First Brisket going on!


 
M

Mark Fitz

New member
Picked up a smallish brisket the other day (7# Flat) along with some ribs. I have done a ton of ribs and chicken in the past, but never a brisket. For my second smoke on my new WSM I am changing that! Going with a simple S+P rub and applewood smoke, and trimmed the brisket up. Living on the ocean up here is making the preheat take a long time, but almost ready to go on!
 
so, 2 hrs in and looking good so far. Despite the cold, I have been able to keep a steady temp- I hazarded a peek at 2hrs just in case it was drying out at edges but as it has shrunk a bit, it is more centered and looking fine, so didn't need to mist it. I think I might have used too much coarse pepper on the rub, but we will see. Also made some sauce, so I am very much looking forward to dinner!
 
Good luck with the brisket! If you can still see some red of the meat through the pepper, you should be fine. What's your cook plan ? Foil or no foil ? Cooking to temp or to touch ?
 
as it is my first brisket, I will do a temp check with my digital thermo. Still undecided on the foil-leaning towards doing the foil since it is a flat-cut and I want to keep it juicy, not dry it out. I will shoot for 190*F and then let it rest.
 
Only real issue with foiling is that it softens the bark. That said, an easy fix is to pull the brisket from the foil and put it back on the smoker for 10 mins or so to firm the bark back up. As for the 190F, I don't cook briskets by temp as some of them might be done at 190F, while others aren't done until they hit 200F, 205F or even higher. I use the poke/probe test to tell when a brisket is ready. Use a temp probe, ice pick, skewer, etc and poke the brisket in a couple of spots at the thickest part of the flat. When it goes in and out with no almost no resistance (like a knife through warm butter), the brisket is ready.
 
Thanks, DaveW! I was planning poke testing, but the advice on temp is appreciated- I do sometimes rely on temp a bit too much. Just finished hour#3, and will be checking it after 4hrs. I don't expect it to be done at that point, but I want to get a bellweather on the progress.
 
I'm in the exact same boat as you! Cooked every other cut of meat, but putting my very first brisket on the smoker tomorrow morning for a small get-together at my place tomorrow night. It's a 7lb flat that I got as a Christmas gift - my GF's family knows me well:) How did you prep your meat? Are you on a 18 or 22?

Keep us posted - I hope your brisket turns out great!

EDIT: I see your intro post that you're working with the same size as well. Looks like we both got some killer Christmas gifts! Good luck and post some pics!
 
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I smoked a flat as well yesterday. I cooked between 225-250 for 10 hours. The flat weighed 8.9 LBS. I pulled at 204. I let rest for 45 minutes. The result was a little dry. It wasn't horrible. Everyone said they liked it but me being my own toughest critic thought it was too dry. I think I should of left it on past 204. I never got the "probe went in like a hot knife through butter" feeling. I started probing at 190 and I think I got to antsy and pulled it off to early. Any comments/suggestions/advice?



 
DaveCrosson said:
I'm in the exact same boat as you! Cooked every other cut of meat, but putting my very first brisket on the smoker tomorrow morning for a small get-together at my place tomorrow night. It's a 7lb flat that I got as a Christmas gift - my GF's family knows me well:) How did you prep your meat? Are you on a 18 or 22?

Keep us posted - I hope your brisket turns out great!

EDIT: I see your intro post that you're working with the same size as well. Looks like we both got some killer Christmas gifts! Good luck and post some pics!
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yeah- Im on the 18 too. I have been eyeing it for over a year, and when my old kettle finally died in the fall, my wife picked it up for me for Xmas.

For prep, I just trimmed it to 1/4" or so, and cut off some of the really tough fat rinds. I made a rub out of 50/50 salt and pepper, and added a bit of garlic and onion powder. I let it come to room temp for about 60-75 minutes while the smoker got to temp. Since I live on the ocean, and it is windy/chilly, took longer to preheat.

I have a spray bottle with diluted cranberry juice ready to mist if needed when I check it. I will keep you posted.
 
I'll tell you one thing, that is sure a good lookin' Brisket! It looks moist in the picture. It has a great smoke ring, too. How was the "pull test"?

Keep on smokin',
Dale53:wsm:
 
So, just did my quick 4hr check. Looking good. I did pepper it too much, that is not a huge problem. No problem with moisture-not drying out at all. Internal temp was under 160*F at the thickest part, so looks like it is on track. Worst case is a brush some of the pepper rub off when eating, or perhaps the sauce will cut it down a bit. Overall I am pleased with progress so far.
 
Robert McGee said:
I'll tell you one thing, that is sure a good lookin' Brisket! It looks moist in the picture. It has a great smoke ring, too. How was the "pull test"?

Keep on smokin',
Dale53:wsm:
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It was a little tough and didn't pull very easy. In your estimation would you guess under or over cooked based on that? What looks moist is the fat. The actual meat wasn't as tender. Smoke ring did look good.
 
Mark Fitz said:
So, just did my quick 4hr check. Looking good. I did pepper it too much, that is not a huge problem. No problem with moisture-not drying out at all. Internal temp was under 160*F at the thickest part, so looks like it is on track. Worst case is a brush some of the pepper rub off when eating, or perhaps the sauce will cut it down a bit. Overall I am pleased with progress so far.
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In my opinion you cannot over pepper a big cut of meat like brisket. When you slice it you will be getting very little bark to meat so the pepper is not as strong as you are thinking. Shoot over some pictures.
 
so, the sun is gone and the wind is kicking up- lost about 25*F on the dome thermo and about 20*F on the lower digital thermo. Opened up the vents and will poke the coals when I check and wrap the beast in 10 minutes or so...
 
Hour 5- I foil wrapped the brisket with some diluted cranberry juice added, and tossed the coals a bit...I think I was getting some ash dams built up that were preventing the coals from continuing the burn...maybe because of the wind that kicked up for a bit. Calmer now. Internal temp was still around 160ish*F so I think I was at a stall/plateau...wrapping and stoking should help me power through it? Thoughts?

this is fun! doing ribs was getting too mechanical!
 
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Hour 6- wrap powered the brisket through the stall, and it is sitting at internal of 185ish*F right now. Moved my digital thermo from the WSM to the brisket, and set the alarm for 192*F. the meat definitely looked great. Nice and dark, and starting to steam a bit. I am thinking another hour tops. I have a small cooler ready for the rest, and then hopefully a good first-try result!
 
Brisket is in the rest cooler! it looked great- toothpick test was good everywhere except it was a bit tough at the thickest part, but the temp was over 200*F there, and I am hoping the rest will continue the cook there. 75-80% was like butter, so I called it. Gonna let it rest for 45mins minimum, then see what I created!
 
Results are in!

So, the bad first.....Too much pepper in the rub has been confirmed. It is not a huge deal, but lesson learned for next time. Also, I think I either overtrimmed or undercooked. It is a tad dry in the thinner parts. So, either there was not enough fat to render, or I didn't give it enough time-but confused because I cooked fat-side down, and that layer is fall off good.

The good: Cut nice and tastes incredible! also, the fat layer was rendered nice, and it is delicious. the edges and ends have a nice bark and the pull test was pretty good- not super loose, but definitely pullable. it is pretty good, either plain, or with some sauce!

Overall, I am very pleased with the outcome! I think next time, I will try a couple things different: less pepper, a bit less trimming, and cook fat side up. Also, I will let it go a bit further before I take it off.

once I post up some pics, I will link them!

thanks all!
 
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