First successful brisket, but aiming higher


 
B

Barrett Davidson

TVWBB Member
I've done brisket a few times with not much success (still edible with enough sauce, but unimpressive otherwise), and this weekend I was determined to make a good one. I have a 22" OTG that I've smoked a few things on before. I bought a 12 pound packer, and, using the Texas beef brisket recipe at amazingribs as a guide, trimmed some of the fat from the top, rubbed and injected beef broth. Due to the timing that I wanted it to be ready, I decided to stay up late to start it smoking. I started the smoke at 1AM using the "snake" method, and was thinking I'd get some sleep, then transfer to the oven when I got up around 6.

Woke up at 6, all is well, still smoking and dome temp was about 225, meat looked good so I wasn't too concerned. Internal temps were 155-160 so I thought I was in good shape. Transferred to aluminum roaster, about a cup of beef broth, foiled tightly, into a 225 oven. My plan was to finish it in the oven, and once it was done, turn the oven down to 200. The brisket got to about 195-200 at about 11:30 (can't remember exact time), and I turned the oven down, wanting to serve around 2PM. When I pulled the meat out at 2, it was probably a little less done than I wanted, not the "soft butter" feeling I've read so much about, but pretty close.

I trimmed a bit off the flat, and a hunk of the point for burnt ends (which were delicious). While the end result was tasty, certainly the best I've made, I know it could be better. I'm wondering, in this forum's opinion, if I may have turned the heat down too soon. I'm planning on trying another in a few weeks for OU/Texas, and I'm thinking I'll just give up on the thermometer and judge my feel and consistency now that I know the rub is good and the taste is there.

Any big problems with the method I used? I didn't have any of my big coolers with me to drop it in, or I would have tried that. Did I drop the heat too soon? I was worried about over cooking it, but the end result was not dried out at all, so I may have screwed up there.
 
I have a question for you, and it is based on my experience, how do you know what temp your oven is at? I ask cause my wife and I found our oven which is a decent one was off by 30 degrees at 350, more at higher temps. We had to go in and calibrate its controls on the menu board. Use a separate oven thermometer.
It sounds like your brisket never stopped cooking to me.
I would suggest for your next cook, cook it till nice and probe tender all up and down the meat. When it hits that move it to a counter for about ten minutes and let it cool a little so it stops cooking then wrap it in foil with a little of your au jus and you can keep it in a cooler wrapped in towels for a couple of hours.
 
cooking at those temps can take a long time. and as mentioned, just like my stove, it's temp is lower than what its set at. int temp is nice to know but the probe test
is what is critical. also once its soft you do not want it cooking further so the suggestion above is another good one. to make meat on time you need to count backwards to plan when to start.
 
I do have an oven thermometer, which is typically about 5 degrees off from the oven setting. I guess my fatal flaw was leaving it to rest in the "warm" oven.

Next time I think I'll do pretty much the same thing until I get a good probe test, then drop it in a cooler. This was kind of a proof of concept for me to see if I could smoke a decent brisket on the kettle, and I think that was successful for the most part. Need to tweak some things, but I had fun and I'm looking forward to doing more.
 
You don't say what was wrong with the brisket. You can wrap and hold warm in a microwave if you don't have a cooler available. Get rid of your meat thermometer only temp you need to worry about is the cooker temperature. Cook till probe tender. I've done packers up to about 18 lbs on my kettle with no problems.
 
The only problem I had was it wasn't as tender as I would have liked. It tasted great and everything else was good, but it could have been more tender.
 
Barrett Davidson said:
Next time I think I'll do pretty much the same thing until I get a good probe test, then drop it in a cooler.
Click to expand...

As others have said, you need to STOP the cooking process once the meat is tender. If you do as you said, you will not be satisfied... guaranteed !
Once probe tender, set it on your counter, open up the foil and let is COOL until below cooking temperature, which is generally considered to be about 170 deg F (note... here is the ONLY time you actually need your thermometer !)
Then and only then should you place it in your cooler.

Also... make sure you are slicing it correctly. Makes a big difference !
 
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Made another attempt at brisket this past Saturday. 15lb packer, smoked for about 6 hours, then into a 225 oven for 6 hours. I was expecting the oven cook to go longer, but when I probed at 6 hours, the thermapen went in like it was going into warm butter. Amazingly tender, possibly too tender if one thinks such a thing exists. Only could slice about half of it before it just started falling apart, but that was OK with me. Just chopped up the rest for sandwiches. There wasn't much in the way of "burnt ends" but I improvised some anyway and they were delicious. Thanks for all the input on this thread. I finally feel confident about brisket. Time to try some new stuff.
 
Congrats Barrett, it feels good when you get something like a brisket done the way you like it. It sounds like you slightly over cooked it this time, but slightly over cooked is wonderful for me.
 
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