brisket questions


 
C

Chad Adcox

New member
i am sure this may have been discussed before, but i am having problems with cooking brisket. i have done 6 or so briskets using both slow and low and HH.
my question is how do i get it to be tender and juicy? i get a good smoke ring and great smoke flavor, but it always seems kind of dry.
i usually cook to internal temp of 190 and then wrap it and hold it for an hour or so before cutting it. am i missing something??? i have read all the brisket recipes on the site and seem to be on the same page with temps. do i need to go to a higher temp???205? any suggestions would be great
 
You need to cook it till it's tender and juicy, not to some internal temp. When done, a probe inserted into the center of the flat will go in nearly effortlessly, with little to no resistance. The internal temp can be anything.
 
Chad, I have been lucky with brisket since I started last year cooking it. I would suggest that you use temp as a rough estimate only and test for doneness with a probe. I think an overwhelming majority of the cooks here will agree. I personally use an injection, some do not, but since I have I can't remember a dry brisket. I use Kosmos, others use Butcher or their own recipe. There are some who don't use any and still get good product. They say brisket is one of the harder meats to get right, perhaps that is the case with you. I have also done both HH and L&S, with similar results. Another thing that I don't do is trim, prior to cooking. Well maybe some of the hard fat, but even that is not necessary. Others like to trim to 1/4 inch, they also get good product. I would say if after 6 attempts that you don't really like I would make a change. Try something different that others are having success with.

Good luck and Happy Smokin'

Mark
 
hey kevin, appreciate the response and the links to the answers.
so now i have a couple of questions. when i did the HH yesterday i did it on a 22 weber kettle. i thought i would be able to keep the heat up on it. for the most part i stayed around the 350 mark, but did climb to 425 for a bit when i wasnt looking. anyway i put the meat on at 12:30 and pulled at 4:45. it was only a 5lb (flat i believe. still not real clear on that) i am guessing this was way too long. as i previously stated, i was waiting for 190 internal temp.
questions being- should i just use the wsm instead of kettle?
do i foil at 2 hour mark??? and then cook another hour or two?? not quite sure there. so you just shoot for times and tenderness, not temps?
 
You can use a kettle or a WSM, either way.

If doing only a flat, temp it at the beginning and foil when the internal hits 160 if the flat is thin or quite trimmed, 165 if the flat is thick. Don't bother temping after foiling. If running at the temps you noted, check for tenderness the first time about 1:15 after foiling.
 
One thing I would like to add here. Brisket has been kicking my tail for a while too. They always seemed over cooked, but I found they were actually under cooked. I decided to keep going until probe tender and it worked (I figured what's the difference if it is already ruined?). Also, I have been using an old analog probe thermometer for checking for tenderness. Recently I purchased a Thermopen which I love, but I find that it is so sharp that when I use it to probe for tenderness, I get no feel. Heck, they almost feel probe tender when you put em on the grill!
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Anyway, just thought that maybe some people might be having the same problem and thought I would suggest using a probe that is more blunt to check for tenderness.
 
Here's a couple of suggestions that have worked for me.

1 - Use a beef injection during prep. I have used Butcher's beef injection and Kosmo's Q beef injection, and both will help your brisket retain moisture.

2 - Wrap your brisket earlier, say in a range of 160 to 165. Finish in the range of 200 to 205, but test for tenderness with a probe until it doesn't tug when you pull it out. Some start their testing earlier, as low as 190. Experiment and see what works best for you.
 
I agree with Andy..

It's not a particular temperature or time. It's when it's done. I know that sounds sort of Zen or something but keep testing it until it just feels like butter.

One other tidbit, when you inject use an injector that has a small diameter needle, inject with the grain, and DON'T use Worcesterchire sauce. It leaves these ugly little (what I call) Leopard spots in your sliced meat.

I started out with just injecting plain ol' beef broth until I started experimenting. It's actually a really good place to start.

Russ
 
I would not suggest injecting as a good place to start. It adds several steps and needlessly complicates cooking brisket. Injections are not necessary for moist and tender brisket - at all.
 
maybe i did something wrong, but i felt like the outside was pretty tough. so would that mean i overcooked it??? definitely was not like butter!!!
 
Not necessarily though it might mean that.

What was the texture of the meat when you tasted it after slicing? What rub did you use?

I'm doing a packer right not as I type. I'm doing it on a kettle as well. Been on 1.5 hours. My fuel is limited so I just fired up 3/4 of a chimney, dumped that in one side, and topped it with a couple foil packs of pecan nuts and shells. I don't often temp kettle cooks but I stuck my Thermapen in the lid vent 10 minutes after starting just to see what it would say. It was running 450. Right now it's somewhere around 360 or so. I'll be foiling in an hour.
 
the texture was ok... a little hard when i was slicing it. i used Big Ron's rub (hint of houston) good stuff!!!
i am going to try your suggestions this weekend on another brisket. if it is only 5 lbs, what should my times be?
 
High heat can make some rub blends hard, especially if the sugar content is relatively high and/or the heat was direct.

Times? Hard to say with certainty. It will depend on cooktemps but foiling is a great equalizer. Just smoke then foil either by temp or time. As usual, for last night's packer I foiled 2.5 hours into the cook. I temped out of curiosity at that point and it was in the 150s. (One does not need to foil by temp. Just foil in or before the usual plateau point. For flats in particular, sooner is better than later.) I then cooked till tender. Came in at a bit over 4 hours total.

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Originally posted by paul h:
Nice smoke ring Kevin
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Click to expand...

Oh-h-h, yes. Very nice ring. And given the 150* temp at foiling, absolute visual proof that the "smoking" is accomplished at the lower temps. Never fear about foiling if you just give it the necessary time in the smoke (and incidentally, the temp gets over 140).

Rich
 
Especially in the flat, yes. You want to be sure your probe is in roughly the center and you're not getting the temp near an edge. After you've done a few, you'll get comfortable.

Rich
 
Chad,
If you've had problems before, I'd say that you should use Kevins HH method. Foiling is a critical step.

I've made about 5 briskies all HH. They have been perfect or nearly so. Smoke till 160 (or by time) and then foil. Follow the HH thread and you can't go wrong. Let the meat tell you it's done by probing.

If you make it HH and you slice it right its good; you can always try a different way (modification) later. Personally, I will never go back to another method. It's to quick easy and tasty.
 
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