My folks never really BBQd. My mom did make brisket in the oven every once in a while. Can you say Liquid Smoke?!?!
My grandpa made a smoker out of an old oven heating unit and an upright freezer.
When I was first in college, the guys I worked for built an offset smoker. I learned a little from them. Mostly, I just researched and tried. I cooked a lot of bad briskets early on (including a couple for a very hungry group of sorority girls that basically told me I sucked at BBQ). I've probably cooked 80-100 in the last ten years. It wasn't until probably 8 years or so ago that I actually started getting good at it.
The key is time and temperature. It always seems to take longer than I anticipate. I don't use a lot of fancy spices - just salt and pepper. Keep the fire steady.
I enjoy the smoke even more than the finished product. Drink beer, listen to music, let the kids play in the sprinkler. It makes me happy!
Plus if you cook enough and feed enough folks, every once in a while someone will tell you that was the best brisket they've ever had. That feels pretty good!
I say just go get you a
cheap little offset smoker, a pork butt, some hardwood, and a case of beer and get started.
Everyone does it a little different, but here's what I do:
Start the fire with charcoal. Let it cook down until your temp is showing around 225F. Add a couple little logs (strip the bark off for less dirty smoke). Put a pan of water in the pit. Watch for clean blue smoke (no dirty white stuff). Salt and pepper. I like to spray the meat down about every hour with a mix of beer, apple juice, and white vinegar. Cook until the meat is probe tender (that means a probe thermometer will slide in and out with ease). I personally don't worry about the temperature all that much. Every animal is different. Cook until that particular slab of meat is done. Then wrap and rest in a cooler for a few hours. When you cut and serve, cut across the grain. 1/4" thick slices for lean meat, 3/8" thick for fatty meat.
