High heat brisket - first try


 
J

John Diek

New member
I have owned the 18" WSM for a few months now and after a failed turkey but great results with meatloaf and pulled pork I decided to try brisket. I tried to follow the high heat brisket recipe on the virtual bullet site but things didn't seem to work out. Looked through the forum and couldn't find a post about exactly this so am hoping someone can help me out!

Bought a 12.8lb choice brisket from Walmart and trimmed it per the instructions. Rubbed with dry rub and wrapped and put in the fridge overnight. Next day was one of the coldest of the year...high temp was 6degF but decided to go ahead with it. Soaked 5pcs of apple wood and 3 pcs of hickory for a few hours before starting coals.

Started the coals around 3pm. Doubled the amount of coals it called for since I figured I would need the extra heat given how cold it was. Put the meat on fat side down at 3:40pm with a Maverick probe inserted horizontally into the flat and the other measuring the smoker temp. The smoker temp stayed at around 250deg for most of the first hour but was up to almost 300 by the end of that first hour. This seemed normal since the recipe called for a lot of smoke and not much temp-wise in the first hour.

Even at two hours where the instructions call for starting to measure temp the smoker was at 327 but meat was only reading 122. Kept the vents 100% open which seemed barely enough to keep it in the high heat temp range (max it reached was 360). Kept waiting for it to get to temp. Recorded the following meat temps:

5:15- 122degF
6:00- 142degF
7:20- 162degF
8:40- 169degF

Needless to say by that point I was frustrated as it was dark and freezing and it was already at the time I was planning to be eating and it just gotten to the midway point! I put it in a foil pan at that point and covered with foil. I actually moved it into the oven at that point since I had read that others do that and I was done going outside in the cold.

When I opened the foil after the first hour to poke it with a fork I figured something had gone wrong as there was no juice in the bottom of the pan. Seems it all cooked out before moving it to the oven. It felt fairly tender in most places so I let it go awhile longer and then took it out. It seemed dry on the edges but was edible in the middle. Nice smoke ring at least! Ended up making the point into chili which turned out well.

I'm definitely going to try it again (when it's warmer out) but would appreciate any suggestions. Was it just too cold? Should I have not had the temp probe in the whole time? Did I not get the smoker up to temp fast enough? I'll take any help I can get as I'd really like to be able to reliably cook brisket for other people! Thanks for your help!
 
I did one recently. Here's what I did: I got the cooker between 325 and 350*F the whole time. When the meat probe indicated 170*F I put it in a pan and sealed tightly with foil. I waited a couple hours and cked for probe tenderness. (If not tender wait 30 minutes. Repeat as necessary.) I left the temp probe in the whole time.
 
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I agree with how Dwain did it. Last December I smoked a 16lb packer in the middle of an 8" snow storm (covered of course) and it took about 4.5 hours for the flat to be done. Kept the temp at a minimum of 325, foiled around 165-170 and kept on till tender. Cut off the point, threw it back on for another 3-4 hours at around 250 and finished the night was awesome burnt ends. It was snowing, but it also wasn't 6 degrees, so I think your cold temp did hurt you a little. I also wrap my smoker's midsection with water heater insulation and that REALLY helps to hold the temps where I want them when it's cold. Cheap material to buy and last a long time. Hope this helps. Good luck and remember, many of us have screwed up a brisket once or twice, but don't stop trying!

Tim
 
Thanks for your responses. I was wondering if it is possible that the cold could have been actually been traveling through the metallic probe cable and giving a false reading (lower than actual)? Maybe that is unrealistic but just not sure why the meat would have taken that long to get to where it needed to be if the smoker was at 300+deg after the first hour. Will definitely try again when the weather is warmer...
 
I never bother with the meat temperature only the pit temperature. Start with the smoker hot. Put the meat on and in 2 hours foil it. Depending on the size of brisket and the temperature I'm running it is usually done in another 1.75-2.5 hours. For the brisket you had I would have started probing for tender a little before the 2 hour mark and every 15 minutes after that. It can go from tender to overdone pretty quick.
 
Those are good suggestions. The last time I put the meat on almost immediately after I put the lit coals in from the chimney starter. I assume that you wait until the meat goes on to put the smoke wood on the coals? Otherwise I'd worry that I would 'waste' all of the good smoke and the wood would be mostly gone before I got the meat on there. Maybe it warms up faster than I would think and that isn't a concern though...
 
I use large chunks of mesquite if I have them or red oak and add them the same as I normally would except I use a couple more. I also use my kettle since it uses less fuel and gets up to temperature fast. You don't need smoke billowing out to still get a good smoke flavour.
 
When you all are cooking at these cold temps are you using a blanket or wind shield?
 
Sorry to hear it didn't come out the way you had planned.

I hope to do a brisket soon myself.
 
I'm late to this thread, but I've taken to using a fiberglass water heater blanket every time I use my wsm 18.5". I cut a piece of the blanket to fit and use packing tape to connect the ends each time I put it on. It looks a little homeless but works like a charm--maintains temp extremely well and uses way less charcoal. I think other people use spring clamps (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000PEOL7E/tvwb-20) to wrap their wsm with a fiberglass welding blanket (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00B62VNFC/tvwb-20). Looks nicer but I'm guessing it may not insulate quite as well.
 
You can if you wish, but there is no need to: rub and wrap hours prior to cooking; soak the wood; trim the brisket.

There is absolutely no reason to temp the meat during cooking. That was the problem here: While waiting for the meat to "come to temp" you missed the point it should have been foiled, 2-2.5 hours in. Internal meat temp is immaterial.
 
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