Spent a whole Saturday arguing with a pitmaster from Kansas City about brisket temps

I was at a tailgate near downtown Austin, and this guy named Hank told me he pulls his brisket off at 198 degrees, not 203. He said the carryover heat does the rest, and I thought he was nuts. So I tried it on a 14 pound packer from HEB, and it came out way juicier than my usual method. Has anyone else dropped their target temp by that much and gotten better results?

2 comments

2 Comments

morganhill26d ago

Did you try it on a propane or offset smoker?

kevin_harris7826d ago

Just swap the word 'propane' for 'gas' there... most folks call the cabinet style with a gas burner a propane smoker but really it's just a gas smoker no matter what fuel you use. I've run both types and trust me, the propane ones people talk about are usually the little boxy things with a shelf, not a real offset. An offset is a different animal entirely with the firebox on the side, way harder to control temp on those. The original question was probably about a standard gas cabinet smoker, not an offset since nobody asks if you tried brisket on an offset like it's some casual thing haha. But yeah, propane is just the fuel bottle, not the design of the smoker itself...