5 lb. Brisket took 10.5 hours - is this right?


 
S

Steve Gogolinski

New member
I cooked a 5 lb. brisket flat a couple of weeks ago. I put it on at 9 pm figuring it would be done around 1:00 a.m. or so. The WSM ran at temps between 245 and 338 at times, then stabilized at around 250 for the most part. I figured it would cook alot quicker.

It did come out very good though.
 
Most, when asked to give an estimate of cooking time based on weight, would say 1.5 - 2 hours per pound when speaking of butts or brisket. Even at an average of 250°, 4 hours would be unusually fast to reach typical brisket flat doneness temps of 185-190°.
 
Doug gives a good guideline 1.5-2 hr/lb.

Last weekend, I had a 3lb butt and 3lb picnic on the weekend, figured 7 hours. After 7 hours, it was only at 160*. Like Kevin Kruger said, plateau is plateau and apparently pork reaches this plateau and then really has to work to break through it.
 
The average cooking time is for an avg. size piece of meat. Smaller wil take longer than avg/# and bigger will less tha avg/#. There are three ways to break down the tough tissue; wait, foil and walk on the wild side of higher temps (Read Legends of Texas BBQ).
 
I learning as I go, luckily I'm getting better just in time for football season. I've noticed that the smaller cuts take much longer than the larger ones, I thought I was doing something wrong.
 
Maybe it's just me and my style of cooking but, it seems like it takes longer for smaller (by weight) briskets & butts.

I've had a 12 pound bone in butt hit 193 in about 9 hours and a 5 pound take 13.5 hours. Both were cooked between 225 & 245 degrees. I aimed for 250 lid temp on both.

The old saying, "It's done when it's done" holds true.
 
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