I smoked an 11.2 lb Prime packer yesterday and the results were very perplexing. See smoking methodology / details below.
- 11.2 lb Prime beef packer
- 3 oz (2 small chunks) hickory wood
- Total smoke time of 11 hours 40 minutes at 225F... details below
- Inserted into un-preheated smoker with fat side down at 225F at 11:30pm (was a bit too large for so I folded tip of the flat underneath)
- Inserted two temp probes into the thickest part of the flat about two inches apart from one-another, and a third probe to confirm the smoker temp of 225F
- It smoked very quickly... I was planning to wrap in butcher paper at 165F, but that temp was reached after just 3 hrs, so I waited until smoking time had hit 5 hours at temp of 174F at 5AM, then I wrapped in butcher paper and returned to the smoker
- At 11:10AM, thickest part of the flat registered 195F, but oddly the other areas of the flat that were thinner were much lower in temp around 180F. Given that the consensus seems to be pull once thickest part of flat hits around 195F, I decided to pull. Total smoke time was 11 hours and 40 minutes
- After pulling I added another layer of butcher paper, wrapped it tightly, then wrapped in a towel and stashed away in a cooler for six hours
The result? Basically half of the brisket was moist and delicious, (the thickest part of flat and the point) and the other half was tough and dried out (the other 75% of flat that was thinnest). I've included pictures with notations in case that helps.
Given my methodology any advice on getting the entirety of the brisket to be moist vs. just half of it would be very much appreciated.
