I am clearly cursed! I give up on brisket.


 
F

FJ Abraham

TVWBB Fan
Well, it's done it to me again. Last month I put on a brisket and it came up to temp much too fast. The end result was very good fortunately.

Unfortunately this brisket is doing the same thing to me except this time it's already at 186 and I have 10 hours before dinner time!

This is it for me, I clearly have problems judging briskets. 14 lbs at 200-225 should not be nearly done in just 10 hours (I put it on at 10pm and it's now 8am).

Cripes!
 
I guess its just the magic of the wsm.

I don't have much help for you, but out of curiosity, where do you take your temp readings?
 
Hmm...10 hours is quite a bit of time. And if you did it overnight with no peeking, it could certainly accelerate the process. I did one in my Old Smokey electric and it was done and redy to go in 8 hours, and it was a 14pounder like yours. How high are you going to take it to, 190? If it is done, they always need a couple hours of rest, so that buys you some more time, and if worse comes to worst, you could always do like a chopped brisket...I know...not as pretty as the slices...but equally delicious.

Sorry dude, that probably wasn't much help!
 
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Well, it's done it to me again. Last month I put on a brisket and it came up to temp much too fast. The end result was very good fortunately.

Unfortunately this brisket is doing the same thing to me except this time it's already at 186 and I have 10 hours before dinner time!

This is it for me, I clearly have problems judging briskets. 14 lbs at 200-225 should not be nearly done in just 10 hours (I put it on at 10pm and it's now 8am). </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

FJ, The thickness of the flat has more to do with how long it takes a brisket to cook. You could have 2 - 14lb. briskets, one with the flat 1" thick and the other with the flat 1.5" thick. The thin flat will cook way faster that the thicker one. The point doesn't factor in since the flat finishes before the point does.
Also don't cook to a set temp, cook till tender. A probe or fork goes in with little to no resistance, like room temp butter or just shy of.
 
Agree with Bryan...and don't stress too much about it FJ. Depending on the tenderness, if it is like Bryan describes, take it off, wrap it in foil and let it rest on the counter for 1 hour. Wrap it up tightly after that and refridgerate. Keep those juices that are in that foil, put those in the fridge too.

If it's not super tender yet, you can pull it and rest it in a cooler for a good couple hours.

If you are still far before your eat time, wrap and fridge it just like I described above.

Reheating brisket can be tricky, I think most of us can agree on that. There's many ways to do it, just search the site for lots of ideas.

I reheated about a 1/4 of a flat this last Saturday that was placed in my fridge at 11AM (this was now about 5:30PM). Those juices you saved are now fat and geletin. I tried Bryan's trick of taking and separating the fat from the gel and I tossed the fat out. Then I smeared that gel all over the brisket. I also added about 1/4 cup of white grape juice to the foil. I then put the brisket wrapped up tight on my gasser on low for, oh, maybe 15 - 20 minutes, then turned it off and let it sit in there for another 10 minutes probably.

It might have been a little too long, but I sliced it up as thin as I possible could by hand, then poured those juices all over the meat on the plate.

Nobody knew the difference and everybody loved it.

Todd
 
May be too late, but as the other eluded to, make sure you're getting an accurate temp from the thickest part of the flat. The point reaches higher temps faster. If the probe is in the point, it may read 186 while the flat is still maybe 170. I've also had polders read high if too much of the probe was exposed to the heated air. You can always check it with an instant read too.
 
Hang in there, I must have had 8 or 10 lousy briskets before I finally turned out a good one. Just takes some time,patience, and practice.
 
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by craig castille:
Go high heat, and you may not ever ever have that problem again. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

You beat me to it, Craig. I was "scared" of trying a brisket for quite a while. Last month, after MUCH reading on this site, I gave it a try using the high temp method. It, as well as 2 others I have done since, was perfect.

4 hours to a great brisket...can't beat it.
 
i do mine in a weber kettle. i cook around 275 and they always come out the way i like them at around 9 hours. i think you should not worry about the time but rather the finished product.
 
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by craig castille:
Go high heat, and you may not ever ever have that problem again. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>
I was going to tell him that when I posted earlier today but... from another post.
icon_frown.gif
 
Hi FJ-

I noticed you mentioned the following in your other post:

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">I'm not so worried about it taking too long, I just checked it, it's at 160 just a hair under 8 hrs, a bit too quick for me. I hope it doesn't finish too fast. I just foiled it and will take the foil off an hour or so before pulling it. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

I am far from a pro, especially with Brisket, but this may be part of your issue. I know it is common to foil a brisket around 160 when doing the high heat cook, but I'm not so sure about foiling for a long cook. Generally, foiling meat on the smoker actually speeds up the cook, and it can also give unusually high temp measurements from a probe. If I'm doing the math right, it looks like the brisket was at 160 after eight hours, then you foiled and smoked for two more hours at which point the temp read as 186.

Was the meat tender at that time, or whenever you finally removed it from the smoker? I'm just thinking out loud, but I wonder if the foil was giving you a false high temp and thinking the brisket was further along that it really was... or if the foil really actually helped the meat cook faster.
 
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