Foodie Friday: My Name is Stuart and I'm a Smoker

My name is Stuart and I am a smoker.  I’ve just recently started being enslaved by this addiction but I hear that the first step is admitting you have a problem…so there it is.

My first smoking experience wasn’t your typical encounter.  I did not start small.  I decided to go all out and try my hand at a brisket.  I brined the brisket for 24 hours and then let it sit in a dry rub for another 24 hours.  The dry rub consisted of the following:

½ cup paprika
¼ black pepper
2 tbsp garlic power
2 tbsp onion power
2 tsp cayenne pepper

I then smoked the brisket at 210 degrees with hickory chips from Friday at 6:00 Pm until Saturday at 10:30 AM.  The internal temperature reached 195 and held there for a couple of hours while the connective tissue broke down.  I then took the brisket out of the smoker, wrapped in tin foil, dropped it into a cooler, and let it rest for about 90 minutes while I drove it up to Austin for my family to enjoy at our Easter gathering.  Here is the evidence:

 

 

Overall, I felt it was a great success for my first smoke.  I want to try another kind of rub since I didn’t get the…”traditional” Texas flavor that I was looking to achieve. 


Here is my challenge to the readers: post your best brisket dry rub recipe and tell me why it is better than everyone else's recipe.  The person that makes the best argument will win the opportunity for me to use their mix on my next brisket and get all the kudos from my family on how awesome it tastes.