Joe McManus
TVWBB All-Star
Did my first brisket Sat night/ Sunday. Great tasting Q, but the flat section was very dry. Hoping for a little advice pointers. Here's a synopsis.
13 lb packer, huge point section (like Midnight Brisket pix). Trimmed per instructions. Pre-rubbed on Friday night for a Saturday night cook.
Started WSM w/ Minion method, full basket unlit, 20 lit coals. Oak and a little hickory for smoke wood. Assembled cooker, water in pan, put on meat. Temperatures starting to rise, close all bottom vents in hopes to stabalize, targeting 240 dome temperature. Check one hour later, dome temp is 300! Find one vent 100% open, not closed. Berate myself for not using a flashlight to check vents in the first place, close vent wait. 30 mins later, still 290. 1.5 hour later, finally falling back to 250. Meat temp (polder probe) is 148, three hours into cook. Fill water pan, double check temps (240), go to bed. Check 4.5 hours later, dome temp 240, meat temp 165, check again at the 10 hour point Dome 240 meat 180. All's well. At the 12 hour point, the polder says 188. During calibration it was a little low, so I think real meat temp is around 190-192, double check w/ intant read at several locations in the flat and find range from 178 - 182. Leave brisket to cook some more. Continue to check temps, polder never gets above 188, and the instant read never show a temp higher than 186 (calibrated to 212 perfectly). After 16 hours, and general temps of 188 or so, the hunk of meat looks and feels done. I pull it.
I cut the point section off, wrap in foil put it in cooler. I cut the remaining fat off to flat, wrap in foil, and rest in cooler for 30 mins.
The flat slices pretty nice, has to be thicker pieces to stay together. Taste is decadent! Overall a big hit, BUT in my mind, flat is DRY DRY DRY. Sauce helps, but it seemed "towel in your mouth" dry to me.
What went wrong here. OK 3 hours at almost 300 degrees probably didn't help. Could too much of the fat "melted" off during this time? I also cut the fat off before wrapping in foil. Won't do that next time. I also can't help but think it was just left on too long. I checked calibration before (and after this cook) and understand quite well the temps out of the thermos. Is the flat section normally dry anyway? I'm a little new the brisket game, so I'm not exactally sure what the target should be. Seems there should be some element of moistness to it, even if its not much.
In the end, the flavor of the meat was fantastic and I'd serve it again and again. I just think that there's ample room for improvement.
Sorry for the length of the post.
13 lb packer, huge point section (like Midnight Brisket pix). Trimmed per instructions. Pre-rubbed on Friday night for a Saturday night cook.
Started WSM w/ Minion method, full basket unlit, 20 lit coals. Oak and a little hickory for smoke wood. Assembled cooker, water in pan, put on meat. Temperatures starting to rise, close all bottom vents in hopes to stabalize, targeting 240 dome temperature. Check one hour later, dome temp is 300! Find one vent 100% open, not closed. Berate myself for not using a flashlight to check vents in the first place, close vent wait. 30 mins later, still 290. 1.5 hour later, finally falling back to 250. Meat temp (polder probe) is 148, three hours into cook. Fill water pan, double check temps (240), go to bed. Check 4.5 hours later, dome temp 240, meat temp 165, check again at the 10 hour point Dome 240 meat 180. All's well. At the 12 hour point, the polder says 188. During calibration it was a little low, so I think real meat temp is around 190-192, double check w/ intant read at several locations in the flat and find range from 178 - 182. Leave brisket to cook some more. Continue to check temps, polder never gets above 188, and the instant read never show a temp higher than 186 (calibrated to 212 perfectly). After 16 hours, and general temps of 188 or so, the hunk of meat looks and feels done. I pull it.
I cut the point section off, wrap in foil put it in cooler. I cut the remaining fat off to flat, wrap in foil, and rest in cooler for 30 mins.
The flat slices pretty nice, has to be thicker pieces to stay together. Taste is decadent! Overall a big hit, BUT in my mind, flat is DRY DRY DRY. Sauce helps, but it seemed "towel in your mouth" dry to me.
What went wrong here. OK 3 hours at almost 300 degrees probably didn't help. Could too much of the fat "melted" off during this time? I also cut the fat off before wrapping in foil. Won't do that next time. I also can't help but think it was just left on too long. I checked calibration before (and after this cook) and understand quite well the temps out of the thermos. Is the flat section normally dry anyway? I'm a little new the brisket game, so I'm not exactally sure what the target should be. Seems there should be some element of moistness to it, even if its not much.
In the end, the flavor of the meat was fantastic and I'd serve it again and again. I just think that there's ample room for improvement.
Sorry for the length of the post.
