Payne County Rust How Long to Smoke?

So how long should we be actually smoking these cuts of meat? Not so easy to answer, be we’ll try. It is a commonly held belief that meat only takes on/in the flavor of smoke until the internal temp of the cut reaches about 110 degrees. I’m not sure how why this works this way, but it does seem to hold true that any attempts to barrage the meat with more smoke after this point are not only futile, they could approach a point of diminishing returns. What I mean is that when the meat stops taking in the smoke, possibly due to the outward pressure exerted from the meat after the 110 degree point, the smoke simply starts to build up on the outside of the cut. Most might think that this is what they call the bark that comes from smoking any meat. No. Bark is darkly colored outer portioned of the meat made up of whatever dry rubs, sops, wet rubs, marinades, etc. that you’ve applied to the meat. These ingredients dry out and take on a smoky flavor, and may then be coined ‘bark’. That previously mentioned black crust due to too much smoke after the 110 degree mark, is nothing more than a crusty, sooty, cigarette-butt-tasting horribleness.

That said, I tend to stick to the following habits: If you’re smoking between 225 and 250 degrees, then about five hours of heavy smoke is usually enough. Next comes the tricky part. It’s no big secret that wrapping especially sinewy cuts (i.e. brisket) with aluminum foil can do worlds for tenderizing. It’s also no big secret that keeping them in this steam kettle-like environment for too long can dry out and over-cook the meats due to their fats being rapidly transported out of the cut via a steam transport. So, we have a conundrum. One’s conundrum might be that he or she likes to BBQ briskets over a 24 hour window. Therefore, we have a five hour smoking at the beginning and a six hour foil wrapped cooking at the end. The question that surfaces is what to do about the 13 hours in between? We don’t want the smoke on it that whole time, but we can overcook it by foiling it. The answer…charcoal. Charcoal, as stated in previous blogs, adds VERY little in the way of any smoky flavor, but is the perfect source of heat for your smoker.

In summary, most competitors won’t disclose their methods to properly smoking a brisket. Brisket, after all, separates the men from the boys in competition. The only secrets kept on this website, however, will be about the contents of a specific dry rub plugged pretty hard on this site, and any future BBQ sauce recipes that might spawn from the same corp. As for my brisket secret, check the Cheat-Sheet.

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