How hot to finish a brisket


 
LMichaels

LMichaels

TVWBB 2-Star Olympian
So, I have a brisket going in my Member's Mark at 235 deg. All going well but I have hit the stall. And it's cold and damp outside so I don't care to keep working outside with it. If I wrap it (butcher paper then foil) and finish in oven tonight, how hot can I run the oven and not hurt the brisket?
Specs prior to trimming it was 14.25# and after trimming I had pulled off about 5#. So after trim weight = 9# Currently sitting at about 150 internal. Wondering if I can wrap it and finish in oven at say 290-325?
I know I can finish in the oven I am just not wanting to drag it out all night which is why I want to bring the temps up
 
LMichaels said:
So, I have a brisket going in my Member's Mark at 235 deg. All going well but I have hit the stall. And it's cold and damp outside so I don't care to keep working outside with it. If I wrap it (butcher paper then foil) and finish in oven tonight, how hot can I run the oven and not hurt the brisket?
Specs prior to trimming it was 14.25# and after trimming I had pulled off about 5#. So after trim weight = 9# Currently sitting at about 150 internal. Wondering if I can wrap it and finish in oven at say 290-325?
I know I can finish in the oven I am just not wanting to drag it out all night which is why I want to bring the temps up
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Only one way to find out. With paper and foil I’d be ok at 290
 
OK at 290 it is. It's got 2 layers wrap. Pink paper then heavy foil. Probes are running pretty evenly ~155-160 where they've been the last 90 minutes. So I just put it in. Has a really nice bark on it. Fingers crossed. I figure it will likely hit target over just over 200 on the late side tonight. At which time I will simply turn the oven off and leave it til I get up tomorrow. Unless it finishes early (before 10 or so) then I will put it into the cooler
 
No matter how you are cooking a brisket, I would suggest only cooking till it probes tender, then wrap and rest. A wrapped brisket, cooking at 290 degrees, till internal brisket temp is 200 degrees, will continue to cook after the oven is turned off. Not saying it will be overcooked every time doing this, as every brisket is different, but your chances of over braising the wrapped brisket are much higher. I would run the oven much lower and do what you need to do in the morning to finish it.
 
Darian Hofer said:
No matter how you are cooking a brisket, I would suggest only cooking till it probes tender, then wrap and rest. A wrapped brisket, cooking at 290 degrees, till internal brisket temp is 200 degrees, will continue to cook after the oven is turned off. Not saying it will be overcooked every time doing this, as every brisket is different, but your chances of over braising the wrapped brisket are much higher. I would run the oven much lower and do what you need to do in the morning to finish it.
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Well, it's been in the cooler all night resting. I dropped the oven to 250 to finish it. I felt the higher heat was pushing the flat too quickly. So I dropped it to 250, they evened out and I turned the oven off and left it about 90 min, then wrapped in towing and into cooler over night. I am going to pull it out this AM (maybe brisket and eggs :D) I will report back
 
Ok, no eggs, but I did have 2 or 3 nice slices from the flat, a piece of toast and some jam on it.
This was an oddball brisket to me. One, because it lost 5lbs in trim. I have never trimmed THAT much off in prep, 2 the cook method I used., and 3 (which may relate back to #2) I had a little over 2 cups of Au Jus off it (which I am skimming and saving BTW)
So, I think my instinct to try to "hurry" the end stage was wrong. The flat (at least) is definitely over cooked. Also just a bit dry. I noticed when I had it in the oven on 290 the temps in the flat "took off" and got way ahead of the point. There was no way I wanted to perform an end cook separation. So, I cut the temp back to 250. But, I think the damage was done. The flat went to 201 while the point was still low 190s. Anyway I let it go, until the the point sort of caught up to the flat and at finish point got to my 202-203 flat was around 210.
Now, as far as taste? It's great with a good ring and deep smoke flavor. Flat is tender but not "juicy". Still nothing I turn my nose up to. Just not what I think it could have been.
We're going to have some for supper tonight, then apportion it into serving sizes equally mixed flat to point in vacuumed bags and freeze for rainy day. Bottom line I learned a lesson. I think in the long run I would have been better off that if I wanted to push the temps a bit to have done it in the smoker and maybe pushed to 275 and not wrapped (but it was cold and damp and dark so there's that), or not pushed that wrapped temp beyond 250-260 as I think it "pushed" out a lot of moisture which may be why I ended up with over 2 cups of jus.
The bark is still good, (not as good as when I pulled it but very good anyway), the flavor is GREAT, and here to say while not my best still darn good eatin'.
IDK if I will do the oven trick again though.
 
LMichaels said:
Ok, no eggs, but I did have 2 or 3 nice slices from the flat, a piece of toast and some jam on it.
This was an oddball brisket to me. One, because it lost 5lbs in trim. I have never trimmed THAT much off in prep, 2 the cook method I used., and 3 (which may relate back to #2) I had a little over 2 cups of Au Jus off it (which I am skimming and saving BTW)
So, I think my instinct to try to "hurry" the end stage was wrong. The flat (at least) is definitely over cooked. Also just a bit dry. I noticed when I had it in the oven on 290 the temps in the flat "took off" and got way ahead of the point. There was no way I wanted to perform an end cook separation. So, I cut the temp back to 250. But, I think the damage was done. The flat went to 201 while the point was still low 190s. Anyway I let it go, until the the point sort of caught up to the flat and at finish point got to my 202-203 flat was around 210.
Now, as far as taste? It's great with a good ring and deep smoke flavor. Flat is tender but not "juicy". Still nothing I turn my nose up to. Just not what I think it could have been.
We're going to have some for supper tonight, then apportion it into serving sizes equally mixed flat to point in vacuumed bags and freeze for rainy day. Bottom line I learned a lesson. I think in the long run I would have been better off that if I wanted to push the temps a bit to have done it in the smoker and maybe pushed to 275 and not wrapped (but it was cold and damp and dark so there's that), or not pushed that wrapped temp beyond 250-260 as I think it "pushed" out a lot of moisture which may be why I ended up with over 2 cups of jus.
The bark is still good, (not as good as when I pulled it but very good anyway), the flavor is GREAT, and here to say while not my best still darn good eatin'.
IDK if I will do the oven trick again though.
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But it was a good test.
The 2 cups of juice pushed out because it was over braised.
Similar to turbo cooking a brisket, much less latitude in finishing time.
Ideally you would stop cooking earlier in the probe for tenderness step as it will continue to cook some while resting. The higher your cooking temp the more carry over cooking you will have Unless you ice bath to slow it down.
 
Well, I sliced it all last night for vacuum packaging. But, I can say this was "not my finest hour". We had it last night for supper. I tried the point. One I don't think this was a good brisket, (because out of a 14.25lb brisket 5lbs was trim not a good ratio), Two, what I did to it with the high temp in the oven and such, rendered parts of it rubbery. So not a happy guy there.
Weird thing was I bought that one because I was looking for one with a flat that wasn't as well...........flat. IOW thickness better matched. Well, that flat must have had 1/2" of fat on it.
I think if I get stuck with one like this again, I will take the flat off and cook separately
 
This is why I never do brisket. It takes so much time and patience to make sure it's done correctly, in my experience. And, the one time I absolutely nailed it, my wife took a bite and said, "Eh, tastes like pot roast to me." 😐

So, the juice isn't worth the squeeze for me. I can heavy hand a pork butt or even country ribs and she absolutely raves about the pulled pork, so that's what we do here.

So, I'm always impressed with you guys that knock out great briskets.
 
MikeLucky said:
This is why I never do brisket. It takes so much time and patience to make sure it's done correctly, in my experience. And, the one time I absolutely nailed it, my wife took a bite and said, "Eh, tastes like pot roast to me." 😐

So, the juice isn't worth the squeeze for me. I can heavy hand a pork butt or even country ribs and she absolutely raves about the pulled pork, so that's what we do here.

So, I'm always impressed with you guys that knock out great briskets.
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This was my first "failure". Not inedible but not satisfying either. Honestly this was my own fault for trying to do something I knew I shouldn't have. Also I think the brisket itself had a "little" to do with the result. But, quite honestly I think it would have been a good brisket had I just waited a day to do it when I might have had more time, or just stuck the darn thing in the freezer and waited until spring :D
Doing a brisket well is no harder than a pork shoulder IMO and since it's only me who can eat he pork, I side more toward doing a brisket. Live and learn and now I know I will never make that mistake again.
I do love doing the beef ribs though, (back, short and plate). Always get some nice tasty eats. One thing also I am learning is to "pick my battles". I.E, tried doing chuck roasts 4 different times. No matter what I did they failed. Done with that. Pork back ribs (at least the ones I can find commercially around here), another thing that ain't worth my time, trouble or the expense of fuel.
In any case this brisket is "edible", and tastes good. Textures are "off".
 
MikeLucky said:
This is why I never do brisket. It takes so much time and patience to make sure it's done correctly, in my experience. And, the one time I absolutely nailed it, my wife took a bite and said, "Eh, tastes like pot roast to me." 😐

So, the juice isn't worth the squeeze for me. I can heavy hand a pork butt or even country ribs and she absolutely raves about the pulled pork, so that's what we do here.

So, I'm always impressed with you guys that knock out great briskets.
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I'm with you with this line of thinking -- I would love to do some briskets, but I just can't stand the thought of losing 1/4+ of the weight to trimming myself - it just doesn't make sense when I could do 4 or more butts for the same price so easily without any effort and KNOW its going to be great.
Same thinking goes for doing pork ribs --- why pay 2-3X the price for more bones and a more difficult cook??? Pick the path of least resistance. effort and highest probability of great taste......
 
I always finish mine up in the oven (winter) or gas grill (summer). I wrap in aluminum at the stall and put in oven at 250-275° and am very happy with the results. The bark tends to soften when wrapped no matter what you do, so that is a given to me. I pull it out at about 200° internal and let sit for a few hours. I have thought about separating the flat and point but I keep the flat side away from the heat and they usually even out pretty well. However I see no reason not to separate them and have those flat sandwiches eaten while the point is still cooking if you want;-)
 
Jim Weber said:
I'm with you with this line of thinking -- I would love to do some briskets, but I just can't stand the thought of losing 1/4+ of the weight to trimming myself - it just doesn't make sense when I could do 4 or more butts for the same price so easily without any effort and KNOW its going to be great.
Same thinking goes for doing pork ribs --- why pay 2-3X the price for more bones and a more difficult cook??? Pick the path of least resistance. effort and highest probability of great taste......
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Losing 1/4 of the meat is not the norm. This one was an oddball. Both in terms of my failure with it, and the fact this particular one had a lot more waste than I have ever seen. And is it really "waste" if you can make something else from it? Hamburger, stew meat, gravy meat (for you fellow Italians you should know what I mean), basically it's only waste if you trash it
 
LMichaels said:
Losing 1/4 of the meat is not the norm. This one was an oddball. Both in terms of my failure with it, and the fact this particular one had a lot more waste than I have ever seen. And is it really "waste" if you can make something else from it? Hamburger, stew meat, gravy meat (for you fellow Italians you should know what I mean), basically it's only waste if you trash it
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You are correct. 2 days ago I got 5 sandwich bags of trimmings out of the freezer and ground them up using the Kitchen Aid with grinder attachment. First time using it. I got 1 nice jar of tallow and almost 3lbs of cooked meat for sauces and chili. It was a PITA but worth it in the end.
 
LMichaels said:
Losing 1/4 of the meat is not the norm. This one was an oddball. Both in terms of my failure with it, and the fact this particular one had a lot more waste than I have ever seen. And is it really "waste" if you can make something else from it? Hamburger, stew meat, gravy meat (for you fellow Italians you should know what I mean), basically it's only waste if you trash it
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Just depends how hard you want to trim..... and not everybody has a grinder too.... best case is making tallow and having some fried brisket and eggs.
 
Jim Weber said:
Just depends how hard you want to trim..... and not everybody has a grinder too.... best case is making tallow and having some fried brisket and eggs.
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Can use a food processor, make stew, lots and lots of can be made from the scraps. Just that this brisket required more trimming than I ever had prior. Not good reasons to avoid making it.
I personally LOVE pork shoulder but have a wife with severe allergy to pork but who still loves Q. For her brisket it is. I like making pork a lot because it's WAY easier to make than brisket.
 
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