I’m impressed that someone who only keeps and uses essential cookware frequents this corner of HO 
I have the opposite problem; I own way too many kitchen gadgets, way beyond the essentials, and every few months have to purge the drawers to debulk.
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You should see my hotel pan and dough bowl/mixing bowl collection… 
My wife loves to kid me about my mise en place for a backyard BBQ. Imagine what it looks like for a formal dinner party for ten.
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Photos!
Strongly considering doing a complete album of a dinner party and cooking everything in copper - in honor of Kaleo. Just because.
My mise for Texas style barbecue, 12-14 hours of smoking with post oak, is a small stack of logs and bucket of iced beer.
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I’m a piker when it comes to BBQ. I do love brisket. Would rather eat somebody else’s. Far, far, from being in my wheelhouse.
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It is an infrequent treat. I much prefer going out for it, but Austin has loads of great choices.
Brisket is much more difficult to do than the shoulder in my opinion. I’m sure there would be disagreements, and I am most definitely no expert.
Brisket is like the roast chicken of the barbecue world. It is so easy anyone can do it, but it is hard to nail to perfection. Select the best possible meat, trim it to perfection, rub it with salt and pepper. Aaron Franklin’s book tells you every little detail. Mess up on one detail, and perfection will elude you.
I am anti-gadget - yet the gadgets have multiplied magically over the years.
Tinned copper: everyone on this forum has different experience and training, different goals and constraints, etc. So the discussion points which imply that a single point of view is the correct one for everyone puzzle me.
I will be sending out a few pots for retinning after the winter holidays. I have used a local retinner in the past, but will now try a national one. I will tell them that thicker is better than thinner for me.
Retinning is expensive, for me, and so I want to pay for it less frequently. I am old and have no personal experience retinning (I almost wrote no experience retinning myself!) and do not wish to learn now.
I once made a really good brisket by accident. I have not yet replicated it, despite my spouse’s encouragement.
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I think brisket is like a perfect baguette.
I’m in the midst of baguettes bringing me to my knees. I’ve made thousands of them, years ago, and I’m on my sixth batch in just as many days and I haven’t produced a quality group yet. House is empty this weekend, and I’m baking like a fiend. I’m hoping the last third of a bottle of really great Chablis holds the secret.
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It gets worse… I used a garlic press today. The horror. My wife’s favorite too – a Good Cook from the gadget aisle at the grocery store. I will say this – she bought it, not me. She’s a better natural cook than I could ever be - an artist. I’m a technician. But, she does not like working garlic with a knife.
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Where did I say that I only keep and use essential cookware? I said my father and I stopped using the copper cookware that we collected decades ago because there was no reason to use it.
Chicken is much harder to barbecue perfectly than brisket.
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shoulder is the easiest cut to barbecue.
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Ribs can be pretty easy, too. As with anything I smoke, quality and pre-smoking prep are key.
Brisket is easy in that so long as you have time and can keep cooking it, you’ll get to the right gelatinous stage to stop in. But it’s a big time (and $$) investment, so if it comes out less than perfect, it hurts. I’ve definitely cried while cubing an imperfect brisket to salvage it into a chili.
I still keep my favorite garlic press around, but it is seldom used. Give yourself some grace. This will be our secret.
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I use a pellet grill most often, then a kamado, and rarely my offset stick smoker. The pellet grill reduces the difficulty a lot.
Chicken IMHO isn’t so hard to smoke and get delicious, but I’ve never made competition thighs that bite straight through the skin, if that’s what you’re talking about. I smoke my chicken whole, upright bear can style, and on low heat, and I take it off way before it gets to the typical recommended chicken temps. And I wet brine, then age uncovered in a fridge to dry the skin out.
Professional pitmasters and competition cooks tend to agree that chicken and brisket are two of the hardest cuts to do well. They also agree that eating all your practice runs is the best part.
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