re: Brisket time

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Do you use the chunks over chips?

When I do use the chunks and use the suggested amount it taste "over" smoked.

I still can not seem to get a bark on a brisket or butt even when I crank it up the highest setting, 275, any advice?

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I use chunks and not store bought in bag completely dried out chunks. These things need good wood to burn right. I get small amounts from fruitawood.com. Doing their sampler is a great way to get way more wood than you will probably ever use and get a few different types.

Temp is too high (stick with 225, probably burning your wood too fast) and you may need to back down the amount of wood you use to 4-5oz. Have you done the wooden dowel test? Get a bunch of same size wooden dowels and place them around your smoke box. Burn them for an hour or two and see where it's burning too fast and where it may be not hot enough to burn. You may want to repeat the test using foil boats with the dowels if it is too hot all over the box. A slow burn is necessary to get close to a thin blue smoke coming out of the smoker. You don't want thick white smoke, that will give you that bad smoke taste as well. It should be whispy and barely visible.

Some people have some success with widening their drain hole or adding a second to get a bit more airflow too. I had to do that to get my amnps to work so I could cold smoke cheese and salmon. That's also a solution, just use a pellet smoker to provide the smoke instead of the smoke box. Pellet smokers are almost as good as stick burners and better than ceramics.

You need to figure out what how to work your smoker, after that, you will get good food with good bark.

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Don't use electric start on charcoal at higher temp and finish in electric if you must

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You can get decent bark in an electric. Just got to figure out your machine. It's not going to be like a stick burner, that's for sure. It's still going to be good though. I think this probably a is a decent average bark you should expect in an electric. I think you can get better, just requires a lot of work learning about how to use your smoker and set it up for good smoke production. This is not mine, I can't find any pics of my briskets, haven't done one in awhile. It's hard to find good brisket in Chattanooga that isn't a ridiculous price. It's pork country here.

https://www.smokingmeatforums.com/t/252340/prime-brisket-on-the-smokin-it-3



I did find one of my old boston butts, this is one of the first ones I did after I got my Smokin It and was still tinkering with smoke production. I still regret not getting a good pellet smoker though. Been debating selling the SI3 to buy a pellet smoker.