Brisket for beginners


 

Dustin H

New member
Hi guys. New to this website and looking for some advice. I recently smoked a brisket flat with mixed results. I realize the entire brisket would be more ideal than just the flat but it’s all I could find that day. I smoked a 7# for about 6 hours (wrapped at the end) where the probe temp reached approximately 202 and was probe tender. I removed it and wrapped in a towel and let it rest in cooler for about 2 hours thinking I was going to have great results. For fun, I reinserted the probe, and the brisket now felt “tight” after resting. Flavor was outstanding with a great smoke ring, but was definitely a little dry. Any thoughts on why it felt like it tightened up?
 
Welcome to the forum Dustin.
I'll let the brisket experts give advice, my question is did you unwrap it to cool a bit before wrapping in a towel and placing it in the cooler?
If not, then the cooking continued.
 
I think Bob hit the nail on the head. You need to open up the foil and let the brisket vent before putting it in the cooler. I usually do this for about 30 minutes or until the internal temp hits 170. This lets the cooking process stop. If you don't the brisket will continue to cook. Not sure why it tightened back up, but it's probably normal for it to tighten up a little bit, though.
 
Can you provide some more specifics?

What temp was your cooker? You said you wrapped at the end...foil, paper?

When you wrapped in a towel...did you literally put your brisket in a towel? Or was it still in foil/paper?
 
Just curious, even if the cook continued, would the product just be crumbly and fall apart? As opposed to tighten back up?
 
I think Dustin and Bob nailed it. I too used to struggle with dry brisket. I would wfoil after probe tender and immediately wrap in a towel and place in the cooler. After taking Harry Soo’s BBQ 101 class and learning to open the foil and cool to 170° before closing the foil up and placing in the cooler did the dry results go away.

Just last weekend I made the mistake of not cooling beef ribs to 170. I left them in the foil wrapped in a towel and placed in a cooler. When It was time to eat, unfortunately I thought the sections with out a lot of fat, were dry.

Welcome to the site!
 
Thanks for all of the great responses. Smoker temp was 240 or so. I wrapped it tightly in foil at around 175 degrees. I did not Unwrap the brisket and allow it cool so I’m guessing this is where I went wrong. Thanks again!
 
Welcome aboard Dustin. This is a good place to get answers and share your experiences. What are you cooking on and where are you in Florida?
 
Thanks again everyone. I’m in Fernandina Beach. A follow up question...see a lot of people saying they’ll take a pork shoulder straight from the smoker to the cooler to hold for several hours....do you not need to let this cool slightly like the brisket before wrapping and placing in cooler?
 
I am glad you asked the brisket question as the answers have been insightful for me too. But on this notion of dryness and holding - I need some additional education. My uneducated (maybe 6 briskets under my belt) thoughts is that the sections of brisket that are marbled will be moist. Not all sections are equally marbled so some sections will be dryer than others. My dry sections of brisket typically only had surface fat and looked lean and dry inside. So where I need clarification is should I expect the lean sections (often my flat that isn't under the point) to still be moist? If so, where is that moisture coming from without much marbling in there?
 
Thanks again everyone. I’m in Fernandina Beach. A follow up question...see a lot of people saying they’ll take a pork shoulder straight from the smoker to the cooler to hold for several hours....do you not need to let this cool slightly like the brisket before wrapping and placing in cooler?
I had a bad experience with pork butt due to this exact issue. I smoked four of them and they went straight from the smoker to the cooler, where they stayed for about four hours. When I went to pull them they completely fell apart. This is not the good thing it might sound like. The meat was also very mushy. No texture at all. You want it soft, but not cooked oatmeal soft. So, yes, you should let the pork butt cool to 160F-170F before putting it in the cooler. This would apply to any meat you'd cook to a high temperature.

A lot of people don't do this because for some reason they've gotten away with it not causing problems. Maybe they pull the meat from the smoker earlier so the additional "cook" time gently takes them to the proper final temp. Maybe the heat absorbed by the cooler as it warms up pulls enough from the meat to stop the cooking. Maybe their coolers aren't quite as good. Hard to say. I'd never had this issue until I put four butts in a very good cooler. (It claims to keep ice whole for up to 72 hours.) Regardless of why others don't have problems, if you're cooking to close to what you want to be the final temp you should definitely allow it to cool down before wrapping and holding in a cooler.

Also be aware that a big piece of meat like a brisket or a pork butt is going to carryover cook to a higher temp than when you pull it. I left the temperature probe in the beef roast I smoked at Christmas and it rose about 12F while it was resting on the counter with just a single piece of aluminum foil loosely placed over the top. That was a 10 lb. roast smoked at 225F. The higher the cooking temp and the larger the piece of meat, the more carryover is going to raise the temp.
 
I think Bob hit the nail on the head. You need to open up the foil and let the brisket vent before putting it in the cooler. I usually do this for about 30 minutes or until the internal temp hits 170. This lets the cooking process stop. If you don't the brisket will continue to cook. Not sure why it tightened back up, but it's probably normal for it to tighten up a little bit, though.

So you let it rest unwrapped? Is this both for foil and butcher paper?
 
Mike, let it rest loosely covered or bare until the temp gets down to 170 or so, then wrap snugly and towel it and get it in a cooler. There is a certain amount of carry over heat which will dry it out and make it tougher. If the brisket begins to decrease in temperature that concern is removed then, you can keep the, wrapped brisket in the cooler for a couple of hours and should be fine.
Next time...
 
I was wondering what grade of meat you were using Dustin? Was it Select, Choice, Prime? This could explain some of the issues involved. When fibers are hot they expand and could allow for a tender probe but when they cool off they shrink and could feel more tight in the probe. Without the fat in a select cut it could finish a little dry. Secondly, did you put any liquid in the foil when you wrapped it? Now I'm not suggesting that if you put "juice" in the foil it will make the meat "juicy". No, it doesn't work that way. But, liquid in the foil helps distribute and equalize the heat more efficiently bringing the whole piece of meat up to temp more evenly thereby avoiding hot spots and overcooking some areas that would make them dry. Last Saturday I cooked a brisket that was so juicy and tender I was amazed. You can see the pictures here https://tvwbb.com/showthread.php?73527-The-brisket-won-t-fit

I let the steam out of the foil when I pulled the brisket but only long enough to probe with my instant thermometer to check that it was done (maybe 5 min). I left my DOT probe in when I put it in the cooler and it never got hotter. It just slowly and steadily dropped. I guess I was lucky that I had let the steam out because I wasn't even thinking about over cooking or drying it out. My brisket was a Prime cut so I'm wondering if that's the difference.
 
Great site..wish I had found this thread a week ago. This past weekend I cooked a brisket, high heat method. Couldn't find a packer, so we settled for an 8 lb flat..Put the meat on about noon, steady temps of about 375 for two hours..hit the 170 mark, foiled it and back in the smoker. got a little sidetracked thinking I had another two hours, and in about an hour and 45 it sailed right past the 205 mark..when I finally took it off it was at 210..instead of letting it cool, I made the mistake of wrapping in a towel and putting in a cooler and it sat there for another 30 to 45 minutes before we were ready to eat, still cooking away. needless to say it was a bit dry, nothing some finishing sauce couldn't help with, but I certainly learned my lesson..particularly if I ever cook just the flat again, I'll make sure to cool it down before putting up in the cooler.
 
@Jeremy, I would suggest using the temperature only as a guide. Once you've hit 180-190 I'd go entirely by feel rather than temperature reading. If the probe goes all the way through with very little resistance, it's done. Each piece is slightly different and will be "done" at a different time and likely a slightly different temperature. Feel is a much more reliable approach.
 
@JayHeyl, I used the probe after it got past 200 and still felt a bit of resistance so I left it on another half hour..In hindsight it was probably done at that point..Haven't cooked enough of them yet to quite have that "feel" down, but I'll get there.
 
Last edited:
I mostly smoke whole briskets, so I'm not sure if this is good advise, but thought I'd help, as I've figured out a lot of ways to dry out a brisket, and only one that has delivered great results on the last 3 attempts. I start with the brisket whole and not wrapped. Bring it to room temp. Pat it dry. Apply my rub of choice liberally, and pop it into a shallow foil pan. I have been seeing better results with large briskets if I use my Ranch instead of my WSM, but haven't gone back to try my newly discovered winning technique on the WSM yet so it may work just fine there too. Grill temp to 225ish at the grate right next to the fattest part of the flat. When on the Ranch I use the IQ 110 to regulate temp. I can't remember the hours needed but I bring the brisket to the stall or 165 whichever appears to be first, then pull and wrap in butcher's paper. Then I return to the grill until it reaches 190 internal (careful to avoid any obvious fat marble with the meat probe). If the grill runs out of fuel before the brisket reaches 190 I'll finish in a 225 degree oven. In a variation of this that also worked well, I skipped the foil pan and butcher's paper til I hit the stall and then placed it into a foil pan and tented foil.

I would like to get to the point that I can skip all pans, wraps, and foils altogether as the finished product would have a better texture, and maybe even more smoke. I feel the steaming that occurs with the pans, and wraps really effects the bark, and burnt ends. That said, The best whole briskets I've made have been on the Ranch, in a shallow foil roasting pan.

They have all also been big box purchased briskets from Costco, or other national grocer's. I've seen where the big shot BBQ boys tout the Snake River briskets and such as they have marbling all the way through the brisket, and that is what makes them tasty, juicy, and great. Since I caught that video on Youtube I have not been out shopping for briskets. But they said what makes the Koby Briskets from Snake River better is the marbling throughout the meat that the big groceries don't have. I will be looking closely under the fat cap on the flat and throughout the point to see if there is a difference between what I saw on the youtube and what I see at Costco. I generally get all giddy when I find a great price on brisket, but have never really looked that closely at the marbling. I have not been able to bring myself to paying $120+ for a brisket. Maybe when I've mastered smoking the cheaper Costco one's I'll give it a try, when I'm sure I'm not going to screw it up!
 
I am glad you asked the brisket question as the answers have been insightful for me too. But on this notion of dryness and holding - I need some additional education. My uneducated (maybe 6 briskets under my belt) thoughts is that the sections of brisket that are marbled will be moist. Not all sections are equally marbled so some sections will be dryer than others. My dry sections of brisket typically only had surface fat and looked lean and dry inside. So where I need clarification is should I expect the lean sections (often my flat that isn't under the point) to still be moist? If so, where is that moisture coming from without much marbling in there?

Moisture and tenderness comes from the breaking down of the connective tissue in the meat. Surface fat just pretty much renders down and flows off whatever your cooking. I trim most of the surface fat off my brisket.
 

 

Back
Top