On Sat, 11 Oct 2003 01:29:59 GMT, bbq wrote:

The brisket needs to go on tonight if you want it tomorrow. It is not
uncommon for brisket to cook for 16 hours.

I can cook a brisket point in about 5 hours in my Old Smokey sealed
electric smoker (I use the brisket flat for homemade corned beef). I
hold the smoker temperature around 150-200F and cook the meat to 185
internal (measured with a Polder thermometer). I cook it that much to
render the internal fat off. I then slice it for BBQ sandwiches on
extra large buns. I put Kraft BBQ sauce (which I can get as low as 25
cents per bottle on sale), sliced dill pickles and sliced onions on
the sandwich. I get so much meat from one brisket point that I have
to freeze the extra sandwiches. I just had one for lunch that had been
in the freezer for a month and it was delicious.

I bought about 10 large briskets for 59 cents per pound on sale and
froze them in the deep freeze. I cook one about every month, so I have
enough meat in the freezer to last nearly a year. It takes about a
month to work thru all that meat. Last time we made 16 sandwiches from
one brisket point. The reason for the high yield is that the meat does
not dry out in the sealed smoker. Only the excess fat is rendered out.

The beer can chicken comes out of that smoker the best I have ever
tasted BBQ chicken in my 40 years of BBQ cooking. About the only thing
I do not cook with the electric smoker is ribs and hamburgers. The
ribs get too wet from it - I like them a bit drier in texture. The
smoker is more like a roasting pan, which implies large roasts and
chicken, not ribs and hamburgers.