How much time does cooking brisket at 275 save?


 
B

Brian Johnson

TVWBB Pro
Wanting as ever to up my BBQ game I find myself perusing through the forum posts. I happened upon this thread with the following comment.

I no longer cook at 225-250°F, I target 275°F for all low & slow cooking and it seems to avoid the situation Jay encountered. You push right through the stall, wrap with foil or butcher paper at 170°F, and take it across the finish line at 205°F. - Chris Allingham
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The few briskets I've cooked I've followed the age old advice of low & slow. Specifically, I followed the instructions from a Jim Minion recipe in "Weber's Charcoal Grilling: The Art of Cooking with Live Fire" cookbook aiming for a target pit temp between 225 and 250. I also tend not to wrap my brisket "just because." Obviously, this tends to lead to long cooks (my last cook was around 16 hours before I gave up and called it "good enough" at 195F internal temp).

So here's my question. How much of an impact on cook time does the higher target pit temp have? That is to say, I know I can shave off some time if I choose to wrap and cook at a higher temp. But if I only decide to change the target pit temp, will I shave off a few hours from the cook? Or will it be such a marginal difference that when compared to a 16+ hour cook it really doesn't make a significant difference?
 
this is hard to answer because each brisket will be slightly different, even with briskets that weigh the same could vary. When it comes to brisket, or pork roasts starting temp 250 and I let the cooker rise slowly to 275 until the brisket hits 170...At that point I pull it and wrap it in foil or butcher paper and put it back on , since it's wrapped I will let the cooker go to 275+ if it wants to till it hits 200-205...pull and wrap in towel and sit for a while...the last 2 briskets I did barely fit on my 18.5 wsm so they were large (22+ inches in length) and took around 7.5 hours on the smoker.. When I first started smoking, 225 was the rule of thumb and smoke sessions were 10-12 hrs long generally...not anymore
 
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The meal time usually sets my cooking strategy, which includes temperature. Mostly, we have friends over to devour the brisket, and dinnertime (somewhere around 6 or 7) is the serving target. Since I like to rest briskets for 4 hours, that sets the done-time at around 2:00p. Even if I could high-heat one in 7 hours, that would require me to get up at around 5:00a. In short, that ain't gonna happen. So I usually opt for an overnight cook starting at around midnight or so. That sets my temp in the 230 to 250 range. I don't wrap. I start with about a gallon of water in the pan and don't replace it, so it usually finishes dry or almost dry. A 12 to 14-hour cook is pretty uneventful, and since I sleep through most of that, it's pretty easy on the cook. I use an iGrill2, which has a handy feature of plotting a line graph of your pit and meat temperature while you sleep. When I wake up, I can see if the pit took any weird spikes or dips during the night and proceed accordingly. Quite helpful, if only for peace of mind.

Jeff
 
I'm relatively new to smoking and started at 225. That's was fine for me with ribs since you can start them and serve them the same day, but butts/briskets/chucks take way too long.

Went up to 250 for a while, but big pieces were still overnight cooks, which I'd prefer to avoid.

This season, I went to 275+ with no water, and you can put a big piece on early in the morning, and serve it that night. I double wrap with butcher paper, which cuts the time too.
 
DavidMichael said:
this is hard to answer because each brisket will be slightly different, even with briskets that weigh the same could vary. When it comes to brisket, or pork roasts starting temp 250 and I let the cooker rise slowly to 275 until the brisket hits 170...At that point I pull it and wrap it in foil or butcher paper and put it back on , since it's wrapped I will let the cooker go to 275+ if it wants to till it hits 200-205...pull and wrap in towel and sit for a while...the last 2 briskets I did barely fit on my 18.5 wsm so they were large (22+ inches in length) and took around 7.5 hours on the smoker.. When I first started smoking, 225 was the rule of thumb and smoke sessions were 10-12 hrs long generally...not anymore
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Ive had briskets take 13-21 hrs. Same temp. 260.

Last night was a new record for me....11.5 hrs for a 15.5 lb brisket. It had virtually no stall. Wrapped in paper at 175, at 2 hrs it was at 203.

They take as long as they take. A 14.5 took 17hrs at same temps 2 months ago. I double check temps too.

I can tell this brisket shrunk less, and weighs more than previous briskets too. It still barely fit on grate when done. It was very thick on point end, still is
 
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I tend to cook smaller briskets for a smaller family (8-10lb) so I have never run into a really stubborn brisket that had me watching a smoker for 20 hours. Like others have said, there is no exact science for knowing how long a given brisket will take. I always wrap when I hit the stall.

That said, my first cooks were at lower temps and definitely took longer. IMHO, the time saved cooking at higher temps is between 8%-15% of cook time (whatever that ends up being). You might shave 1-2 hours off a 12 hour cook; you might save 2-3 hrs off a 20 hour cook.

The only definite here is the fact that it will cook faster.
 
There's people on the forum who somehow never encounter the 5 to 6 hour stall and are just baffled at everyone else complaining about it and have low and slow cooks done at 9 hours. If your cooking on a WSM a longer cook really isn't that much effort though. Like others, I will cook low and slow if the timing is going to work out better and kind of medium and slow at other times. It seems like I get a more even cook when I cook low and slow. I get more fat rendering on a 275 cook. I think you get more usuable product low and slow. Hot and fast, especially on an offset, I have some slightly dried out pieces. Those are usually your true burnt ends.

I guess it just depends on how long your briskets stall out where you are. It could potentially be a big difference.
 
Dustin Dorsey said:
. . . If your cooking on a WSM a longer cook really isn't that much effort though.
. . . I guess it just depends on how long your briskets stall out where you are. It could potentially be a big difference.
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I get what you're saying Dustin. Historically my issue with really long cooks on my WSM has always come down to "ash management." That is to say the longer the cook, the more ash I have and the harder it is to get the necessary air flow to maintain a good fire. I pretty much solved this problem when I stopped using kbb, but I can't find that charcoal in stores anymore. Couple that with not having a lot of cooks under my belt now that I've moved to a new climate (and a windier one at that), I feel like I'm starting over with the learning curve. Once I re-learn where my WSM likes to settle-in temp wise, I think I'll be a lot better off.
 
I realize the post is about cooking at the temp of 275°, but I’m going to suggest taking the temp on up to the “high heat” levels and cooking the brisket at temps between 325°-375°, and no water in the pan. I just did a 12 pounder last weekend using the high heat method. Heat brisket to 170°, wrap in foil or paper, and cook until probe tender. Mine took just under 6 hours. Again, I know this was about 275°, but if you’re going to try to reduce cooking times by increasing the temp of the WSM, why not go all in. Good luck whichever method you try. There is no “absolute “ method no matter what you have on your smoker. Find a temp range that fits your needs, and go with it.
Good luck,
Tim
 
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