Should I try a brisket w/out a meatprobe?


 
B

Brian Johnson

TVWBB Pro
So I've been craving brisket for a while and just happened to be in Costco and found a prime packer for $2.99 a pound. Obviously I just had to buy it. It wasn't until after I was out of the store that I remembered the food probe for my ET-732 is busted. While I've cooked tons on my smoker over the years I've only done 3 briskets, so I'm still a little gun shy. Here's my question: With all my experience, is it too risky to not use a thermometer on a brisket?
 
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Brian Johnson said:
So I've been craving brisket for a while and just happened to be in Costco and found a prime packer for $2.99 a pound. Obviously I just had to buy it. It wasn't until after I was out of the store that I remembered the food probe for my ET-732 is busted. While I've cooked tons on my smoker over the years I've only done 3 briskets, so I'm still a little gun shy. Here's my question: With all my experience, is it too risky to not use a thermometer on a brisket?
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Really depends on you. For brisket, I use my probe to kind of help give me an idea when to wrap, then I use it to give me a ball park idea of when to start poking/testing it to see if it's done. Really, it just saves me some time/trouble of having to pay closer attention to the cook. Brisket would come out just as good with the therm, but I'd have to work more at it.
 
I am in this same situation right now. One of the probes for my ET-733 is shot and the screen display on the remote is broken too. With all of these issues I have been having with the ET-733 (have had for just over a year), I am thinking about switching over to the Smoke.

I am about 5 hours into a cook with a 14 lb brisket. I started out with the one probe that still works monitoring the grate temp. I am pretty close to wrapping (~1 hr-1.5 hr) based on the color and temp. After I wrap, I am switching my good probe from monitoring the grate temp to monitoring the brisket temp, and using the lid thermometer to monitor the cooker temp. After 5 hours, I have a pretty good idea of the temp difference that the lid thermometer is showing and what the ET-733 grate probe is reading. I would rather have the probe in the meat when it is closer to the end of the cook so I know when to start probing for doneness.
 
It's completely doable. Really as far as when to wrap and when to take the meat off you should be going by touch and feel anyway. The probe really is just giving you an idea of when to test those things. You should wrap when you have the color you want and when the bark is set. You should take the meat off when it probes tender, when it feels jiggly, etc. Do you have any kind of instant read thermometer to give you an idea of where the temp is? You'll probably have to check the brisket more than you would have with the leave in probe.
 
So just as a follow up I went ahead and did the brisket this weekend. And since I was too distracted with Christmas to get any pics I figure I'll just post it here. It was a ~13 lb USDA Prime brisket from Costco. I got it on the WSM around 10:30 pm Christmas Eve and cooked it straight through until about 1:00 pm Christmas day. I had a few issues with keeping my temps in check, but it was a breezy night and a fairly gusty day. But since my pit-probe (thankfully) was still working I was able remote monitor the pit temp and get a few hours of sleep until it dropped below 220 and the alarm woke me.

Anyway, I think that I may have overcooked most of the flat (was dry and crumbly) but the point (and the flat under the point) was really tasty. At the end of the day, I think that I will definitely get another leave-in meat probe so I don't overshoot the sweet spot next time. And I am reminded that I really need to get a wind block of some kind.
 
Briskets have been done for eons without electronic digital WiFi temperature probes, I’m considering going caveman for New Years.
“Build fire, put meat on, wait for bright ball in sky, when poke with spear, feel good, take off, put foot on and growl!”
Where I put loincloth?
 
Timothy F. Lewis said:
Briskets have been done for eons without electronic digital WiFi temperature probes
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You're make a great point. That's how I do my pork shoulders and ribs, well I still use a remote therm to monitor pit temp, but the meat just sits and cooks. Maybe I've done too much reading an the like and am just "in my head" when it comes to how temperamental brisket is. Whatever the case, the reality is that I cook brisket so infrequently (once a year at best) that the real-time meat temp is a safety blanket I'm not sure I'm ready to leave behind just quite yet. But there is a real draw to the more "caveman" approach!
 
Dustin Dorsey said:
It's completely doable. Really as far as when to wrap and when to take the meat off you should be going by touch and feel anyway. The probe really is just giving you an idea of when to test those things. You should wrap when you have the color you want and when the bark is set. You should take the meat off when it probes tender, when it feels jiggly, etc. Do you have any kind of instant read thermometer to give you an idea of where the temp is? You'll probably have to check the brisket more than you would have with the leave in probe.
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I totally agree with Dustin.:cool: I haven't used a stuck in internal probe on briskets or butts for years.

Trust your instinct's and just go with it.:wsm:

Tim
 
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timothy said:
I totally agree with Dustin.:cool: I haven't used a stuck in internal probe on briskets or butts for years.

Trust your instinct's and just go with it.:wsm:

Tim
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Do you typically go "low & slow" and/or overnight? I've always been worried that I'll oversleep and overcook if I don't have the temp alarm set. Brisket is not a cheap cut of meat to screw up, not sure how long the Mrs. will continue to indulge my bbq habit if I ruin too many $40-$50 cuts of meat.
 
You will be fine! If you have a failure, remember what you did and don’t repeat it, when it’s a triumph, the failure will be forgotten. You won’t make too many mistakes on expensive pieces of meat, you might blow one or two but, that will be it.
Eat, drink and, be merry, for tomorrow, we may die!
 
At the end of the day, brisket is done when it's done, not when it reaches a certain temp. It might be done at 195, or 200, or 212, or whatever. There's a number of factors that come into play. For example, the hotter the chamber temp, the higher the finish IT will be, conversely, the lower the chamber temp, the lower the finish temp. Believe it or not, a brisket could be ready with an internal temp of 180 degrees if you cook it long enough at 190 - 200 chamber temp.

Additionally, the higher the grade of meat, the more marbling it will have, leading to to being finished at a lower chamber temp. Basically, Prime grade will finish at a lower temp than Choice, which will finish at a lower temp than Select. There are even more things that could come into play, like how "indirect" your heat is versus indirect.

Long story short, ya need to learn how to tell when a brisket is done. You need to have the time to be able to watch it near the end so that you catch it when it hits the "done" window.
 
Timothy F. Lewis said:
Briskets have been done for eons without electronic digital WiFi temperature probes, I’m considering going caveman for New Years.
“Build fire, put meat on, wait for bright ball in sky, when poke with spear, feel good, take off, put foot on and growl!”
Where I put loincloth?
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If you might be seen, preferably around your midsection.
 
I know I'm a Johnny-Come-Lately to this debate, but in this situation I would have referred back to my notes from previous cooks to find their cooking temps and time I foiled (if applicable) to try to come up with a workable solution. It would take some of the guesswork out of the equation. :)
 
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