Brisket Issue on 22.5" WSM


 
B

Boo Dempsey

New member
I smoked a 12lb & 10lb brisket last weekend and although they turned out okay, the process was not anything what I expected. This was only my 2nd attempt at briskets so I don't have much experience to draw on. With all the research I did, I fully expected and planned for a 10-12 hour cook. I brought the WSM to 250 grate temp using my Maverick ET-732 with the food probe in the flat of the brisket. My plan was to foil them at 170-175 degrees until they hit 190-195. Here's what happened...5 hours into the cook, the internal temp was already at 175, 3-4 hours before I thought it would take and no stall at any point. I went ahead and wrapped them in foil and within 90 minutes, the temp was already at 195! Again, no stall whatsoever. I probed other parts of the meat to make sure it was accurate, and it was. Since I was 3-4 hours ahead of schedule, I wrapped both in towels and placed in a cooler. When I started carving, the meat looked okay but wasn't very moist, a nice smoke ring was present but the fat had not rendered hardly at all. Sorry for the long winded post but I'm hoping someone can offer suggestions on what I did, or didn't do! :confused:

Thanks in advance!!
 
Boo, I've only done a few myself so I'm interested to see what the experts have to say. Usually my briskets take longer than planned........
 
Forget temperatures for telling when things are "done". The only way to know is probing for tender. The probe from your thermo should slide in with very little resistance. I normaly probe from the side at the spot the point meets the flat. I suspect your brisket was under cooked. Dry and tough means your meat was under cooked, dry and crumbly means your over cooked.
 
Like Bob said, forget temps. Cook till your probe slides in like a hot knife in butter. 195 will hardly ever be high enough. 203-205 is generally a minimum.
 
J Hoke said:
Like Bob said, forget temps. Cook till your probe slides in like a hot knife in butter. 195 will hardly ever be high enough. 203-205 is generally a minimum.
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Is this a look for number for brisket, or is this a good temp to look for with pork butts too?
 
Boo , Mr sample is correct in all that he told you. I would just add that the temp is useful to tell you when you're "close"....when the meat hits 190 or so forget about temp and start probing for tender. And Mark I believe those temps are good for pork butts too. Feel free to correct me.
 
Generally 196 is minimum for a pork butt. The ends, money muscle and tubes around bone, may hit this before the middle. If you are pulling the entire butt, go for tender in the center. Probe it for tenderness just like a brisket.
We use temp monitors like Frank said so we will know when to start paying closer attention to it getting done.
 
In addition to the temp vs tenderness advice, you will also find that the grade of the brisket will make a huge difference.
A select grade may take in excess of 210° to get tender, whereas a Waygu will be done around 185°. Choice and Prime will both go around the 205° mark, the better the piece of meat you start with, the better the end result will be
 
Thank you all for your comments. It's obvious now that I tried to make it too scientific. This was an angus beef brisket so it was definitely undercooked. I'll give it another go soon and take your advice.

Thanks again!
 
U should buy a whole packer brisket, usually available at wal-mart or SAMs. Stick your probe into the fattest part of the brisket( the point). Set your brisket out for one hour while u get temps up. Cook brisket until your probe reads 160 to 170 degrees. After that wrap brisket into double layer of foil. Cook for at least 2.5 hours. Then get a fork and try to turn it into meat. If it turns it's done, if not check every 30 mins until ready. When u pull it off smoker let it rest for at least 45 mins before slicing. Some people cooler theirs but I think it dry them out. I cook my brisket at 325 to 375 for around 3 hours until it hits 160 then additional 2.5 hours until fork tender. Buy a packer brisket around 11 to 15 lbs. Look up k Kruger hot n fast brisket. I use no water in the pan ever just foil it and minion method. Try it, it took me around 10 pieces of shoe leather to believe.
 
Adam H said:
U should buy a whole packer brisket, usually available at wal-mart or SAMs. Stick your probe into the fattest part of the brisket( the point). Set your brisket out for one hour while u get temps up. Cook brisket until your probe reads 160 to 170 degrees. After that wrap brisket into double layer of foil. Cook for at least 2.5 hours. Then get a fork and try to turn it into meat. If it turns it's done, if not check every 30 mins until ready. When u pull it off smoker let it rest for at least 45 mins before slicing. Some people cooler theirs but I think it dry them out. I cook my brisket at 325 to 375 for around 3 hours until it hits 160 then additional 2.5 hours until fork tender. Buy a packer brisket around 11 to 15 lbs. Look up k Kruger hot n fast brisket. I use no water in the pan ever just foil it and minion method. Try it, it took me around 10 pieces of shoe leather to believe.
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Adam, thanks for the advice. I'll give the high heat method a try sometime. FYI, these were packer briskets, just small ones. From everyone's comments, sounds like I just need to be a little more hands on and less reliable on probes!
 
Boo,

One item that has not been touched upon is your grate temperature. You indicated it was at 250. What is important is to have your grate temperature probe located so that it is not affected by the cooler meat. Even though your briskets never reached the tenderness stage, your times seemed much too short. I suspect your grate temperature probe was being affected by its location and you were running at a higher temperature than 250.

Noticed that many suggest foiling at a temperature range. When foiling, you are entering a new phase in which the bark will not continue to form nor will the color change. May I suggest that at the suggested temperature range you check for proper bark formation and for a color that you, the pitmaster, wants to see. Then foil when you are happy with both the condition of the bark and the brisket's color.

A little caution... It's extremely easy to take a foiled brisket from the underdone stage through the perfect stage and to the overdone stage in a very short period of time. The higher the cooking temperature, the shorter the time period.
 
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Bob is correct. If you place the probe next to cold meat it will distort the reading. Whenever I load two big packers in the WSM, I hang the probe through the top vent so that it is away from the meat, and do the same for butts. Chicken and ribs aren't as bad at distorting the reading, although a full load of spares will affect it somewhat. I have grommets in mine and could use those for the probe but I find that to be a pain when using the lower rack.

I would also check the accuracy of the thermometer in ice water. You'd be surprised how inaccurate some are. My ET732 is the least accurate of all of mine, off by 4-5 degrees.

You might try on the next one to start at an even lower temperature. The longer you can keep the brisket below 160-170 it will continue to accept smoke and develop the smoke ring everyone likes to see. A brisket is a big piece of meat and can take a lot more smoke than say ribs can. After 160-170, not much, but you can leave it on for bark development.
 
"The longer you can keep the brisket below 160-170..." This is interesting advice. I was reading an article on Chef Steps that was discussing keeping pork butt at 167*F for 6 hrs to get the best result. I imagine this applies to brisket as well.
 
Some of the best tasting brisket I have ever had was cooked at 225. Staying below 160-170 for a longer period may be part of it. I have also read that a brisket really doesn't do best cooked hot and fast, although I have competed against some teams that cook it on a UDS and do pretty good cooking 300-325. I guess you can read just about anything, depending on who wrote the article. The reasoning I have read in the articles is that the fat needs the time and not just the temp to render properly. Same should be true with pork butts, but the 160-170 temperature applied to taking smoke and development of the smoke ring in the articles rather than fat rendering.

I also think the particular brisket you are cooking is a big factor in how the fat renders, the brisket taking smoke, and development of the smoke ring. I cooked two CABs last weekend that were just so so for smoke and smoke ring and I stayed up all night adding one chunk of wood every hour. Normally I put them on and four hours later wrap them.
 
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Great information, Jack ! And it makes $ents ;) (was going to say sense, but felt this more appropriate given inflation, the competition world and all...)

Bob
who like his briskets sans fat pockets...
 
I re-read Kevin's High Hot Brisket cook pointers and in it he says HH is best for Select or below. ...that HH is not good for more marbled Prime or better. Maybe fat rendering is the key.
 
Didn't know there was a grade less than select. Boy, that could be interesting.

I think Kevin is correct, but I would throw choice in with the prime or better just to be safe due to the way the meat is graded. You could actually get a choice brisket from a select grade steer.
 
You're right. I stand corrected. It's Choice or better not Prime or better. Here's the thread I've been looking at: http://tvwbb.com/showthread.php?718...d-A-Compilation&highlight=brisket+compilation

"This method most commonly recommended for Select and no-roll (ungraded) briskets since they don't have the marbling that Choice or other higher end branded briskets do. Traditional low and slow is still recommended for these higher end briskets."
 
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