Brisket foiling temp?


 
A

Al Silverman

TVWBB Pro
I've got a small 8# brisket sitting happily under a 8# butt. They went on last night around 7:00. Well its now 12 hours later things are going along fine, the Guru has kept the temps at 225° all night.

I have been thinking about foiling the brisket to keep it from getting dried out. I found an old thread that had Jim Minion suggest foiling at 160°-170° then taking it to 190° wrap in more foil and into a cooler. That was in April of '04. In the same thread around Feb '05 Jim now suggests taking to 190° before foiling.

Can I get some suugestions for a foiling temp. I am wondering if maybe Jim changed his technique???

Thanks

Al
 
I am cooking a brisket right now - an 11 lb, and several people have recommended to pull and foil at 190. I also read a post where it was suggested to pull a smaller brisket, and I think it was just a flat, earlier.

Where are you measuring the temp of the brisket? This is my first one, so I will probably check the temp in several places.
 
Al i always foil my briskets and do so when the brisket hits the 160 - 170 range. Usually i foil at 160. and take to 185 - 188. Then let rest in a cooler for 2 - 4 hrs.
 
Al--

Yes, Jim changed his approach. He felt he got better results not foiling till pulled.

On packers--if they're well-marbled--there is a risk that foiling early will allow the meat to stew in its owns juices resulting in a pot roast-y finish. I think that was Jim's reasoning for the switch.

That has not been my experience though the ones I've foiled are decidedly not well-marbled. Some packers I foil (with liquid yet!) when I want plenty of juices to build a sauce at the end; others I don't. I think it so much depends on the piece of meat you're dealing with, how marbled it is.

Flats, imo, are another story. I think--again, depending on the meat in hand--foil can be a benefit. I think thin and/or overtrimmed flats can benefit by foiling in the 160s, thicker and/or less-trimmed flats in the 170s. That's my view anyway. I cook more packers (by far) than flats. Bryan S cooks more flats from what I tell. He might have additional insights here but I know he foils flats and really likes his results. Aren't Thermapens great?

Brian--

Measure in the middle of the flat. You don't need to take temps in various places on a brisket unless you're interested. The point will have a different reading but it's the flat you want to use to determine doneness since it is leaner.
 
Kevin/Brian - do you guys feel your briskets will dry out w/out foil? Never used foil on my ribs. I do not plan on using foil on this brisket until hits 190 then it will go right into the cooler for a few hours. This is my first brisket, so if it is dry, then I will try foil on my next one.

Al,Kevin- Thanks for the quick response on where to measure the temp- my flat is at 175. Looks like the neighbors are going to be smelling my brisket for quite some time today.
 
Brisket is dry by nature. Yes it has a fat cap but it's not like a butt that has it all through the meat. I feel i get a better end product by foiling verses not foiling. And if you are doing just a flat that has been trimmed pretty hard IMO then yes you have to foil to avoid it getting dried out.
 
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content"> do you guys feel your briskets will dry out w/out foil? </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Brian-- Not exactly. Any cut can dry out if cooked too long, irrespective of marbling. For briskets I find that I can increase my margin for doneness (make the finish-line wider, so to speak) when I foil cuts that are more lean. I have cooked fairly lean briskets without foil and not had them dry but I have to be much more on top of those. Foil allows me a little leeway.

For every meat I cook I can get consistent cuts--except for packers. I only have one source, he is a small country butcher. Successful brisket cooks--to me--depend on looking at what I've got ahead of time and making adjustments based on that. All the packers I get are consistent in weight within 1.5 lbs either side of the average; other than that they're all over the place in terms of thickness and marbling--two key points, imo. So each brisket cook I do is a bit different from the last.

Foiling ribs is something I do as a textural result component, not because I think I need to to keep them from drying. Like brisket, ribs will dry out if overcooked. I foil ribs for texture.

On edit: Looking at Bryan's post I think we're saying the same thing in different ways.
 
Thanks for the responses. I usually cook flats and foil around 175°. This is a small packer and just for jollies I'm going to let it go until 190° and then foil. If it comes out dry then the next one will get the aluminim wrap at 175°.
Al
 
I just cooked a 7.5# butt over an 11.5# packer before trimming. The butt went on at 9:30pm and the brisket at 2:30am. I pulled both at 2:45pm when the butt hit 195* and then foiled both in a cooler till 5:30. The brisket was tender and moist. When I trim a packer I usually leave 1/8" or so of fat cap and get as much between the flat and point as I can without going too deep. I generally cook a brisket 12 hrs at around 235* then I pull and foil for a few hours. When I cook a butt and a Brisket I only check the butt temp. I've never had a bad one using this method. This cook was for my girl friend's birthday. Her entire extended family, whom I had never met, was there and everyone complimented the brisket.
 
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