Pic of the brisket-beginning weight was 6.9 lbs, trimmed to about 6.5 lbs.
Total cooking time: 10.5 hours
Temp: 190.4

Now resting in the cooler waiting for the 2 butts (both are at ~ 175 degrees 10.5 hours into the cook. Not pulling until they hit at least 200 this time.
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Mark,

Awesome, just awesome! :-)

It was no problem on the help, it was fun figuring out how to mod that one.
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Starting to lose patience with the 2 butts on the smoker. I just hit the 13 hour mark and they're still not quite 190 yet. Decided to throw on another chimney worth of hot charcoal as my temps seemed to be struggling just a bit. This should give me enough to get over the hump I reckon.
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Mark, that Tri-Tip looks GREAT!!. Good job Dude.
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Duane, be patient w/ the Butts. 14-16 hours is not uncommon at all for doing 2 butts at one time.
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Another boring fatty series from the BABOTL Birthday Herf on 4/16/2011:


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mild Italian sausage, a commercial/restaurant pizza sauce I can't remember the name of, a few types of cheese, pepperoni, beef salami, kalamata olives, mushrooms, green onions, bacon, roasted garlic, sweet pickled peppers (the canned peppers pictured were not used), marinaded artichoke hearts, basil, rosemary, marjoram, oregano, red pepper flakes.


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On the smoker late Friday night. Oak (60-70%) and cherry (40-30%) wood smoke.

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After reheating at Eric's house.

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10 minutes and they were all gone, nothing but a tray of fatty juice, three or four requests for recipes / cooking instructions, and two marriage proposals (unfortunately the latter were from Clay and Mario).
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I amaze myself....here is the brisket sliced after a 2 hour hold in the cooler.

It was excellent!
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:-)

Yeah, 1.5 to 2 hrs per lb is not uncommon.
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Looks good. :-)

What did you use for smoke wood?
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Hickory and mesquite...haven't ventured into the "fruity" woods yet.
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Dumb question I have about the brisket-

I've read about slicing the flat from the point, but from the pics and such, I can't tell that my brisket had both. It was just under 7 lbs at Sams Club, so I'm not sure if they only sell one part of the brisket or I just can't tell where they are. Thanks.
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Butts are in the cooler to rest for a couple of hours as temps seemed to finally hit the 200 mark. Tested with the fork and it was shredding on the smoker. In the house, I went to pick it up with both hands and it fell into pieces.
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Here's the pulled butt.
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The only ones i have seen at Sam's is the Flat part of the brisket, the last one i did was the point and flat, but i had a super hard time finding it whole, had to order it thru WinnDixie, wasnt by choice, went to every butcher in down and no one had a whole brisket, i was pissed wasted a whole saturday, finally ordered from WD, but it was actually pretty nice cut of beef if i say so, but i am still a noob...
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I bought a brisket on Saturday at Sams, and they did have whole packers (with the flat and the point) and packs with just the flat. I think the smallest whole brisket I saw where I shopped was about 12 pounds.

The whole packers were $1.88/pound and the flats were more - close to $4/pound if I remember - so the price may tell you if you got just the flat or a whole brisket.
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