bregent wrote:
> Thanks frohe. It turned out pretty good and our guests and we
> finished it off pretty quick. But, I thought some parts were not as
> tender as they could be, and the whole thing was a little dry.

Well, tender has a lot to do with each individual piece of meat and
how ya cooked it. Have you tested your cooker to find out where its
hot spots are? You may have had part of your brisket in one of these
and it cooked a bit more than the rest of the meat. Did ya turn the
meat so that each side gets equal time being closest to the fire? Did
ya cook offset and have the fat cap on the top? Or, did ya cook
direct and have the fat cap to the bottom? These are a few indicators
y wanna consider in yur quest for perfection.

> Is this just inevitable with a smaller cut?

Nah... Once you find out and do the things I mentioned above, your
briskets should improve. Also know it takes a long time of cookin
briskets to get down a good technique that gives ya the type results
you want.

> Would a mop help keep it moister?

On the outside but not on the inside. When you pulled it off the
cooker, did you let it rest for a hour to re-absorb some if its
juices?

> When it finally passed the fork test, the internal temp was
> around 200!

200? Where'd ya do the fork test? Hopefully in the flat. At 190°F,
it should have passed the fork test just fine.

> Should I have lowered the cooker temp once the internal reached
> 160F?

I don't. When I see the internal temp has reached 160°F, I bump my
cooker temp up to as high as 325°F to finish out the cook.
--
-frohe
Life is too short to be in a hurry