Anonymous Tue May 23 19:32:11 2006

1 4 pound beef brisket

Sam Higgins Gud Sauce

That brisket came out so well, I almost cried. I knew that I had done well when I sliced

through the blackened crust. As I went through what was left of the cap of fat, it bathed the

meat below with just a touch more of delicious moistness. The meat was absolutely

beautiful with a dark outside enclosing a picture perfect ring of pink. The meat just fell apart

as I loaded it onto the sandwiches. After tasting it, I was initially speechless, then I set into

an extended period of raving and eating. Here's how I did it: I got my meat from Sam's Club

rather than a supermarket--4.3 pound half brisket. They don't trim their brisket there, so it

had a good cap of fat on the top. I applied a good layer of dry rub shortly before cooking--I

usually don't give meats a real long time with the rub ahead of time. I built a fire to one side

of the grill with the lump charcoal, and put an aluminum half pan of water on the other side

to give a little humidity and catch the drippings (but not to produc

e steam). I put the meat on the grill to the opposite of the fire, and adjusted the vents so that

the temp. on the dome cover read 250F for about an hour, then lowered it to about 230-240

for the rest of the cook. (This is what the thermometer read, I'm sure the meat was cooking

a touch cooler.) I threw on a few large chips of mesquite from time to time, along with a few

more chunks of the lump charcoal. I gave it a bit over 11 hours on the grill, then took it off,

wrapped it in foil, and held it at about 150F for a bit over an hour. Sliced it across the grain,

loaded it up on toasted buns and topped it with a modified version of Sam Higgins's Gud

Sauce. Next time, I will tone down the rub a little, and take it off a little sooner (or use a

bigger piece of brisket), but if I say so myself, this was damn near perfection.