getting tired of cooking 8 lb ers and having the kids find out and its gone in an hour along with all my beer. and beans and corn bread. i've gone from cooking one pound of beans at a time to 4 lbs.thinking about starting a bean farm! anyways, i went and got a 15.5 pounder and am wondering if i seperate the flat from the point and rotate the two pieces in the smoker (heat source placement) would it be less cook time? maybe just cut a chunk off the flat to use as bean meat? don't wanna make a huge mistake here. thanks

John, you'll never know until you try. I don't see any potential problems + if it doesn't work out, you're really not out that much. Adding a bit of the Q to the beans is a given. Personally, I think that you should feel honored that the kids want to come over + eat it all up. Someday they might not.

i'm not upset that they wanna come over and eat it all up, i just want em to leave some!! my son in austin moved to buda so hes a lot closer and the other one lives 10 minutes away. when they are here and we make tuna sandwiches theres always plenty leftover. one is allergic to beans and the other loves em so we have those left over. hell i'm cooking 4-5 lbs a week on average. that scene in Blazing Saddles has nothing on us!

Be sure to report when you try this, John!

ok i did it. results were skewed by the poor quality meat i bought, i think. i wanted to try 2 things, smoking a bigger size brisket and cutting part of the flat off for bean meat so i chose a lower grade, not prime or choice. don't remember.
brisket was 15.5 lbs. i cut off a guess of 3 lbs from flat. point was very thick, humpback. i overseasoned the cut off piece on purpose as is to go into bean pot. threw em both on at 275 deg, the smaller piece on the warming rack. stall ended at about 5.5 hours at 193 deg. small piece was probed and read 213. took it off and let it rest. as predicted it was "tasty" but overcooked. should of taken it off sooner. totally edible but tough. diced and put into sandwhich bags and frozen. took the big piece out at 9 hours, was 203 deg. rest was good consistency etc, moist, but flavor nowhere near when i do a prime angus one.
oldest son was there and dug into the moist stuff like a starving refugee. i asked him how he could eat that stuff w/out sauce, salt , etc for flavor. he said hell, free b b q is free b b q! he took about 3/4 of the rest home. this was after he shot up 42 rds of my 45 colt reloads. he's a contractor so i get a lot of shit done for free or at cost around here......! and i get to watch and drink beer and bitch at him. wife thinks we're serious so i get bitched at after he leaves. and so it goes.

The only meat for a pinto bean pot is the historical "salt pork". to do otherwise is a felony in Texas and New Mexico, and the rest of the word eats those nasty Kidney beans..