15lbs of Brisket - 7.5lbs of Pork Shoulder - All Night Cook

[Grimm5577]

I'm having a BBQ on saturday and it will be my first large cook out involving smoking. I'm hoping that I can have the meat in the cooler by 3pm to rest till 5pm or so. Which means I technically should be starting around 3pm today, which sadly isn't going to happen. I probably won't get the meat on till 8pm tonight and will smoke it all night long. I'm not even sure I will be able to fit all this meat in my #2. Which if thats the case I think the shoulder will stay in the #2 and the Brisket move to the Brinkman Charcoal smoker to help get a nice ring.

Stay tuned folks i plan to have lots of Q-view. Also If anyone has some good advice for an all night smoke please let me know!

 

[swthorpe]

Be careful not to overload the #2. As we are finding out from other posts, this can affect achieving the desired temperature.

 

[Grimm5577]

I ended up only using the #2 for the 2 pork shoulders. I ended up picking up a second shoulder the day before the BBQ which was a good idea as even with the 2 I had very little leftovers. I smoked the brisket in my briinkmann gourmet bullet smoker. I'm not sure what I do wrong but I can't get the tenderness I want out of a brisket. I did the toothpick test, and it went in like butter in various spots so I pulled it and wrapped it in foil. Didn't have a cooler so I used my gas grill (not on) to help insulate. Pulled it out after about 3 hours and sliced, but it seemed tough to me. Great flavor, lots of juice, just not super tender pull apart meat. any help would be appreciated.

 

[mikeinctown]

May seem like a stupid question, but did you slice it in the right direction?

 

[Grimm5577]

Yea, I came to the conclusion that I didn't cook it long enough. next brisket I make I'm not going to pull till I hit 205* IT. I pulled this one at 190 thinking that during the rest it would continue cooking to 200*. But from what others have suggested they think that was still to early.