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Brisket Learning Curve

FM Former Member
OK Everyone,

My third (or fourth i can't remember) brisket cook went as follows.

4 brisket untrimmed. Rubbed and into the 50 at 39 degrees. Fat side Down. Maverick probe in top middle brisket. 3-4 oz hickory (which is enough for me). Temp set on 200. 7-8 hours in the meat is at 186 (way too fast and just 2 degrees off of when I pull.) I have to go home to watch the kids so I tell my wife to pull the brisket when they hit 188. An hour later she calls and tells me the meat temp is now 174. I'm thinking some plateau. Briskets cook another 6 hours and only get back to 180. She's tired and ready to come home so I tell her to pull them out and I'll look at them in the morning. I go to slice them the next morning and they are DONE as in slice it thick to keep it from shredding. Taste is good but dry.
I promise that I did not a) open the door b)cause a fluctuation in the AC power and c) get so drunk that I couldn't accurately read the probe temp (although I cannot vouch for my wife). So what gives. I did another smoke a couple of days later with three briskets but with the thermostat turned down a bit (c190). Again, about the same results.

Any suggestions or thoughts would be appreciated.

Thanks
Mark
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FM Former Member
Mark,

The only reason I can think of for your brisket being dry is the way you placed the fat side down. I always place the fat side up, except the bottom brisket of four, which is close to the heat. The fat, on top, cooking and dripping through the meat as it breaks down the fibers, always keeps our brisket tinder and juicy.

smokemullet
FM Former Member
Like Tom, how big? Were they flats or packers?

The bottom brisket CS likes to recommend you cook fat side down to "aborb" the heat. The rest of the racks I would put fat on top to drip down through the brisket to keep it moist.

You have to look at the brisket and see how much fat is there. The marbling matters in keeping it moist. If it starts looking dry (after 170) you have to think about the impact.
FM Former Member
Tom,

9.5 and down is what the label said. I would guess they averaged 9-10lb.

Smokin,

They were packers. Not Trimmed. This was the first time I ever cooked fat side down. I liked the fact that I didn't end up trimming half the rub off to trim the fat after the cook. All the rub was on the lean side. I just trimmed the bottom side after they had cooled and had the leanest brisket I've ever done. Which is one of the things that customers have mentioned to me which is that they want lean brisket. In my mind "lean brisket" is a contradiction in terms but I see where they are coming from.

Only other things I noticed but haven't cooked on the CS long enough to know what's normal. I had a constant stream of visible "steam" throughout the cook. And at some point at the beginning of the cook, The smoker "whuffed" at me like maybe the smoke box was on fire and then got snuffed out through lack of oxygen. Not that big of a deal I don't think but I just happened to be leaning over the smoker at the time and it scared the **** out of me.

As always thanks for the education. I didn't care too much for school. Maybe if they had had a brisket 101 I would have paid more attention.

Mark
FM Former Member
I think you'd be better off adding more temp probes. That way you can identify any anomalies in a single probe--maybe it was in a fat vein, too near the surface, etc.

Also, you might consider rotating the racks. Otherwise they'll all be done at different times. Or don't rotate and just probe each one and remove them individually when they reach the desired temp.

Another consideration is to foil at 165. I put fat side up in foil so the meat is submerged in the juices which keeps it moist. Then I just poke the probe through the top of the foil.
T tomMember
It looks like you cooked about 14 hrs?

We find that choice packers take us a little more than an hr a lb to finish.

Select takes longer.

In a CS, like yours,we typically cook fat side up.

We often start our packers around 180�late at night,for timing purposes and to add some extra smoke.

Early in the morning we'll go to around 225� to get us through the 160�-170� plateau.

We may move it up closer to 250� to finish out.

We rely on poking a temp probe through it to check for tender.

We've had some ready at 185� and some at 205�.

We like to plastic wrap,inside foil,and cooler fat side down for around three hrs.

You can add 1/2 cup of lo salt beef broth/coffee/apple juice/sauce/butter,etc. inside the plastic.

The brisket will draw some liquid back in ,as it sets.

Let it set out on the counter,with the foil loosened for at least 1/2 hr before slicing and it may draw some more juice back in.

We don't usually foil in a Cookshack,except for timing to speed the cook.

Like Smokin' says,around 170�,if it looks dry you may want to consider foil.

If you decide to foil,here is a pretty good post .

Darcy's Indirect Cooked Brisket

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