Finished Product

OK - the brisket was good.  Not great, but good.  The kids loved it - probably because I set the table real nice and let them drink orange juice out of wine glasses again.  It was just a little on the dry side in the middle, and didn't have the deep smoke ring (the red ring you see on a well smoked product) that I was hoping for.  But alas - I know what I did wrong.  I cut corners on the marinade recipe to start with.  Also, right in the middle of the cooking, when you are supposed to mop the meat every hour, we took off for 2.5 hours to a Cub Scout event.  The recipe called for hickory or cherry wood, and I used the only thing I had, mesquite and I actually didn't have enough so the thick smoke only lasted for the first 90 minutes of cooking.  We'll do better next time.