Beef

Beef is where most people start smoking and where most people get discouraged, usually on the same brisket. It’s not that beef is harder than pork — it’s that a twelve-to-fourteen-hour cook exposes every mistake in your fire management, and there’s no shortcutting that kind of feedback.

Brisket gets the attention, but it’s not the only cut that belongs here. Chuck roast behaves like a smaller, more forgiving brisket. Tri-tip cooks in a fraction of the time and rewards a hot sear at the end more than patience. If a sixteen-pound packer feels like too much to start on, start with one of those instead.

The number that actually matters for beef is 203°F internal, give or take a few degrees depending on how the probe slides through the meat — done is a feel as much as a temperature, which is a frustrating thing to hear the first time and an obvious thing to hear the tenth time.

If a brisket comes out tough, it almost always needed more time, not less heat. Wrap it back up, add an hour, and don’t cut into it again until it’s ready.