Kent wrote:
> After reading a bunch of reports from those who have roasted a corned
> beef brisket, I decided to have a go at it on my recently acquired
> Weber Smokey Mountain. First, I soaked the brisket in water for six
> hours, changing the water halfway through the soak. Then onto the top
> grate of the WSM. The water pan was not used. To have indirect heat a
> pizza stone on top of a foiled pizza pan fit relatively snugly onto
> the water pan receptacle. Using the Minion mode, the temp. held
> stable between 250-275F throughout the seven hour cook. At this point
> the internal temp of the brisket was 180F.

OK, now I see what the first post I received was talking about. Was the
corned beef a point or a flat? A flat will cook out a whole lot drier. I
hate flats by themselves, they are a bit trickier to cook. Corned beef
should not be talked about as being the same as a non-corned brisket. In my
experience they are different animals in the pit. For all any of us knows,
the cut of corned beef you had would have dried out with the merest of a
hard glare applied to it. When I bbq a corned beef, I am VERY picky about
what goes into the pit, and I can rarely count on the grocer to come up with
a good cut..... too small, too thin a fat cap, too lean a cut, etc. If I
soak the corned beef, I also change the water at least every hour.

The moisture in meat cannot be conserved by the medium it is cooked in or
surrounded by. The intra and extra-cellular moisture will be driven out of
the meat, under pressure, when it is cooking. The driest meat I have ever
experienced is found in my mom's beef and gravy dish. She boils the cut-up
beef chunks to cook them. God help you if you were to take a bite of the
meat right out of the pot; it would proceed to suck the saliva and other
body fluids from your body like some evil, mutant sponge, in its failed
attempt to regain the moisture that the boiling in water removed. <shudder>

I'd say the best advice I can give is for you to get your chops doing big
packer briskets (IMPS, Beef Brisket 120). Once you feel like you've got that
under control (ie, you get the feel of how brisket responds to time and temp
with the flats and points), do the more advanced stuff. I know that it seems
silly, but it's a bit like wanting to run before you know how to crawl.

--
Dave
What is best in life? "To crush your enemies, see them driven before
you, and to hear the lamentation of the women." -- Conan