My post on brisket caused quite a stir, it seems. People are so passionate about their barbecue and I love it!

LeFoodDude had a great comment recommending I smoke it for 20 hours and use more charcoal for a better smoke ring.

Well, this weekend I trotted over to my parents’ house where they had smoked a brisket that was much juicier — and smokier — than mine.

Observe:

THIS was some good brisket. Again, they used a SmokinTex smoker, but they split up the smoking into 2 days, letting it sit wrapped in foil in a non-heated oven overnight.

They also smoked theirs a little longer than I did. It seems counterintuitive at first, but the longer you smoke it, the juicier it is.

Oh, and their ribs were better, too.

Is everything just better at Mom’s house or is it just that I have a lot to learn?

Maybe it’s a bit of both. But I do know I have SO much to learn. That’s the fun of it!

LeFoodDude, let us know your thoughts! Anybody else have some secrets to great barbecue???

Photos courtesy of:  my mama

My eternal love affair with all things beef continues . . .

The weather around here is heating up (thank goodness!) and so is our electric smoker. We broke it out this weekend to smoke up a wonderful beef brisket.

If you love beef, I’m telling ya, you’d love this brisket.

We just put a garlic, salt and pepper rub on the brisket before putting it in the smoker at 200 degrees F for 10 hours. Ours was about 13 lbs. so it was pretty big.

We then put some hickory wood chips and a couple of charcoal briquettes in the wood box, closed the door and voila!

We use a SmokinTex model 1400 cuz it’s so easy. And we like easy.

We actually did it overnight. So, as we slept, our brisket was smoking. What a delight to wake up the next morning to the smell of a smoked brisket!

We wrapped it in foil and let it sit in the oven (we didn’t turn it on) until we were ready to heat it up and serve it. About 45 minutes before we were ready to eat we heated it at 250 degrees in the oven. Just to warm it up.

Oh. Yum. 

We whipped up some mashed potatoes, had a salad, poured some BBQ sauce over it and we were set!

But that’s not all. Tomorrow I’ll show you what else we made . . .

For Thanksgiving, we served two turkeys — one brined and roasted and the other smoked — and a spiral-cut ham. Plus, we had zillions of sides. It was enough to make your pants split.

We plan to do the same for our Christmas dinner. What’s a holiday season without gaining a few pounds?

Boring. That’s what.

Here’s the roasted turkey fresh out of the oven. That brine made it so tender and flavorful we all ate like we’d been stuck living in the wildnerness with the wolves for a few months and had been surviving on berries up until that point.

Then, we smoked one in this smoker — the 1400. It rocked. I don’t like it too terribly smoky — just enough apple wood flavor to give it a little kick. It was perfect.

I had a hard time deciding which one I wanted to eat so, of course, I had both. Plus ham. Plus sides. Oy.

Yeah, we used our Christmas dishes. Wanna make something of it? We’re not going to be at our house for Christmas so we wanted to use them at least once.

We’ll probably break them out for the kids’ chicken nuggets in the coming weeks, too. We are totally getting in the spirit around here.

How about you? What are you planning to serve for your holiday dinners?