My wife’s best friend Linda made a surprise visit here from Maine last week, so I wanted to be sure and fire up the smoker while she was here. She wanted to try ribs and I wanted to try brisket for the first time. Well, there are two racks in the smoker – so – we had both! It was a small brisket from Costco – around four pounds. Rubbed it he night before with Black Bart’s Brisket Rub from Tasty Lick’s BBQ. I let Linda pick out two rubs she liked for the ribs – I have a shelf full, thanks to a number of generous vendors. I had a huge package of ribs, also from Costco, so I stuck one rack in the freezer for later and prepped the other. I got the membrane off and cut the rack in half. One piece got liberally rubbed with Smooth Moove, from my friend Obie at Obiecue; the other chunk got some Hint of Houston from another supporter of The Dry Rubbed Rat – Big Ron.

The brisket went on first, as I was thinking it would take hours. I took it to 160 or so, and wrapped with a splash of apple juice for the remainder. Another hour and a half and it was at 195. I wrapped it in a towel and threw it in a cooler. The ribs went well too – Linda thought everything came out awesome so I declare this a successful outing! The leftover brisket was gobbled up in minutes at work, sliced thin and topped with some Russ N Frank’s Sassy barbeque sauce. I had some potato salad left as well, and it went quick with the meat!