Brisket troubleshooting


 
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Olly_G

New member
Morning all,

I'm still in my first year of using my WSM 57 so consider myself still a beginner, could you help trouble shoot what went wrong at the weekend for me.

This christmas I'm cooking a brisket, my girlfriends family arent keen on fatty cuts so I attempted a brisket flat on its own this weekend.

It was a small 3.5lb cut, I was worried picking it up from my butcher, as here in the uk they tend to trim a lot of fat off, this had practically none on one side and a thin on the other, so I placed it fat side down, rubbed with salt and pepper and started.

Started the smoker at 230f and held it there for a steady 4 hours, the meat looked moist throughout and had a nice bark, I figured I would wrap at 165 and check from there on, only problem was it stalled at 147f internal for 2 hours, we had friends round so i left it in this stall for maybe too long, after a total of 6 hours on I decided to wrap (by my timings it should be easily done by now), I managed to get it to 175f internal but this was 8 hours in, so I pretty much knew it would be dry and no good.

My questions are, is there anything you can can see right away here, I think the following could be to blame:

- Uk brisket is very lean grassfed meat and I had a bad cut right away.
- I was too low on the heat, 250f might of sped up the process and got it out the smoker quicker before it dried out
- I should've wrapped an hour into the stall

All in all I'm not too annoyed, I've successfully done a full packer in the same manor, but I like the idea of being able to cook the flat only for small cooks.

I'm also pleased with my weber in cold temps, it kept a strong pace up and the additional top vent gave me the extra power when the temp dipped on one occasion.
 
A question Olly, what temp was it when you pulled from the WSM?

My normal practice is to wrap in foil when the brisket hits the stall. For me that is about 165* but if yours stalled at 145*, and the bark was already set, then that might have been the time to wrap.

When you pulled from the smoker, did you check for tender? Normal rule of thumb is that if the brisket is not tender, it is not done. When it is overcooked, it will tend to fall apart. From what you describe, it sounds to me that the flat was undercooked.

More info about your process could be helpful.
 
after 10 hours it was only 175f internally, I figured I'd dried it out too much by then and decided to ditch the cook and use it in a chilli, next time I will wrap once stalled like you said Bob, instead of chasing 165f internally, I guess every brisket is different.
 
Olly, in my experience, 230F cooking temp is the main street for a never ending story.
You have to increase T to 275F and you will get:
1) better, much better bark
2) shorter, much shorter cooking time.
 
Thanks enrico, you're right, I'm really annoyed at myself for not running higher temps, I was worried about the brisket drying out but not next time!
 
Brisket, or any meat really, starts to dry out at anything above medium-rare/ medium. Where the magic happens with pulled pork and brisket is not that you stop cooking before the meat has dried out, or you magically keep moisture in the meat, but that cook it so far past done that the collagen in the connective tissue melts. The really skill is to catch the meat when the maxium collagen has melted, but before it all runs out of the meat and goes "poof" in the fire. That is why everybody says to cook until tender, not a temperature.
I personally think that you didn't cook it long enough.
 
Thanks Andrew, I think you've nailed it right there, out of interest do you use a water pan?
Does this slow down the loss of moisture.
 
The moisture in the meat that most speak of when talking about bbq, does not come from water. It is the gelatin that we associate with moisture in bbq meats.

While water in the pan will help keep temperatures under control, it is not needed to produce absolutely succulent, mouth watering BBQ !
 
thanks for all the advice chaps, i'm going to embark on a night cook next to give me more time, I'm thinking now it was infact under cooked :(
 
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