Well after posting pics in the BBQ threads and answering tons of questions about my process and recipes I told everyone that I would make a thread for everybody when I did my next smoke session which was over last weeks SuperBowl so here it is:
First off I have had many smokers but this one's been the best so far. I use a cabinet type propane type smoker. It seems to maintain a column of smoke better than the other ones and gives me a lot of vertical space with good variance in temps along the column. This is nice because you can smoke different things at different temps depending on where you put it in the cabinet.
So to start you have to locate a brisket. I like butcher cold packs that are large and have a nice layer of Hard fat on top. One word of caution is to look at the meat very closely in the sealed bag. There shouldn't be any air bubbles but there always are at least a few. These air bubbles will cause the meat that they're in contact with to oxidize and spoil. You'll see this in the meat through the bag and it'll look like the meat is grey/dull-brown in the area where the bubbles are or where for a long time. It's pretty hard to find a slab of meat that doesn't have at least a little of this spoilage. Try to minimize this but either way make sure you cut this spoiled part off before you do anything else.
Butcher cold pack:~$35
Then trim the thick layer of fat on top down to about 3/4"-1" and go ahead and trim up any fat on the bottom. You really want to make slices across the layer of fat checker (1" squares) the top layer of fat so that you have a good resting place for your rub and it creates channels down to the meat for the rendered fat, but don't cut so deep that you cut into the meat. Briskets, that I haven't checkered aren't nearly as moist, so it does make a difference.
Checkered fat:
I like what is known as a 4x4 rub in the BBQ world. It's equal parts, brown sugar, paprika, black pepper, salt. But I personally think that's far too salty so I cut the salt in half.
Dry rub:
First off I have had many smokers but this one's been the best so far. I use a cabinet type propane type smoker. It seems to maintain a column of smoke better than the other ones and gives me a lot of vertical space with good variance in temps along the column. This is nice because you can smoke different things at different temps depending on where you put it in the cabinet.
So to start you have to locate a brisket. I like butcher cold packs that are large and have a nice layer of Hard fat on top. One word of caution is to look at the meat very closely in the sealed bag. There shouldn't be any air bubbles but there always are at least a few. These air bubbles will cause the meat that they're in contact with to oxidize and spoil. You'll see this in the meat through the bag and it'll look like the meat is grey/dull-brown in the area where the bubbles are or where for a long time. It's pretty hard to find a slab of meat that doesn't have at least a little of this spoilage. Try to minimize this but either way make sure you cut this spoiled part off before you do anything else.
Butcher cold pack:~$35
Then trim the thick layer of fat on top down to about 3/4"-1" and go ahead and trim up any fat on the bottom. You really want to make slices across the layer of fat checker (1" squares) the top layer of fat so that you have a good resting place for your rub and it creates channels down to the meat for the rendered fat, but don't cut so deep that you cut into the meat. Briskets, that I haven't checkered aren't nearly as moist, so it does make a difference.
Checkered fat:
I like what is known as a 4x4 rub in the BBQ world. It's equal parts, brown sugar, paprika, black pepper, salt. But I personally think that's far too salty so I cut the salt in half.
Dry rub:
