Smoking Brisket

[Dinsdale]

First off -- you use an electric... get the fuck out of here. Great for salmon or making jerky, but get it the fuck out of here for real cooking.

And as to the moisture issue, therein lies the rub -- you have essentially zero temperature control with an electric Brinkmann (unless you modify it). Depending on ambient conditions, those can run well over 300 degrees - so much for keeping it moist.

I'm not much of a brisket guy (been on a pork shoulder kick lately -- probably because Winco has had them on sale dirt cheap lately), but smoking meat is smoking meat. Keep your temps right, and the moisture stays. Cook it too fast, it goes.

But really -- I believe there's a difference in the chemical reaction (I forget what the reaction is when smoking -- it's similar to but different from the maillard reaction, but they both lock the moisture in) etween a real fire and an electric element.

I use the Brinkmann charcoal version -- new, they cost about $50 (I have the "Delux," which has a vinyl cover and a door to add water... BFD. Traded for something or other at a flea market). It's not a big production to cook with it, although it certainly isn't as easy to control temp as a bigboy cooker. I get a couple dozen briquettes going, add a few chunks of cherry (since it's what I have after cutting down a cherry tree), and stand just outside of the wafting smoke while drinking beer like a sailor on leave, while popping inside to watch ball games.

That's really my best advice to solve your moisture problem. Save your elecric for making beef jerky (great for that).

Make a big roast -- then your wife can simmer the leftovers in her crock pot, and make pulled beef... call it a compromise.