Holy Smokes!

Scene: Pursuit stepping out on the back patio, inhales deeply

Pursuit: "Ahhhhhhhhhhh...do you smell that?"

Mrs. P rolling eyes: "Yes, dear I do"

Pursuit: "I love the smell of cherry wood in the morning."

Mrs. P: "Yes, I'm sure the neighbors do as well dear"

Pursuit taking another deep breath and exhaling: "It smells like.......it smells like victory!"

End of scene.

Well, I woke up this morning and as we discussed what today's culinary adventure might be, Mrs. P suggested I whip some more of those fine pork ribs that I prepared last Sunday. While I thought this might be an excellent idea, I've been hankerin' for some beef brisket and so a plan was born.

Typically I like to do beef with apple wood, but tragically I seem to be out so I'm going to try a little something different today. I'm starting with Cherry wood, which should carry me through most of the day. I am doing a 6 pound brisket and I think I'm going to go for around 11 hours, low and slow which means I'll have to shift to hickory at some point. In my opinion hickory doesn't work as well with beef, but I'm told by many folks that I'm just plain wrong on this issue so we'll see what happens.

Above, are starting pics of the raw brisket, and then the rubbed brisket as it was entering the smoking chamber.

More later.

UPDATE: Monday morning. Sorry, things got a little busy yesterday. End result: Mixed I'd say. I smoked at around 160 degrees, which was too low to break down the fibers. I did the full 11 hours, and while taste was good, and the moisture level was excellent, the meat was still a bit tough. I might go ahead and put it in the oven, covered for 2 hours tonight at 220 to see if I can't break it down a bit.