brisket and two butts

Unknown

hELLO EVERYONE,i am cooking A10lb brisket and 2- 7lb butts tonight. I will have my regular grid in its regular place, pizza stone on top of it, along with firebricks, with a drip pan sitting on top of the pizza stone. Another grid will sit on the firebrick, just over the drip pan. This is where the brisket will cook. The butts will be on a raised grid above the brisket. Should I put a piece of aluminum foil directly under the brisket so it will bathe in the pork fat drippings, or will this burn and taste funny?good Idea or bad?Why? thank you for any responses. I will not be able to check computer until this evening.

JSlot

I have done many "butts over brisket" cooks, but I have always removed the fire ring and placed a grid directly on the firebox, then placed ceramic on that, and then another grid above it. Sounds to me as though you are going to be space-challenged in the dome area. Last Sunday I did a 14 lb. brisket (with the flat and point separated) using my regular grid with inverted plate setter on top and then another grid on that. When I put the meat on that grid, there wasn't a whole lot of room above the brisket for anything, much less another grid. The disadvantage of the method I use is that putting a grid over the firebox restricts the amount of charcoal you can put in initially and it is a pain to remove everything and add more. If I'm cooking at 250°-275°, I can get about 8 hours of burn time using my setup. Using the plate setter with two grids (one in normal position) allows me to get about 23½ hours without refueling. The 14 lb. brisket I did last Sunday took about 10 hours to get to 200° internal in the flat, a touch longer for the point. If you do squeeze all that meat in over the regular grid, take a pic and post it if you can so we can see your setup. Good luck and let us know how it works out, RW.[p]Keep the smoke risin',
Jim

Nature Boy

rw,
JSlot be knowin what he be talkin 'bout. I would consider somehow getting your drip pan/barrier underneath the main grid. You could do what Blue Smoke mentioned here a couple days back, and bend brackets to "hang" on the fire ring and hold your drip pan just under the main grate....or JSlot's extra grate under the fire ring....or you could even hang a smaller grate underneath with bolts/nuts/washers. [p]The butts over the brisket are fine, but I would not want my brisket bathing (or sitting) in anything. It would be better elevated over your barrier so air can circulate around it....and smoke can penetrate all around.[p]Just some friday morning thoughts. Hope it helps!
Have a great weekend, and enjoy your big cook!
Chris

Unknown

Nature Boy,
I'm sure glad I checked the Forum. On Christmas Day the Mongul Hordes (inlaws) will descend upon my home. I was wondering how I was going to get a brisket (10 lb.) and a pork butt off at about the same time with only one Large Egg.[p]I don't have a platesetter, so let me see if I've got the proceedure down.
1. Grid in normal position?
2. Pizza stone/firebricks on grid?
3. Drip pan on stone/firebricks?
4. Do you use a V-rack in the drip pan to hold brisket?
5. More bricks on grid to allow for sufficient elevation to get second grid above brisket?
6. Pork on upper grid? Do you allow pork juices to drip on brisket?
7. Temp. 250 - 275?
Have I missed anything?

Chuck

<p />rw,[p]Great advise below. I just thought I would add a visual to help. The right egg has a 14 lb brisket and two 8 lb butts several hours into the cook. The setup is an inverted plate setter, drip pan, regular grid with the brisket on it and a grid extender with the butts. It was tight but it did all fit and came out great. [p]Good luck with your cook.[p]Chuck

Unknown

Thank you everyone for the input. that is very good advice, especially Nature Boys comments about air ciculation. I am cooking the brisket directly on the grid(not bathing in the pork fat), as he suggested. As for having enough room, I do not have regular firebricks. I got a brick mason to cut mine down to three inches instead of being four and a half inches tall, it seems more versitile(sp?) to have some full size, and some customized. All of the meat fit beautifuly, with nothing touching the sides or the dome thermometer. Jslot mentioned a picture, but I appologize, Iam not quite that civilized yet. There is, however, the same setup (basically) pictured by chuck . He had more meat than me. He had 30lbs. and I only have 25.

Unknown

Thank you again for all of your comments, as any observations are taken in.