Brisket post-mortem

The brisket from yesterday was well received by the 10 people in attendance. I had six people here that have lived at one point or another in Texas (some as recently as two weeks ago!), and everyone says it tasted authentic.

I cooked it to an internal temp of 170°F, and I actually don’t think it was enough. The thicker part of the brisket was still not well done, so I think I should’ve let it go to 180 or 190. I took it off the egg at 6:30pm, so it cooked for 13.5 hours. The baste that I used was a little mustardy, so I’ll tone down the mustard in the baste next time around. The BBQ sauce I made had a good amount of kick to it — not spicy to me, but to a few others it was. 🙂 I should’ve guessed that it would be spicy: the recipe called for a 1/4 cup of chile powder, some cayenne pepper, and [Tabasco sauce](http://www.tabasco.com/). That should’ve been one tip-off; the other tip-off should’ve been the recipe’s name: Fire and Brimstone BBQ Sauce.

Other than that, it was good times. Lots of beer (thanks [Andrew](http://blogs.msdn.com/andrewj/)/Kipper; Kunaal) , wine (thanks John/Mary), brisket, potato salad (thanks [Jenn](http://www.realmccoy.spaces.live.com)), a few other sides, and lots of friends. Oh, and Muscato cake and chocolate mousse cake!