Smoked a brisket for 14 hours and it came out like shoe leather

Last weekend I tried to smoke a 12 pound prime brisket on my old offset smoker. I was in Austin and the temperature kept dropping overnight, so I fought the fire all night trying to keep it at 225. By morning the bark was black and the meat was dry as a bone. I ended up chopping the whole thing up for chili because there was no saving it as sliced brisket. Has anyone else had a long smoke go sideways because of weather?

2 comments

2 Comments

the_lee2d ago

Man that hurts just reading it. Waking up to a fire that's been fighting you all night is the worst feeling in barbecue. Pretty sure my smoker has better stamina than I do at this point.

janahenderson2d ago

You mentioned "waking up to a fire that's been fighting you all night" and I think you might be mixing up your barbecue terms a bit. A fire that's been fighting you all night is one that keeps going out or won't hold temp, which is a real pain. But if you wake up to a fire that's still going after a long cook, that's actually a good thing. The worst feeling is when the smoker goes cold and you have to relight it at 4 AM. That's when I've learned to just let it burn and keep a closer eye on the vents next time.