Help! Can this brisket be saved?


 
Al G-NJ

Al G-NJ

TVWBB Member
Hi all, hope I haven’t screwed up too badly.

Put a full packer on my WSM 18.5” last night, with the intention of going low and slow until sometime early this afternoon. Plenty of fuel (KBB + post oak smoking wood) to withstand the mid-20s overnight temp. Was holding 225-250 pit temp when I went to bed around midnight.

Wake up at 5:30 to check, and pit temp is at 350 (who knows how hot it got overnight), and internal temp on the point is reading 210 degrees. What do I do now? This thing hasn’t been spritzed or wrapped or anything!

Ready to take my lumps, and appreciate any advice. Thanks!
 
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Ohh not a good situation to wake up to. It is tough to decide how to proceed without being there. If it was mine I would consider separating the point from the flat. Cube the point, Bbq sauce heavily and foil to try to salvage as burnt ends. Depending on the temp of the flat I would probably wrap it in foil with apple juice and continue cooking until it is done.
Next I would consider a wireless thermometer with alarms to hopefully avoid similar things happening in the future
 
Sounds done

Pull it , wrsp it, and let it rest.

Probably has heavy inedible bark, but most meat will be fine

Ive slept and not wrapped till 190 before. Need electric knife to get thru the bark w/o tearing meat apart
 
I agree with James H and the others. Measure the temp in multiple places to make sure you are getting the right read. Jiggle it and see how the point reacts; it should feel loose. I don’t know how else to describe it.


Plenty of people cook brisket hot and fast so don’t panic. If the temp and touch tell you it’s done, wrap it in butcher paper or a towel and put it in a cooler until you want to slice and eat.

At 210 I doubt it’s a lost cause. Let us know what you find when you slice it open.
 
First of all, thanks to everyone who took the time to read and/or respond. I do appreciate it.

So, between my post just before 6 am, and the first responses coming in, I knew I had to do something. As @MartinB predicted, the bark was already pretty tough, and though my probe was sliding in like butter and reading well over 200 everywhere, I wasn't ready to slice yet. Dinner was 12 hours away. So I injected with broth, foiled (also with broth), saran wrapped, and foiled again. In the meantime, I got my pit to about 170 and kept it there for a few hours, creating my hotbox.

After unsuccessfully trying to convince my wife that this could be lunch instead of dinner, I moved the brisket to a cooler with towels around 11:30 am (after reading the note from @jeffsipes), which is where it stayed until 6 pm.

The first slices were a dry mess. The rest of the flat, as you got towards the middle, despite the odd tough bit of bark, wasn't bad. Definitely on the dry side, and in need of sauce. However, the point, despite looking dry in the pics, was actually quite delightful. And my almost two-year old daughter loved it, so that’s all that I needed!

So in the end, not a complete disaster: plenty of dinner to go around, some good leftovers for the week, and the only ones to miss out were the neighbors hoping there would be enough leftover for them, too! Next time, folks.

Thanks again to everyone on here for their help. Definitely some lessons learned (thermometer alarms are a no-go beside a lightly-sleeping wife, so maybe next time I sleep downstairs!), and I look forward to contributing some good news stories around here!
 

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Chris Allingham said:
This is why they invented barbecue sauce! Chop the less than desirable parts, mix with sauce, warm gently, place on bun and enjoy.
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One of the better bbq joints in my area sells their brisket two ways classic and wet, classic is what we think of as brisket nice slices, wet is chopped with thier best sauce, the owner says he sales two to one orders of wet... The wet is good!
 
That looks like it worked out pretty well. Glad you stuck with it. The point looks pretty darn good from the pictures as does the middle slices of the flat.
 
You can save yourself a lot of time and stress by using the high heat method. I used to do all my briskets low and slow but a few years back tried the HH method and I’ve never done a brisket overnight since.
 
Bob Sample said:
You can save yourself a lot of time and stress by using the high heat method. I used to do all my briskets low and slow but a few years back tried the HH method and I’ve never done a brisket overnight since.
Click to expand...

That's a pretty good call. I want to get good at both (this was only my second full packer), but with kids in the picture, I'm probably going to want to cook hot and fast more often than not.
 
Hey, brisket a little over done is better than no brisket! I’ve had the same thing happen, woke up at 6:00 and temp was 205, burned the pajama bottoms, put on new underwear and got the brisket off and wrapped and into a cooler, it was still delicious! Forgiveness is something we need to keep in mind when cooking, both for the product and the cook!
 
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