Brisket and Pork Tenderloin

[txfireguy2003]

Well, I finally got the old man's smoker repaired (firebox had rusted through on the bottom) and decided to do quick cook in it. Asked my girlfriend to pickup a small brisket on Friday while I was working, and she came back with a 13 pounder, nice fatcap and decent marbling in the meat. I got off work yesterday morning, went home and changed clothes then went to Academy to buy some wood. I hate paying for it, but I didn't have any "seasoned wood" left in the pile, so I had to pay 10 bucks for a 1.5 cu ft bag of hickory "mini-logs". So I went to the old man's place, and put about 2 pounds of charcoal on the grate and lit 'er off to get it started then put some small pecan sticks (about the size of your thumb and 12-14 inches long on top for kindling. Added a couple of chunks of the hickory and waited until the thermometer read 225, then on with the brisket. All I did to it was "tenderize" it with a neat little gizmo I picked up at Academy several months ago (more on that later) then rubbed it down with some BBQ rub the old man picked up at the local mom and pop butcher shop where he buys his meat. After the brisket had been on for about an hour, I put 3 tenderloins that he had at the house in the upright smoke chamber with the same rub and a little added black pepper. Three hours later, the pork came off and went in a warm oven wrapped in foil and the oven was turned off. An hour or so later (5 hours into the cook) the brisket was up to 165 all over so I wrapped it in foil and cooked it up to 200 then pulled it off and gave it the same oven treatment for an hour and a half until everyone showed up to eat. It wasn't too bad, 16 pounds of meat and tons of "fixins" to start with, 12 people eating, none left! At the FD, we figure about 1/2 pound of meat per person, this cook ended up being 1 and 1/3 pounds each! I'll post a few pics as soon as I get my camera back, but just wanted to tell you guys about this cook, since I learned how to tell when it's done using temps from you guys and it was without a doubt the best brisket I've ever made, my only complaint was that the "smoke ring" wasn't very deep, maybe 1/8 inch at the most but the flavor was there. The 3 pounds of tenderloin were gone before I could even get the beef sliced!

Now, about the tenderizer, some of you have probably seen this gadget before, or something like it, but I had been looking for one for months before I found it. Basically, it's a handle with 30 or so pointed steel blades that you shove straight down into the meat. It cuts some of the connective tissue so it makes your meat pretty much fall apart tender. It's also great for meats that you marinate like steaks because the marinade can soak into the meat deeper, faster. They use these things at steakhouses all the time, the idea being that it tenderizes the meat, without beating it with one of those meat hammers that also flatten it out.

Oh yeah, and sorry about the novel, I tend to ramble when I'm excited or happy about something, and I'm very happy about this cook.