On 17-Jun-2009, Donald Bones > wrote:

> Okay, so I've done about 1, sometimes 2 briskets a month for about the
> last year or so (I really love brisket). To shorten the story, I've
> mopped, flipped, turned, sprayed with apple juice, and just about
> everything else you could think of. End the end, what kept them moist
> and tender was for me to leave them alone. After a rub the day before,
> they'd smoke for 8 or so hrs, then I'd wrap them in foil for a few more
> hours. Then towel 'em up in the cooler overnight, and in the morning
> there was a nice pool of juice, and they were falling-apart tender. No
> mopping, no injecting, no nothin'. A few times, they reached 205
> degrees, but didn't dry out at all.
> Now, to compensate, I did leave a little more of the cap on top, but my
> only consequence was not much of a ring on the top. But the taste and
> amount of moisture was a more than fair trade. I guess if you're going
> to contest, though, that's a no-go.
> Curious to know what you all think, and how you do what you do with your
> briskets.
>
> db

Don't try to fix what don't need fixing. I confess though, that I learned
in a mere
two years or so to leave stuff alone in the smoker. My only caveat has to
do
with eveining out the heat exposure on individual items when I have the
cooker
overloaded. Which seems to be too often lately. And I usually turn butts
180°
after about 4 hours in the cooker for the same reason. I never turn stuff
over.
When I take stuff out of the cooker, I treat it the same way you do. I've
often
hit 205°F in a butt, not that I'm proud of that,but I've always gotten away
with
it. I've never had a bad or even poor brisket.

--
Brick (Youth is wasted on young people)