Brisket...when it's done it's done...?'s


 
S

Scott T (Odirom)

TVWBB Fan
I guess I don't have the stones yet to cook brisket over high heat.

When it's done it's done. Thermometer pushed in should enter like it's going into room temp butter.

Will this same method work for low and slow brisket? Will it eventually just 'soften up' and come apart on you at 250 for 14 hours? (say, after I hit internal of 205 for 20 minutes?)

And beyond that, for low and high heat, what is the window like where this is the perfect 'when it's done it's done' and when it goes past that?

And for that matter, what is after that? Shoe leather?

Like I said, guess I don't have the stones. I did two high heat, and both tender, but dry. (all the juices ran out of the foil 1/2 way through on one cause I poked it by mistake, but i am not sure if that was why it was dry...)

I have done brisket in the past the low and slow method and I am most familiar with that. (and subsiquently more confident.) But will the probe test for tenderness work there?

And while cooking through done to tender, should I worry at all about temp at 250 degrees? Or just feel? With the understanding of course that I don't want dry meat...

OR, (and I just thought of this while while writing this message) should I try a spray or squirt of finishing liquid or sauce as I plate?

So to recap:

Probe test on low and slow?
Avoiding Dry. When it's done it's done...ven slow?
Finishing 'sauce'?

I just don't think I have the nerve yet to confidently do the high heat thing....

Suggestions? Musings? Thoughts? Any spare confidence I could borrow?
 
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Avoiding Dry. When it's done it's done...ven slow?
Finishing 'sauce'? </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

meat dries out when it's overcooked in terms of internal temp (something about the muscle tissue fibers tightening up and squeezing out the associated liquids, its while you should cool meat before slicing to loosen the fibers back up). I've taken briskets to >200*, and they hadn't dried out, so I'm not sure at what point they'd be dry. I noticed that the combo of high heat and foil can bring you're internal temp up very quickly, so you have to be careful not to over shoot your target temp/done-ness.

I've actually noticed the opposite, the briskets I've tried from friends who go low and slow tended to be like shoe leather. I wondered if it wasn't just drying out under the conditions of a long cook.

As far as serving goes, I like to use the juice from the foil. If you have time to defat it while your beef is resting, go for it.
 
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">I wondered if it wasn't just drying out under the conditions of a long cook. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>
This can be a problem, especially when the cook is cooking by some notion of time, or some notion of a specific temp.

When recipes/procedures call for a temp it is because--cooked the way the recipe calls for--it is expected that the brisket will likely reach tenderness if it is not there already from the carryover cooking that occurs when the brisket is first wrapped for its rest.

As many discover, this is not a very consistent way for most people to turn out consistently good briskets. Variation is the briskets themselves, variations in the cooktemps, etc., can lead to tough brisket (undercooked) or dry brisket (overcooked). Cooking to a specific temp doesn't necessarily mean a thing. It is not a specific temp that causes tenderness; tenderness is achieved by time--and the amount of time is determined by the meat and the cooktemp.

The same method of probing for tender will work for low/slow, Scott, but this works most easily if you add a foiling component to your cook, foiling at the uper 160s-170 for packers of decent quality, low-mid-160s for flats of decent quality, ~160 for over-trimmed flats or those on the thin side. Foiling maes the cooking more efficient at that point and, importantly in terms of feel, maintains more moisture in the brisket. More moisture means that feeling 'tender' is easier, especially if you are not familiar with feeling for tender.

When cooking to tender internal temps are immaterial.
 
hey scott . sounds like great advice above. I'll just throw mine in there and maybe it can just be something for you to read
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. im on this little role of buying fattie briskits and is appearantly giving me more consistancy with tenderness, and moisture content (or whatever you want to say... like juicy) No reason to lie to you,.... i have no proof this holds true, but a few guys including the man above me said it very well could influence my good luck streak i've had lately with briskit at least some. i cook low like you. i'm around 245 or 250 or wherever she wants to settle that day, i don't fight it to much. i've used foil before and worked fine, havn't used it last three times or so.., and never used to when I first started, and they all turned out pretty good. I like the bark better without cause i feel it softens less. theres probably ways around that also but i don't know them. and the thermometer probe can tell you tender with low and slow also, room temp. butter. (seems to be slightly tighter then that to me sometimes
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) have a good one.
 
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">theres probably ways around that </div></BLOCKQUOTE>
You can return the meat to the cooker, unfoiled, and bump up the temp (if it isn't already) to re-establish bark texture.
 
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by KenP:
When I do a brisket, I'm going to follow these instructions as best I can.

http://www.virtualweberbullet.com/brisket2.html

Hope it helps. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>


...isn't that a TON of wood though? I've done some fairly large cooks in my WSM, but I have yet to even come close to that amount of wood.
 
when i cook brisket i dont use a themometer to monitor the meat. its going to hit the magic done temp mark for safe food eating long before it is done to tenderness. at the 7-8 hour mark i start testing for tender. i only use a thermometer to maintain pit temp for brisket cooks. i use low and slow method. you have to be careful not to let it sit too long or you dry it out and conversly not too short its tough. then you have to resist the temptation to slice before its cooled.

only practice and time will teach you what done to tenderness is. thats why its important to keep a log of each cook and the results.
 
Add me to the 'leave the meat therm in the house' camp. Every brisket I've ever cooked has had a different level of tenderness at the popular foiling temp range. I'm low & slow all the way, and once I quit messing with the temp probe and quit foiling, two things happened: I got a very tender finished product and I started producing a truly professional grade bark. Some on here would argue that my brisket might be overdone, but when I can pick up a slice of it and pull it in half effortlessly, I'm happy.
 
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Scott H.:
Some on here would argue that my brisket might be overdone, but when I can pick up a slice of it and pull it in half effortlessly, I'm happy. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Good gosh, that's making me hungry!
 
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...isn't that a TON of wood though? I've done some fairly large cooks in my WSM, but I have yet to even come close to that amount of wood.[/QUOTE]
I am new to this (maybe 10 briskets) and I agree. That looks like way too much wood. Kevin and others, what do you think?
 
It is to me too. Of course, wood type and quantity are personal preferences but that amount looks like twice what I use, maybe even three times.

I think of the smoke flavors that are created as spices. They shouldn't be over-the-top to me. They need to work with the flavors created on and in the meat as it cooks, and they need to work with the rub. Lots of smoke and the meat and rub are overwhelmed, imo.
 
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