Thanks for the inputs! Wiki says there are 700 species, and it looks like "they" are messing with these like Aglaonemas and Dracaenas, so who knows who its' parents might be. It doesn't seem to match any of the 7 or so species that show up automatically when searching, but closely resembles Leslie on this page. I'm satisfied with Asplenium cultivar. When it needs water between rains, should I try to avoid watering the crown, or try to water the crown purposely? Does it matter? Got the dappled light & humidity covered. This post was edited by purpleinopp on Tue, May 28, 13 at 18:14

Well, I ended up using the back-up brisket. It was a bit more tender and tastier. I had a wisdom tooth out today! So I didn't personally taste brisket #1 after it rested in the fridge another night all sliced up. My family said that they thought it was brisket #2 when they ate it tonight, so I am assuming that its very good. #1 got very good reviews. I did end up cooking the big one for more than 8 hours. DH would like to try one in the Big Green Egg some day. I see no reason to try and improve a good thing. I use Chipotle sauce and ketchup, or ketchup with a chipotle pepper and brown sugar. Last year, just to be very careful, I had them leave a LOT more fat on the beef, and I had RAVE reviews. What do you all think about that? Do you find more fat helps? I trimmed it off when I sliced it.

Your brisket was tough due to the cooking method. It is very important to realize that by cooking a beef brisket to 195 degrees F DOES NOT AUTOMATICALLY MEAN A TENDER BRISKET. "How" you arrived at that final temperature is the whole secret. You must VERY slowly approach that final temperature by cooking it at about 225 degrees (never never any higher than 250 absolute max). This is what's called LOW AND SLOW smoking. "Magical" chemistry related things will happen to the fat and collagen when you cook it this way. Those very "flavorful" and "tenderizing" chemical reactions will not occur to any great extent by cooking it any other way. If you try to hurry the process along.....the magic will not happen. And believe me you don't want to miss the magic. IMO, brining a fresh brisket that is to be smoked is absolutely ridiculous. Brining will in no way shape or form produce a better tasting brisket than one that is cooked "Low and Slow". Low and slow means cooking at a low temperature around 225 degrees F for a long time. A good test to see if a brisket is done is to press your finger into the fattiest part of the meat. If it is soft and your finger doesn't have a problem penetrating, it's ready! In the future, take your brisket and season it literally JUST BEFORE you smoke it. Use Toni Chachere's Mo Spice seasoning mix if you can find it. It has less salt in it. DO NOT brine nor season your brisket the night before. There are very specific reasons for doing it this way. Smoke it with some chips (apple-wood is best) only for the first hour or so of the process. Keep the temperature in the cooking area around 225 until it is done. I cook mine to about 180 degrees then use the very reliable and accurate finger poking test. This very simple procedure will produce the most tender, the most juicy, and the most flavorful "beefy" tasting piece of meat that you have ever eaten. The external and internal fat whithin the brisket is "magically" broken down into a "sweet" tasting chemical sugar that only occurs at certain low temperatures. The fat that does not melt away will become "to die for" good tasting.....but, very unhealthy to eat too much of it. The converted fat residue that remains inside of the brisket muscle fibers will impart that wonderful beefy taste to the meat. And the collagen will have broken down to make the meat very tender. You simply CANNOT rush this process and try to hurry it up to arrive faster at the 190 desired end point. The brisket will be done when it passes the poke test. Again, the magic will not occur if you rush this process. FYI, an 8 pound brisket will take about 10 hours to get to that tender/juicy point. This is "extremely" easy to do in a temperature controlled "electric" smoker. However, it most certainly can be done on a BBQ pit. The real brisket experts over in Texas do it all the time. Sorry to hear that your brisket did not come out well. The cooks at Cook's Illustrated don't know much about cast iron pans either. Dan Semper Fi-cus

dcarch - No. There are a couple of "hot" brisket suppliers around these days. I don't know the names off the top of my head. I get mine from Penn Dutch in Margate, FL. Here's an interesting story... About 10 years ago, we invited Paul Kirk to come down here and run a barbecue cooking school. I tied in a Certified Barbecue Judging class with it that was to start around 3 hours later, so that the judges could sample what these newly-trained cooks prepared. I got there very early and joined the cooks as they selected their meat for the class. Paul Kirk laid out 10 different briskets and asked each cook and me to select what they thought the best one was for a competition. Each cook poked and smelled and squeezed the briskets. I was the last one in line and the only one to look at the label. Paul asked for my selection and I pointed to the one with the cheapest price. Mine was the right answer, according to barbecue professor. With the long cooking process, it really didn't matter whether it was Certified Angus, Kobe, or just some unknown brand. Like I've been preaching all along: it's a cheap cut of beef that you're going to cook for many hours. In the end, it will taste as good as your rub, your smoke, and your sauce.