I tried to keep things as close as possible. B & B lump, with 2 chunks of cherry on the WSK.
After finally finding a deal, this was my first time using the Royal Oak Charcoal Pellets combined with Lumber Jack cherry... instead of my normal LJ Char-Hickory with cherry for brisket.
As suspected the Royal Oak is a great pellet, but the final results were no better or worse than the LJ.... for future use, I will use whichever has the better deal.
For the rub, I went with my tried and true Hardcore Carnivore Black.
This is my go to for almost every beef product I grill or smoke. So much so, I often times feel cheated if I have something that does not use it. Burgers, briskets, roasts, you name it. My absolute favorite beef rub, hands down.
I am pretty horrible at trimming... as the pics below show, but I did my hatchet job, rubbed, and placed in a bag for a couple of hours prior to starting.
Then placed on each smoker.
I put each on at 6pm Sunday evening. As a brisket vet on the Smokefire I know that 240 is my ideal temp for overnights. This however, was my first time smoking a brisket on the WSK.
I had on previously done one other overnight cook.... a pork butt, about a month ago. On that cook, I dialed the WSK in, in a matter of minutes and it ran perfectly, with very few adjustments for 15 hours.
This cook was not so smooth. It took about 2 hours to finally settle in at 250 and headed to bed a short time later. I checked at 2am to find the temp had fallen to 200. The meat was in the stall around 150 and 155 on both cookers. I gave the ash sweep a few good turns, sit it just a tad more open and opened the top damper a tad more also, and back to bed. At 430am, I got up. The WSK was now at 280, and meat temp was 195.
The brisket on the Smokefire was at 165.
I immediately pulled, wrapped in butcher paper and replaced back on the smokers. Sorry, no pics of any of this process, as I was barely awake.
I kept checking both every half hour or so after wrapping. The WSK brisket was the smaller of the 2. I finally pulled it at 210 degrees, but it never developed the perfect brisket jiggle that I am accustomed to. The Smokefire did at 205 as we typically see.
Upon opening and slicing, the WSK brisket was slightly over cooked by backyard standards. The Smokefire was nice, juicy and just what you look for. The bark however, was a little bit too thick on both. I would have scored the WSK a 6 and the Smokefire an 8 in KCBS competition overall.
Summit Kettle..
Smokefire
As this was just one test, its far from perfect. However... just a few thoughts....
The Smokefire is far and away so much easy and convenient to use. Its no wonder that pellet grills have become as popular as they are. Very easy, and with great results.
The WSK will become easier for me, after a few more uses. Practice makes perfect , as they say.
Overall, I call the contest a draw for me personally but my wife gave the edge to the Smokefire brisket. She liked the look, texture and taste the best from it.
I gave the advantage on taste alone to the WSK. I just prerfer that awesome taste of real charcoal and hardwoods and for me..... the taste is the most important factor.
Sent from my SM-G998U using Tapatalk
