Brisket help


 
J

John McCloy

New member
I tried my first cook today in my new 22.5 WSM I cooked a 8lb. Turkey breast and a small 6 lb. Brisket that I got pre trimmed from Wally world. It was a trial run for a large cookout on the 11th for my wife's b-day. The turkey came out ok but the brisket was dry and had a poor smoke ring I used the minion method with lump charcoal I cooked the brisket on the bottom rack and the turkey on the top the smoker was running a little hot the lid temp averaged around 265 to 280 for most of the cook even with the bottom dampers closed I pulled the turkey at 5 hours and let the brisket go around 6 hours when it reached 190 I pulled it an wrapped it in foil and let it rest for 30 mins. Before slicing. This was my first cook on the WSM I've had many great bbqs on my old offset before my wife made me retire it. Now I'm a little nervous about the 11th. With brisket and butts being the main menu items for our 45 guests. Any help would be great.
 
I actually did a 6 lb butt and a 10 lb brisket. I putt them on at 3am and cooked them both at 250 degrees. The butt got pulled off at 1pm when it got to 185, I wrapped it in plastic wrap and then hd aluminum foil and let it sit in a cooler. I then ran the brisket until 5pm when it got to 195, I double wrapped in aluminum foil. The butt was perfect when I pulled. The brisket was a tad dry, I probably should have pulled at 185-190. If you did not get a good smoke ring it was probably because you did not throw enough wood chunks in there. By the way this was the first time I did brisket, it came out really good. I should not have gone to 195, you live & learn. Here is a link to a picture of my brisket and my butt. I also use a automatic temperature control unit to control temperature, I only had to add wood several times and shaked up the charcoal. I used Stubbs for the first time and it was great it was running 150 degrees after 30 hours. Hope this helps.
 
Thanks for your help. I used at least a dozen chunks of the bagged hickory 3" avg. The turkey had a decent smoke ring I'm not sure if that was the problem, but I'll try some bigger chunks next time. Congrats on your brisket it looked good.
 
Congrats on your 1st cook on your new toy, John next time try wrapping the brisket when the temp hits 160-170 range, then just check for tenderness from that point on.
 
I'm not an old timer at smoking, but I've sure been doing a lot of smoking since getting my WMS and doing a lot of reading. A lot of the Competition Smoker Men say "Forget about the blasted smoke ring, it doesn't make the meat tender or necessarily taste better." They concentrate more on getting a good tender and tasty brisket than worrying about a smoke ring.

Judges like to see a smoke ring, but in reality, some of the "Big Boys" claim it's just a mental thing that has no bearing on the overall outcome of the brisket.

Just telling you what I've read. Good luck to ya.
 
Hey John,
I'm new to brisket, but I have learned one thing: Probe tender!. The probe should slide in and out with little resistance when it's done. Sometime the temp can be a little higher when you take it off. Good luck!
 
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by George David:
I'm not an old timer at smoking, but I've sure been doing a lot of smoking since getting my WMS and doing a lot of reading. A lot of the Competition Smoker Men say "Forget about the blasted smoke ring, it doesn't make the meat tender or necessarily taste better." They concentrate more on getting a good tender and tasty brisket than worrying about a smoke ring.

Judges like to see a smoke ring, but in reality, some of the "Big Boys" claim it's just a mental thing that has no bearing on the overall outcome of the brisket.

Just telling you what I've read. Good luck to ya. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>I agree 100% George, a smoke ring is just for show do not gain anything but smoke flavor. Cook brisket to 160-170 range, then wrap in foil known as the (Texas Crutch), once wrapped just start checking for tenderness desired, i like mine just when starting to get tender, i do not want to cook to the point of pulled beef, i like texture on cooked briskets. Also one thing some cooks never pay attention to, the smaller the brisket the younger the animal was, easier to get to tender with out drying out. Imho 10-14 lb briskets are best 14lb max. Usually try to find 10-12lb range, if i need more beef cook 2 or 3 10-12lb briskets.
 
Thank you everyone for all your help.

It's almost time for the big BBQ.

With what I've read and with the imput I received I'm going to use a little bigger chunks of wood in my cook and try the Texas crutch method with my brisket and keep my fingers crossed that everything turns out great.

Thanks again
 
Hi John. I don't mean to spin your head or make things more complicated, but have you checked out this link? With only one brisket cook under my belt, I'm certainly not an expert. But I followed Kevin Kruger's high heat method, and the brisket turned out great. Not trying to convert anyone. There are a lot of methods/techniques out there that work. It just sounded like a good fit for your upcoming cook. Let us know how it went!

Mike
 
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