Tried smoking a brisket on my cheap offset last Sunday and the temp swings drove me crazy

I spent 8 hours fighting with that thing, opening the firebox every 20 minutes to add splits. The flat came out dry as hell and the point was barely edible. Has anyone else just given up on cheaper smokers for brisket?

3 comments

3 Comments

john_fisher9d ago

Man that sounds rough. It's funny how we'll put ourselves through hours of frustration just to prove we can do something, even when a simpler way would work just fine. Reminds me of people who insist on fixing their own cars or plumbing and end up making things worse.

umar498d ago

Got a 30 year old brinkmann bullet smoker from my uncle and figured out you got to crack the door just right with a chunk of wood to keep the temp steady. Spent a whole summer doing that and my neighbors thought I was crazy walking outside every 15 minutes in my bathrobe at 6 in the morning. Did get a decent bark going after a while but the meat always had this weird ash taste from the charcoal dust mixing in. Ended up just buying a used weber kettle off facebook for 40 bucks and now I get better results with way less headache. Sometimes the cheap gear just makes you work harder than you need to for food that's mid at best.

fiona_kim8d ago

Weird how we'll suffer just to prove we can do something the hard way.