# Smoking meats at a higher elevation **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** food-cooking\ **Created:** [June 28, 2023, 3:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smoking-meats-at-a-higher-elevation/986200 "2023-06-28T03:00:53Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 1\ **Showing post:** 14
**Author:** ![solost](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/solost/32/11776_2.png) [@solost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solost)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2023, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smoking-meats-at-a-higher-elevation/986200/14 "2023-06-30T20:29:20Z")
> [@Ike\_Witt](#): > > The brisket ended up a little drier than I would have liked. Now, while I did start the smoke with some liquid in the drip pan, I did not add any when I pulled the brisket and added more wood. The bark was okay, not great and the smoke ring was right at the surface of the brisket. > > Which variables should I change? I would assume that I need less time than I took, but that would also mean a lower internal temp. I am not sure what to do next time. It sounds like you did everything right. Liquid in the drip pan is just to create a heat sink to regulate the smoker temp; contrary to popular belief, the steam adds nothing to the moisture of the meat; the moistness or lack thereof is more about how much fat remains. I used to get all fancy with the water in the pan, adding a gallon of apple juice or a bottle of wine to ‘flavor’ the meat. Didn’t make a darn bit of difference. Like @pulykamell, I’ve used sand for a heat sink for years and it doesn’t negatively affect the final result at all. And makes for much easier cleanup. I think it’s just that 5lb. flats of brisket are notoriously finicky to cook just right; nothing so much that you did wrong-- they can go from ‘too tough due to improperly rendered collagen’ to ‘dried out jerky’ in a short window of time. Maybe try a full brisket next time? I post this link of mine from last year every time somebody mentions brisket in a thread, so I hope I’m not getting obnoxious with this, but this experiment I tried cooking a full flat + point brisket on a kettle-style grill turned out so well, I gotta evangelize a bit. I need to try this again soon: > [@Barbecued Beef Brisket!](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/barbecued-beef-brisket/965672): > > So I’ve BBQed beef brisket many times before in my smoker, but only flats, because a whole brisket is too large for my bullet-style smoker. I’ve been wanting to try this ATK / Cook’s Country technique for cooking a whole brisket in a kettle grill using the snake coal method (as seen in video below) for awhile now, and when doing some shopping today found whole briskets at the grocery store for 1/2 off. So I knew that this weekend is finally the time. Going to rub down the brisket soon (simple s… --- _[View the full topic](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smoking-meats-at-a-higher-elevation/986200)._