brisket questions


 
G

Greg M.

TVWBB Fan
I did my first brisket cook this weekend and have a few questions. I did quite a lot of research on this board prior to the cook. Thanks to everyone for that information.

I bought a 8lb flat at Costco Friday afternoon. Put the brisket, fat side down, on the top grate at around noon on Saturday. Temps stayed steady between 220 and 240 for the entire cook. The internal temp got up to 162 at about 6:00. Cooker tempature held steady, but at around 10:00 internal had gone down to 158. I was planning on foiling at 170 and pulling it at 188.

With the time being late, I chose to pull it at 10:00, wrapped it in foil and put it in a 300 degree oven. It hit 188 at 11:30 and rested until midnight when it went into the fridge still foiled.

Sunday, I unwrapped it, scraped the fat and wrapped in new foil with a few tbs of beef broth. Again into the 300 degree oven until it hit 125 degrees. A ten minute rest and sliced thin.

So that was my method. I would have preferred to foil it at 170 and leave it on the smoker until 188. It still came out juicy, but the thicker part near the end was more like a pot roast (a good pot roast). The cuts from the thinner section were much better, and resembled a spicy, smoked roast beef.

As I have never cooked or eaten brisket before, I have no idea as to expectations. I guess I'm looking for some thoughts on what it should taste like and any suggestions regarding my methods. Thanks.
 
Sounds like the flavor was right--they're very beefy.

The drop in the internal was due to the rendering process happening in the meat. It's the 'magic'. Best if you can start early in the day or the night before so that you can complete the cook in the cooker.

If the meat has not been trimmed to death and seems well-marbled (or if it's marked 'Choice') you can forgo the foiling during the cook if you wish. (For thin flats, especially if not well-marbled, foiling is often worth it.) If you choose to foil but foil before rendering has occurred (or if the rendering hasn't gone on for long enough), a pot roast-y texture sometimes occurs.

Key to a successful brisket--in addition--is a lengthy rest, in foil, after the meat is pulled from the cooker: 2-4 hours.

Sounds like your cook went well enough that you had decent meat and learned a lot. Good deal.
 
Like Kevin said, starting early is the key. Even for flats, they can easliy go 12+ hours to get to the correct doneness. I recently cooked one for about 13 hours and it wasn't done enough.

Taste is difficult to describe. Beefy, smokey. It shouldn't be chewy, but a melt in your mouth tender. Sometimes they can dry out a bit, but a little sauce can help with that.

I was never impressed w/ brisket I had at BBQ joints (then again, I've never had in Texas either), so I had to learn brisket at home too. It's now my favorite BBQ meat, hands down.
 
Thanks for the help. I knew the rendering process occurred during the plateau around that temp, but I never imagined it would drop a few degrees over 4 hours.

I figured the "pot roast" thing had to do with it being in foil, but I haven't figured out why it only occurred in the thicker part of the flat. That's what experience will bring.

As for starting earlier, I had planned on putting it on about 10 o'clock that evening. If you follow weather you probably heard about a nasty front w/tornadoes that went through Indiana/Kentucky during the middle of the night on Saturday. I'm fairly hard-core when it comes to meat, but I do have my limitations.
 
you mean, you can't BBQ in a twister? where's your sense of dedication!
icon_smile.gif


the pot roast thing is perplexing to me. I once forgot about a brisket I had going in the smoker (I know, I know...). It had been foiled in the smoker and by the time I remembered and took it off, it had almost reached 200 degrees. I figured the whole thing would be totally pot roast. I was wrong - it turned out perfectly. Go figure. so it isn't temperature alone toat turns it into pot roast...
 
Forgive my ignorance here, please. I've read about this "pot roast" thing in many different threads, but I'm still not sure what it means.

Are you (and others?) referring to taste or texture?

I'm new to all of this, and have only cooked brisket twice. Once was two flats, the other a packer. The flats were great, the packer a mild disaster, but no way were they even close to what I consider "pot roast."

Thanks,

JimT
 
To my taste, a brisket left in 'juices' and foil for an extended time in the cooker and perhaps cooked to a high temp tends to braise like a pot roast. A couple of my first efforts were like that. Being my first efforts...I thought they were great-they probably rated a c+. Now I use less foil during a cook or not at all until It rests.
 
Adam, was reading an account of the twister that went through here on Sunday morning and a guy was saying he lost his garage and his smoker which was cooking pork butts at the time.<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by adam clyde:
you mean, you can't BBQ in a twister? where's your sense of dedication!
icon_smile.gif


the pot roast thing is perplexing to me. I once forgot about a brisket I had going in the smoker (I know, I know...). It had been foiled in the smoker and by the time I remembered and took it off, it had almost reached 200 degrees. I figured the whole thing would be totally pot roast. I was wrong - it turned out perfectly. Go figure. so it isn't temperature alone toat turns it into pot roast... </div></BLOCKQUOTE>
 
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