High Heat Brisket / "Thin Flat" Packer

[Mordechai F]

Hoping that the experts can advise me on this one. For unfortunate reasons involving brisket selection (i.e. I wasn't there), I have a cryovaced packer that weighs in on the smaller side, only 9.84 lbs in total. The problem is not the weight, it's the dimensions - sucker is spread out a brisket pancake and gets really thin out on the whole side of the flat, well less than an inch in thickness. I was hoping to utilize the high-heat method championed by K. Kruger and others here on the board to cook with, but now I have no idea as how best to proceed. Do I still go high-heat and wait until 150-160 to foil? Do I foil earlier, say at 140? Do I try and cut the thinner area of the main body of the piece, and just throw it on top? (As advocated by Mr. Peach-Kissed, Steve Petrone?) Do I contemplate marinating the meat instead of using a rub? There's a Dr. Pepper marinade that I've seen posted here that intrigues me, and I just took delivery of a Food Saver via the online deal that was posted here around the holidays (thank you Keri C!) - will vacuum marinating help retain moisture? One other thing to note is that this brisket comes off a grass-fed cow, and either because of that, or because they got a little too eager with the knives at the processing plant, there's not that much of a fat cap to speak of.

To make things more complicated for myself, this will also to be my first time using lump instead of K. (Lazzari Mesquite Lump, since that's all I've been able to easily find so far here in Los Angeles. Will use lumps of almond with a chunk of hickory for smoke.) I'm trying to take those baby steps into abandoning the rigid attention to temps and probing for feel, and the combination of this new fuel with this lean, thin piece of meat is leaving me less than confident in my temp control skills.

Any and all insight is greatly appreciated...

 

[Dan H.]

Sorry this wont be much but just noticed no responses yet. All I can help w/ is assuring you that your fuel choice should be just fine, I reall like the Lazzari misquite and would be confident myself that it would carry 350 + although keep in mind if you find youself struggling for whatever reason (cold, etc.) you can always prop. the lid about 1/8" or a bit more to create more flow that would increase temperature, and/or spin door to an upside down position and prop it open about 1/2" or so as well.
Someone else will assist you w/ the thin packer prob. but I just cant give you a good answere there cause i've yet to do a high heat. good luck my friend

 

[Bryan S]

Thin end and thin fat cap, foil at 150º internal measured in the middle of the flat. Yes the bark will suffer some, but the flat should still come out fairly moist for you. That thin end might be a tad dry, but Hey! that's why we have a finishing sauce, I love crispy ends though. What are your plans for the point meat? Do you want to cook it for chopping or make burnt ends out of it, or save for chili etc? Either way you'll want to seperate the flat from point when foiling the flat. For high heat briskets, I double up on the smoke wood, since the cook is so short, but that's up to you.

 

[SethM]

I would carve that brisket up like a bad ol turkey on Thanksgiving before you even cook it. Brisket makes GREAT burgers and you can trim off all the thin parts of the flat and grind/chop into meat you can mix with chuck for burgers. Brisket and chuck burgers are outta this world. Trim the thin part all around the brisket and just make it a bit smaller. This will leave a bunch of meat for another cool project you can do with your grill/smoker another day.

I would cook to about 160-170 and foil. Then gradually start backing down the temperature to around 275-300. This should allow for a more gradual finish to the meat and not reduce your cooking time by too much. This gradual step down will allow things to render a bit better and provide a more tender brisket during the post 167 lag fest. Problem with high temperature briskets is that it is very hard to get them more tender than New York strip. Sure, it gets tender at around 210-215 with a 350 fast cooked brisket, but your line between super dry and tender and delicious are perilously close.

Seth
Porkrastinators

 

[Bryan S]

Originally posted by SethM:
I would cook to about 160-170 and foil. Then gradually start backing down the temperature to around 275-300. This should allow for a more gradual finish to the meat and not reduce your cooking time by too much. This gradual step down will allow things to render a bit better and provide a more tender brisket during the post 167 lag fest. Problem with high temperature briskets is that it is very hard to get them more tender than New York strip. Sure, it gets tender at around 210-215 with a 350 fast cooked brisket, but your line between super dry and tender and delicious are perilously close.

Waiting to foil @ 160-170 for a thin, hardly any fat cap brisket? Way too high an internal to foil IMO. Once it's in foil, no need to back down on the heat, and the plateau is not even an issue once in foil. Also once in foil, the internal will shoot up past 200 in short order. You cook the flat till just tender, internal temps mean nothing once the flat is wrapped in foil. Tender it is done, not at X temp. Also once wrapped in foil, you would have to really over cook the crap out of it to dry it out.

 

[SethM]

I was only offering a different way to try... The normal way is not the ONLY way.

Waiting to foil @ 160-170 for a thin, hardly any fat cap brisket?

Yes, based on my post on dealing with the thin sections, why not cook to 160-170 without foil?

I understand that temperatures mean nothing... I was only providing the high range of finishing temperature to denote how much thermal velocity it takes to break down all the collagen in the meat when cooked at full bore at 350 in foil.

If only a bit of extra time was sacrificed in the cook the meat was cooked at a slightly lower temperature, a much more relaxed cut of meat will emerge. Since meat is a muscle it tends to seize up under high temperatures and become dense and tough. Sometimes ramping down temperatures on a high heat brisket, post foil, can really help on a finished product. Finishing slower will allow you to control the finishing "tenderness" and widen the window of perfection.

 

[Bryan S]

Originally posted by SethM:
I was only offering a different way to try... The normal way is not the ONLY way.

Waiting to foil @ 160-170 for a thin, hardly any fat cap brisket?

Yes, based on my post on dealing with the thin sections, why not cook to 160-170 without foil.

Seth, But the normal way, when dealing with a "Non Pancake like" brisket is too foil in the 160-170 range?
When you have a thin flat, along with little to no fat cap, you have to think about foiling early, to try and avoid a dry end product.

There will be no benefit (other than drying it out) to cooking a pancake thick brisket to a higher internal before foiling, none whatsoever. That's why I said to foil early instead of later. Even with foiling at 150, it still could be on the dry side, but not as bad as waiting to foil another 10-20º higher than 150º
I cook all my briskets high heat, haven't done a low and slow one in years. I use the fat cap and the thickness of the flat to determine when I foil. The thinner the flat and cap, the sooner I foil, for a moist and Oh so tender brisket.

 

[Paul H]

Seth, One thing about this board is the diverse opinions. You can take what you like and leave the rest.I don't think anybody is trying to flame anybody else. I've never done just a flat with high heat but what Bryan says makes sense especially with little or no fat to protect the meat.

 

[Mordechai F]

Seth and Bryan, thanks for the input. Regardless of the differences in opinion, I'm hearing from both of you loud and clear that foil is my friend, notwithstanding the temp at which I wrap the meat. Do you think that marinating the meat might help as well? Would that possibly result in more moisture being "locked in" as a defensive measure against drying out? Or alternately, would you recommend a wet rub over a dry one? Chris has the wet rub article up on the main cooking page, and I could definitely take a stab at that one.

And one thing I have learned from reading this board is that thankfully there is a wide variety of opinions - some very strongly held - when it comes to the Q. That's somewhat of a blessing for a rookie like myself, cause there be more excuses to fire up the WSM and try something new...