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Welcome to the forum! I cheat and use a pellet grill so can't help you with wood. Just starting to learn how to do brisket too so looking forward to seeing what you're cooking!

Welcome to the forum! I got my Traeger Pro 575 recently and I love it. Have tried a few online butchers and have had mostly success with Meat and Cleaver UK for bigger cuts - they know their stuff when it comes to smoking as they also sell Traeger's and the recent brisket I purchased from them was incredible. Looking forward to seeing your cooks!

Welcome to the forum! I'm also starting out, but am only 'hot smoking' at the moment. Check out my topics and let me know if you have any questions about anything I've done (if it's at all useful)!

Welcome to the forum! Looking forward to seeing what you're cooking.

Video links can be found at the bottom of the post! For the first time ever, I managed to cook a packer-cut brisket almost perfectly! There were 2 things that I did differently to before: I sourced the perfect piece of meat from Meat and Cleaver UK (no affiliation but they know their stuff when it comes to cooking low-and-slow and were able to source a packer-cut brisket that they trimmed nicely aka leaving some fat on) I didn't undercook it (more about that below) Important Bits I cooked it on my Traeger Pro 575 using Hickory and Cherry pellets. I started it last Saturday morning at 06:00 and it took around 11 hours to cook + 2 hours of rest. I trimmed and rubbed the meat at 05:00 with a base layer of salt, black pepper, celery salt and oregano and then added a generous layer of Traeger's Beef Rub. It hit the grill (set to 250°F) at 06:00 and I monitored the internal temperature to look out for the stall. I wrapped it in butcher paper after it had pushed through the stall, which was around 171°F - this was around 7 hours in and also gave it time to pick up some nice colour. I didn't use a water pan at all during the cook. Once wrapped, I monitored the internal temperature until 200°F and then checked for doneness with a probe. I ignored what the temperature probe was saying and simply went by feel. It was still feeling tough in areas so I left it and kept checking every 30-40 minutes. Around 4 hours after wrapping, (207°F internal temperature) the probe was literally going in and out like butter and so I pulled it off and put it in a cool bag for 2 hours. After 2 hours, I was super excited to slice into it. The texture was unreal - super soft all over and even really thick slices were tender and 'floppy'. I had previously read advice saying to use a probe to check for tenderness, but my issue before was that I was too worried about overcooking and so was unknowingly pulling my briskets off before they were really getting to that sweet spot. Let me know if you have any questions! Clips 7KG+ Brisket from Meat and Cleaver UK Colour Before Wrapping Unwrapping and Slicing Showing off a slice

Heard good things but £15 delivery... 🤐

You sum it up perfectly - it's out there, but it takes a bit of time and some effort to seek them out. I actually had a great experience with Turner & George recently after ordering meat online and asking for them to leave some fat on; the meat came prepared as close to perfect as I've seen it and the taste was incredible.

Hi Mike, welcome to the forum! 'Semi-retired' is the perfect place to be in to start learning how to smoke (especially on an offset smoker like that Landmann). I've got a couple of ebooks that are great for tips on smoking and, although they're American, they can be a great help - just message me if you'd like me to send them over!

Hi Rob, welcome to the forum! Looking forward to seeing what you're cooking. :)

Welcome to the forum. Looks like you've got some nice looking stuff. I gotta ask: how did the brisket go? My first one wasn't anywhere near what I wanted to I'm always curious. Looking forward to seeing more.

Welcome to the forum! I'll get myself to a meetup at some point, I promise. Looking forward to seeing what you're cooking!

Pretty much! Slices come from the flat and burnt ends are made from the point. Typically looks like this: Definitely gives me hope in achieving a moist flat!

I was just going to mention how miserable it is here in the Midlands so I can only assume that you're in the south of France, David. 😄 That's an interesting looking Weber - is that some sort of pellet feeder attached to it?

Rather than letting them cool or buying the bits separately, I'm probably going to try and separate the pieces next time I get a whole brisket. Although I'm not exactly shooting for competition-level brisket, it's common to separate the flat and the point before cooking and then pull them off the grill at different times (obviously because they're ready at different times). I think we've also got our work cut out as our beef is leaner than the American stuff, which I think is going to make cooking a decent flat difficult. I'm not giving up on the flat yet though - it's the cut that's used in competition so it must be possible to get decent results with it. 😅

Mine was also dire, so we must be on the right track 😁. It looks great for a first attempt though. The bark looks awesome, which I suspect is a result of decent seasoning and plenty of smoke. Was the flat definitely overcooked? The reason I ask is that I thought mine was too (point was soft but flat was tough) but my research has lead me to believe that I probably undercooked it and another 30-60 minutes would have seen it through to where I wanted it to be. Not sure if it was possible due to timings but it looks like it would have benefited from being sprayed, especially towards the latter part of the cook, and also from being wrapped too. I suspect you considered these but they're the main things I noticed. :) Looking forward to seeing more - hopefully we'll both reach brisket nirvana in the near future.😄

Thank you - trying to get better as I post more on Instagram/Twitter/FB and my website. And thanks to others for the kind comments!

If I use chips, I don't soak them anymore. I used to, based off advice I read somewhere, but then saw advice to the contrary that made sense e.g. they don't absorb much water anyway, temperature can be affected etc. It seems to make sense to me to buy wood chunks if I want something that burns slower than dry chips.

Looks like a great cook - you'll really start to see the value of the pellet grill as you cook for longer and don't have to tend to it nearly as much as a charcoal grill! I'm unfamiliar with the process of making sausages, but I've seen people put their meat and apparatus in the freezer before grinding meat for burgers.

Oh for sure, I just spent a bit more and got. Traeger I knew I only wanted a smoker and the Traeger can, in theory, fit a couple of briskets on. I've got a cheapo kettle BBQ that can do my grilling so I knew I didn't need something that could sear like a kamado does.

Hi all, I'll preface this by saying that I had a huge amount of help from over on Smoking Meat Forums when I posted about my plans to cook pulled pork for the first time. It was probably the main reason that I was able to nail this cook. Prep I did my pre the night before. I removed almost all of the surface fat and silverskin and the applied rub. Once trimmed, I injected it with a mix of apple juice and water, mixed with a little of my own all purpose rub. I then rubbed with my all purpose rub (recipe on my site) followed by a generous layer of Traeger's 'Pork & Poultry' rub. It then sat in the fridge overnight. Cook I'll try not to go into detail too much but essentially the cook followed these steps: Place on Traeger (Hickory and Cherry) @ 250°F for 3 hours then spray Check colour after 6 hours (I left it for longer to get a bit darker) Once the colour is good (dark brown), wrap tightly in foil and put into oven @ 275°F with temperature probes in. Once internal temperature reaches 207°F, take out and check tenderness. If bone is easy to remove, and it feels soft, wrap and rest in cool bag (I actually let it rest in the warm oven). Start of the cook 3 hours in 7 hours in Result Ultimately, I wouldn't actually do anything differently next time... I may have gotten different results by using different seasonings or cooking for longer but it was an incredible cut of pork (from a wonderful farm) and was very easy to cook. There seems to be conflicting advice when it comes to pulled pork (to wrap or not to wrap, trim all the fat or some etc.) but it seems clear that pork shoulder can take a lot and still turn out right. If it's a good quality bit of meat, I'd advise taking off all visible fat (not leaving a fat cap) as there's plenty of fat running through it. Wrapping also helped it to cook faster and meant that I was able to be naughty and add some butter and extra apple juice for more flavour.

Welcome to the forum. That's a great setup you have there. I had a look at the Kamado last time I was in Costco and it's clearly a high-quality product. I hear great things about them but the lack of cooking space is a turn off for me (as well as the price). They're on the shopping list for when I get a bit more money... Looking forward to seeing your cooks.

Welcome to the forum! I'm not great with my hands but would still love a UDS - they seem like very capable units if you can build them 'right'. Looking forward to seeing how your cooks go. :)

Not quite, he just mentions that there's two schools of thought and that he believes in letting beef (brisket and steak) come to room temp. but everything else from the fridge. Would love to go there too - turning 30 next year so might have to plan something special!

Interesting stuff. Don't necessarily disagree as I need to try it for myself however I'm a huge Aaron Franklin fanboy and found the clip where he talks about it (albeit briefly).

That might be correct as spraying the meat is also supposed to help the smoke adhere better. It could be that the condensation from a cold piece of meat in a warm environment causes that same effect. I'm also like you though; I'll always allow steaks to come to room temp. and have heard some well-known pitmasters do the same with their brisket. Although, they're also applying rub as soon as it's out of the fridge (to give the rub time to settle) so if you're seasoning the day before then straight from the fridge could be the way to go.