Brisket bark: how long does it take?


 
B

Brian Lee

TVWBB Fan
I've cooked about 10 briskets now and most of the times I'm not happy with the bark as it doesn't have that uniform black coating throughout the entire brisket. I usually wrap when the temp is around 165-170, so going forward should I instead pull it when the bark has formed regardless of internal temp?

Here are my details from yesterday's cook:

1. 9.5 lb trimmed SAB brisket from Restaurant Depot
2. Rub: 50/50 S&P (kosher salt + Kirkland black pepper)
3. Fuel: Kingsford blue with apple wood + pecan shells for smoke
4. Cooker: 18.5 WSM with foiled bowl. Temp at grate was 250F throughout

Here is how it looked when I pulled it after 4 hours / 183F. There's lots of juice on top but not a consistent dark bark
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I then wrapped it in pink butcher paper and finished it in my oven at 250F. Pulled 2.5 hours later when temp was 205F.

Sliced flat:
FPBOxLH.jpg


Sliced point. Note there's lots of bark on this portion:
kK4BKef.jpg


Question: Did I pull it too early and instead should have waited longer for the bark to form, even though the temp was 183 after 4 hours?
 
I can't see pics either.

You don't form bark after wrapping sooooo...
You've got to form it before you wrap.



This was a 14 + pound brisket I cooked a few weeks ago.
I fell asleep and woke up to wrap it when it was at 178 f internal. It was a pretty dry looking meteorite at that time. that was about 10 degrees past where I would normally wrap it..

Some of the very thin end of the flat was a little dry. But the rest was perfect and fantastic. I pulled it at 203. It took 17 or 18 hours at 260 to get there. oddly enough, this one had the least smoke ring of any brisket I've done. Not sure why.


e1uucJlW_o.jpg
 
Last edited:
The pics should now be appearing. I uploaded them to Imgur yesterday and copied the links into my post here. I just made my post public in Imgur so hopefully that makes the pics visible here.
 
I think the time is going to depend on how hot you cook and how much air flow you have, and the humidity in the pit. We can guess that it's going to happen at a certain internal temp, but the reality is that temp can vary. I think the Harry Soo fingernail test is probably the best approach. Or wrap when you like the bark.
 
For some reason the pics are visible to me when I view the post.

I'm copying in the BBcode from Imgur, so below are the images for large thumbnails:



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To me that looks great. That's a lot of people's ideal bark. I think if you want it darker, the only answer is more time in the smoke. Mine usually turns out black, though, even when I'm trying to get it maybe a touch lighter. If you have an area where the grease can pool up you usually won't get bark in that section.
 
Dustin Dorsey said:
To me that looks great. That's a lot of people's ideal bark. I think if you want it darker, the only answer is more time in the smoke. Mine usually turns out black, though, even when I'm trying to get it maybe a touch lighter. If you have an area where the grease can pool up you usually won't get bark in that section.
Click to expand...

Looks good to me too.

I saw a trick on some YT vid about the grease pooling on top, they put a chunk of smoke wood under the brisket to raise that area up.
 
Personally I like to present the brisket fat side up. The wood chunk trick will just keep that section of the brisket from getting smoke. I try to be really careful in my trimming so I don't leave little divots for grease to pool. I don't always succeed. I also just cook in the backyard so take what I say with grain of salt.
 
Lynn Dollar said:
Looks good to me too.

I saw a trick on some YT vid about the grease pooling on top, they put a chunk of smoke wood under the brisket to raise that area up.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the tips on how to avoid fat pooling. I did wrap it fat side up and then cut it fat side down. But next time I'll pay more attention to my trimming and aim for a more aerodynamic shape on top :)
 
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