Late start on a HH brisket


 
PeterD

PeterD

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Hi all,
I had agreed to bring a brisket to a social gathering of my cigar club tonight around 7pm. I'd planned to go hot-and-fast from the outset, but due to some bad timing, I couldn't get the brisket on the smoker until 1:45pm this afternoon, about 2 hours after I'd originally hoped to get it going.

It took about 2.5 hours to get up to 155° on my ET-73 (thickest part of the flat) and I just got it double-wrapped in foil at 4:30. Pit temps are steady at roughly 330° on the grate. The brisket is about 10.5# pre-cook/post-trimming, Angus from Restaurant Depot. I can pull it off the pit no later than 6:30 in order to get to the venue in time for the meeting.

Should I keep it at 330 or go even higher? Ideally, I'd like to get it probe-tender before I have to leave, to give me some wiggle room, then it'll have only about an hour in the cooler-wrapped-in-towels before folks will be hungry. I'd missed RD's closing time yesterday (Sunday they close early), and couldn't get away until some improtant stuff happened here this morning. Anything here that I should do that I haven't mentioned already or that I should consider doing a bit differently? Once I get to the meat-ing, I'll suggest they do their presentation first (about a half hour or so) before we serve supper, but no guarantee they'll go along with that .

Thanks in advance!
 
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I've done one at 325-350° before when I was in the same kind of jam. It took about 6 hours to get to 200° but was a few pounds larger then yours. I smoked it with the fat facing down to help insulate the meat from the high-heat. Turned out pretty good, just wasn't as fun as a 12-14 hour smoke :). I'm not sure however I would go much higher then 350° or risk creating a nice large piece of charcoal.
 
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Peter,

I just did one on Saturday and it took me about 4 hrs and 45 minutes to do a 13lb packer. The grate temp was steady at 325. You should be fine. Keep the temp as is and pull when probe tender. Just be careful when resting. I wouldn't tightly wrap in foil immediately after taking off the smoker as it will continue to cook and could get over-cooked. If it's done before you have to leave, let her sit on the counter with a tent of foil over it until the IT gets to about 170 then you can foil for transport. Whatever you do, do NOT slice in advance to eating. It will dry it out, at least that's what mine did Saturday as we had to wait, a lot longer than I wanted, for my wife to finish the potatoes and I feel it dried it out. Just my 2 cents! Good luck and enjoy.

Tim
 
I'm more concerned with it being underdone than over. I've got about another half hour left before I have to leave home. I haven't probed it since it went into foil, but it's been in the foil at 330° for 90 minutes now, and I hadn't planned on checking for another 15 minutes or so.
 
You should be fine. My HH are usually done in 4-41/2 hrs running between 325 and 350. Longest I ever had on go is 5 and it was 16 pounds.
 
Well, it was a mixed bag in the end. At 6pm I was showing about 200-205 with my blue Thermapen throughout the cut once I peeled back the foil. The probes were going in mostly easily, but not really like butter. I was debating letting it go for another half hour but with 200-205 showing I didn't want to risk overcooking. I let it sit open for about 10 minutes and when I got back it was down to 175--BUT the meat had really tightened back up.

It got re-foiled at this point and stored in the cooler (insulated with towels) and it sat for about 2-1/2 hours. It was definitely tougher and drier in the flat than I'd have liked but the point wasn't bad. Almost no bark, of course, but I'd expected that going in. I'm just surprised that 200-205 with a newly-calibrated Thermapen would still yield tough meat.
 
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